Category Archives: Education

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, 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, Wistfulness, Words | Leave a comment

Growing but grudging respect for an awesomely cold people — 2009-01-28

By terje | Published: January 28, 2009
“In order to stay in formation, soldiers tried not to run until they came within the reach of enemy missiles, at about 200 yards; experienced soldiers might manage to restrain themselves until they were at a mere 100 yards distance. (…) Spartan hoplites did not run at all, but advanced at a steady pace, singing marching hymns [...]
Also posted in Awe, Goosebumps!, Greek stuff, History, Language, Literature, Quote of the day, Whoa, lol | 2 Comments

YES! (And a call for assistance)

By terje | Published: December 4, 2008
Yesterday, I got got an e-mail notifying me that I have been accepted as a student at the Norwegian Institutes at Athens and Rome next semester! Along with about 20 other students from various Norwegian universities, I’ll be spending first six weeks, from January 26 to March 6, in Athens, followed by six weeks, [...]
Also posted in A Moistening of the Eyes, Bliss, Dumb luck, Glee, Gloating, Goosebumps!, Gratitude, Great Expectations, Greek stuff, Help!, History, Hodge-podge rambling, Hope, Lists, My microcosmos, Optimism, Pride, Roman stuff, Strategy/Plans, Whoa, Yay! | 24 Comments

An awesome coincident

By terje | Published: November 23, 2008
So I’m sitting in my room, working on my linguistics home exam, and I’m trying to explain why the verb paint in the sentence his father was painting a picture is not the same verb as the paint in the sentence his father never painted again, right? My line of resoning is the kind I [...]
Also posted in Awe, Coincidents, Collections, English, Glee, Goosebumps!, Hodge-podge rambling, Hope, Impressions, Language, Links, Megalomania, Music, My microcosmos, Optimism, Pessimism, Pleasant surprises, Potential, Pride, Procrastination, Rant, Videos, Weird stuff, Whoa, Words, Work, Yay!, lol | 5 Comments

The Histories by Herodotus

By terje | Published: November 18, 2008
[Approximately 435 BCE] 2003. Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt (1954). Introduction and notes by John Marincola (1996, 2003). 600 pages of main text. 166 pages of paratext.
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Art, Awe, Boredom, Collections, Conflicting emotions, Glee, Gloating, Great Expectations, Greek stuff, History, Impressions, Literature, Loki, Pimping, Pleasant surprises, Pride, Recommendations, Review, Strategy/Plans | 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, English, History, Impressions, Literature, Misery, Nostalgia, Quote of the day, Relief, What I Learned Today, Whoa, Wistfulness, 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, English, Goosebumps!, History, Language, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Politics, Quote of the day, Wistfulness | 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, Help!, Literature, Misery, Pain, Panic, Paranoia, Pessimism, Regret, Revelations, Review, Scepticism, Speculations, Speculative fiction, Stress, Whoa, Wistfulness | 7 Comments

The Punic Wars and Expansion — Lecture #2

By terje | Published: September 2, 2008
2nd lecture — The Punic Wars: From Village to Mediterranean Empire. (This post is based on a lecture held by Jan Frode Hatlen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology on August 28 2008. However, any factual errors in the text is strictly my responsibility.)
Also posted in Hist2125, History, Images, Links, Politics, Quotes, Roman stuff | 24 Comments

Introduction and Overview — Lecture #1

By terje | Published: September 2, 2008
Lecture #1 — A General Introduction and Overview. (This post is based on a lecture held by Jan Frode Hatlen at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, August 21 2008. However, any factual errors in the text is strictly my responsibility.) It is hard to be precise about what Rome was like before approximately 500 BCE, [...]
Also posted in Byzantium, Hist2125, History, Politics, Roman stuff | 11 Comments