Category Archives: Wistfulness

An Update, Telegram Style

By terje | Published: July 7, 2009
Saw Athens with fun people. Loved it. Stayed home, wrote papers. Got bored. Visited Rome with nice persians. Hated leaving. Wrote paper. Worked. Bought tickets for Dinosaur Jr. Found out 6 months had passed. Wrote this post. Send more money.
Also posted in Bliss, Boredom, Conflicting emotions, Education, Gloating, Goosebumps!, Greek stuff, Hodge-podge rambling, Impressions, Language, Laziness, Lists, Love, My microcosmos, Rant, Regret, This Blog, Why do I think anyone cares?, Winter, Words | Leave a comment

When I first read this, I imagined for a moment that 1204 and 1453 had been nothing but bad dreams. Reality dawing on me felt like a fist in my guts

By terje | Published: November 21, 2008
“Constantinople was an impregnable city …” — Robert B. Kebric, Roman People (4th edition), epilogue.
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Greek stuff, Grief, Hallucinations, Hist2125, History, Hope, Irony, Language, Literature, Love, Medieval stuff, Misery, Nostalgia, Oh noes!, Pain, Quote of the day, Regret, Roman stuff | 3 Comments

For better or worse, you just don’t get life stories like this anymore (Or, the only thing missing is piracy)

By terje | Published: November 10, 2008
“Raised in an Ibo village (in modern Nigeria), Olaudah Equiano (ca 1745-1797) was kidnapped by African raiders and slod into slavery. He survived the horrors of the Middle Passage to the New World, where an English naval officer bought him ito serve as a cabin boy and renamed him Gustavus Vassa, after a sixteenth-century Swedish [...]
Also posted in Awe, Conflicting emotions, Education, English, History, Impressions, Literature, Misery, Nostalgia, Quote of the day, Relief, What I Learned Today, Whoa, Words | 7 Comments

An English villager’s complaint

By terje | Published: October 15, 2008
Ye friends to truth, ye statesman who survey The rich man’s joys increase, the poor’s decay, ‘T is yours to judge how wide the limits stand Between a splendid and an happy land. Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore, And shouting Folly hails them from her shore; Hoards e’en beyond the miser’s wish abound, And rich men flock from [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Art, Awe, Education, English, Goosebumps!, History, Language, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Politics, Quote of the day | 4 Comments

Neuropath by Scott Bakker

By terje | Published: September 27, 2008
Neuropath by Scott Bakker 2008. 306 pages (with afterword). Orion TPB. “Only a small fraction of your brain is involved in conscious experience, which is why so much of what we do is unconscious. The bulk of your brain’s processing falls outside what you can experience; it simply doesn’t exist for your consciousness, not even as an absence. That’s why [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Conflicting emotions, Discomfort, Education, Help!, Literature, Misery, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Regret, Revelations, Review, Scepticism, Speculations, Speculative fiction, Stress, Whoa | 7 Comments

WALL-E

By terje | Published: September 20, 2008
As I went to see WALL-E (from now on Wall-E, as Nature abhors a shout, even though it’s supposed to be an acronym) last a couple of days ago, I was feeling highly ambiguous and thus also a bit scared. You see, my hopes for this movie were nothing short of astronomic, as just about [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, A Praise Chorus, Ambiguity, Art, Awe, Bliss, Glee, Goosebumps!, Great Expectations, Hodge-podge rambling, Hope, Impressions, Irony, Love, Movies, My microcosmos, Optimism, Pimping, Pleasant surprises, Potential, Rant, Recommendations, Relief, Review, Speculations, Yay! | 11 Comments

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

By terje | Published: July 17, 2008
2008. 536 pages (Gollancz Fantasy trade paperback). “Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.” — Paul Gaugin. This being the opening quote of Last Argument of Kings, the concluding volume in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, one can perhaps perceive that this is a bleak affair. As I remarked in my reviews of the first [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, A Praise Chorus, Ambiguity, Art, Awe, Conflicting emotions, Death, Discomfort, Evilness, Goosebumps!, History, Literature, Misery, Oh noes!, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Recommendations, Regret, Review, Speculative fiction, Whoa | 13 Comments

A Plague! A Plague on Our Houses!

By terje | Published: May 24, 2008
In my Last.fm shoutbox, I was recently asked by one of my readers to post more frequently in my blog, and seeing as your whim is my law, I bring you this: an essay of sorts about the last topic you’d expected me to write about! One of the things you might not know [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Annoyance, Boredom, Conflicting emotions, Disappointment, Discomfort, Dumb luck, Evilness, Failed attempts at subtility, Family, Football, Forums, Glee, Gloating, Goosebumps!, Great Expectations, Grief, Hallucinations, Help!, History, Hope, Impressions, Irony, Language, Laziness, Links, Lists, Lotta, Media, Megalomania, Misery, Music, My microcosmos, Norse stuff, Norway, Nostalgia, Oh noes!, Opinions, Optimism, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Pettiness, Pleasant surprises, Politics, Potential, Pride, Procrastination, Roman stuff, Scepticism, Speculations, TMI, Television stuff, This Blog, Various, Videos, Weird stuff, Whoa, Why do I think anyone cares?, Words, Yay!, lol, meh. | 11 Comments

Some things I suspect I believe to be true

By terje | Published: April 22, 2008
About eighteen months ago now, I realised I’m a materialist; I believe that everything in this world is matter, that there is no such thing as spirit, that what others might perceive as “spirit” can be explained materially. And for some thirteen, fourteen months, my Christian flatmate Håvard has challenged me on this. To him there [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Conflicting emotions, Discomfort, Evilness, Gratitude, Grief, Help!, Hodge-podge rambling, Misery, My microcosmos, Oh noes!, Opinions, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Pride, Rant, Regret, Religiousity, Revelations, Scepticism, Speculations, Why do I think anyone cares? | Leave a comment

A Message from the Lost Son: Why I Love Heraclius

By terje | Published: February 21, 2008
“The Persians were applying inexorable pressure on what remained of the empire. Heraclius was faced with a stark choice: he could either wait for the Persian grip to tighten, fighting a series of rearguard actions which offered little chance for ultimate success, or he could throw caution to the wind and take battle to the [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Awe, Bliss, Byzantium, Conflicting emotions, Education, Goosebumps!, History, Links, Literature, Love, Misery, My microcosmos, Nostalgia, Quote of the day, Recommendations | Leave a comment