Posts tagged with "nationalism"
Monday, 30. November 2009, 11:27:32
megalomania, politics, rant, nationalism
...
As requested by the caffeinated kitty.Democracy, in its common modern interpretation and use, builds on two equal notions which both need to be present to warrant the word: personal rights and liberty, and sovereignty of the people over themselves. (In contrast, the democracies of Ancient Greece had only the latter, and a benevolent, skilled dictatorship would usually be credited as maintaining the former at the expense of the latter). Moreover, the modern usage of
democracy, with a handful of notable exceptions, is quite distinctly different from the traditional one in another manner as well - we consider representative systems democratic. (
Republican would be (and used to be) a better term for these systems, but that has taken on an even more narrow meaning in contrast to parliamentary systems, a separation which goes quite beyond the scope of this little post). In other words, members of modern democracies don't vote on actual laws and issues (again, there are a few exceptions, in Norway we for instance had a common vote on whether to be a monarchy or a republic, and we've also used the method to repeatedly attempt to tell the Belgians that we'd like
not to have overlords, please), they vote on people who then represent their voters interests for a given amount of years. This has become the dominant form rather than its more directly democratic predecessors simply due to the size and social/cultural discrepancies of modern nations making a direct system both unfeasible in practice (at least before the coming of the Internet), and highly likely to become mob rule by the biggest socially and culturally homogeneous group in a given country. (One could note that Ancient democracies that practiced this kind of direct governance all had suffrage restricted to educated middle-class males of virtually the same income, cultural background, and interests - this sort of homogeneous group of voters excludes a lot of problems modern democratic ideals keep bumping into).
The democratic ideal in that system, I should mention, is that these elected representatives not only work for the interests of those who voted for them, but for the entire nation through the best judgment
of those who voted for them. For obvious reasons, that's a murky distinction, but as ideals go, a rather nice one. It also ties in with another rather Utopian ideal, concerning the parliamentary notion of consensus through discussion and well-argued points. Ideally, no law should be passed by a majority against a minority, but rather should be passed once everyone involved in governing has discussed the issue to the point of common agreement at some solution or other. Obviously, this latter ideal in particular is more easily realised in small, homogeneous cultures, and has been growing increasingly unrealistic in historical step with democracy becoming increasingly common a form of government. But again - the ideal is a nice one, and I believe that as long as the people governing actually try to aspire to it (or even merely claim to do so), that is of the good.
To sum up, then, modern democracies are a form of governance where the people's interests are reflected through the people they choose as their rulers at regular intervals - their main source of power in actual government being the institutionalised overthrow of said rulers at these regular points in time. This carries the "sovereignty of the people"-part of the equation - if admittedly rather weakly - while the liberal tradition is maintained through a long series of rights of individual, private citizens that the government is not entitled to infringe upon. (This second half of the foundation is largely irrelevant for this post, though).
So, background for my thinking established. This is what I think of as democracy, so if you have any issues with that, you'll likely also have issues with what spurred this post, and I've given this as a foundation to allow any dissenters to address the fundamental disagreements with me more directly.
What this post is actually about, then, is rather easily expressed: the "one individual, one vote"-notion. More or less universally ignored as an absolute (if admittedly even so held as an ideal) in Modern western democracies, it is still highly desired by many citizens in them. I am not one of these, not in any way. Norway is not the Athens of Socrates. Women can vote, men can vote. Billionaires can vote, teachers can vote, carpenters can vote, politicians can vote, soldiers can vote, drug-addicts can vote and nurses can vote. People who were born in Norway can vote, people who were not, if they've acquired full citizenship, can vote. Eighteen-year-olds who haven't finished high school can vote. A 102-year old who remembers the time of both World Wars can vote. Catholics can vote, Muslims can vote, atheists can vote, Hindus can vote. I sure hope agnostics can vote or someone threw my ballot away in September whilst grinning evilly. More or less everyone except those considered children can vote. The idea that we somehow will all agree on what is the best for the nation is flat out ridiculous. And we clearly don't - no political party in Norway gets even close to half the votes at any given election.
True, the ideal of the people's sovereignty is made compatible with personal liberty through the concept that you only give up the same amount of liberty that you get back by way of governance. One voice, one vote. Nice ideal. But it doesn't work like that. Geographical background, context and everyday life is vital to one's interests, desires, opinions and thoughts as to how the nation is best run. That means that someone living in a small village in the North of Norway is likely to agree a lot more with other people from that same village than they do with, say, a big city in the south. And so on and so forth. That means that voters of an area with a dense population (no pun intended) have an homogeneous basis for their opinions that is not shared by the populations of other areas. The only way in which it is then democratic for the people of these other areas to join into a democracy with these other people is if some balance is made on the voting system to attempt to minimize the risk of the dominance of the homogeneous majority. Does this infringe slightly on the rights of the people in the densely populated area? Absolutely. However, much less so than no such arrangement would on the rights of the people elsewhere. If this price is considered too high to pay - I don't think it is, but I'm open for the possibilities that some might - the solution would seem to me to be not abolishing the current voting system, but rather abolish the democracy itself, and making the areas independent. Because this is one of the many prices one pays for a democratic ideal to limp along on a scale it has never really been suited for. It is a crutch that allows the system to sort of work without destroying its own basic ideal of self-rule. The larger group is never in danger of being systematically ignored by the smaller, but the smaller is given enough of a voice that it can keep the larger group from systematically ignoring it. Which it without such a system could (in my uninformed opinion, would) easily end up doing.
So. You may flay me now.
Sunday, 22. November 2009, 21:45:21
quote of the day, general obnoxiousness, nationalism, studies
One day when George III was insane he heard that the Americans never had afternoon tea. This made him very obstinate and he invited them all to a compulsory tea-party at Boston; the Americans, however, started by pouring the tea into Boston Harbour and went on pouring things into Boston Harbour until they were quite Independent, thus causing the United States. [...]
The War with the Americans is memorable as being the only war in which the English were ever defeated, and it was unfair because the Americans had the Allies on their side. In some ways the war was really a draw, since England remained top nation and had the Allies afterwards, while the Americans, in memory of George III's madness, still refuse to drink tea and go on pouring anything the English send them to drink into Boston Harbour.
After this the Americans made Wittington President and gave up speaking English and became U.S.A. and Columbia and 100%, etc. This was a Good Thing in the end, as it was a cause of the British Empire, but it prevented America from having any more History.
- 1066 And All That, page 126-127.
By W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman.
Monday, 16. November 2009, 16:57:40
quote of the day, nationalism, studies
By congregating there, armed to the teeth, the Barons compelled John to sign the Magna Charter, which said:
1. That no one was to be put to death, save for some reason - (except the Common People).
2. That everyone should be free - (except the Common People).
3. That everything should be of the same weight and measure throughout the Realm - (except the Common People).
4. That the Courts should be stationary, instead of following a very tiresome medieval official known as King's Person all over the country.
5. That 'no person should be fined to his utter ruin' - (except the King's Person).
6. That the Barons should not be tried except by a special jury of other Barons who would understand.
Magna Charter was therefore the chief cause of Democracy in England, and was thus a Good Thing for everyone (except the Common People).
- 1066 And All That, page 39-40.
By W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman.
Monday, 10. August 2009, 13:37:50
people, religion, quote of the day, nationalism
...
For Romans, treachery was one of the marks of a Carthaginian. Punic 'good faith', Punica Fides, meant the opposite. Also, they were cruel and superstitious. These traits came together in ttheir human sacrifices, above all of their own children. Carthage was feminized. Carthaginian women were dangerous seducers, like the mythical Queen Dido. Carthaginian men were effeminate, wearing loose unbelted clothes, and lacked control of their sexual appetites. Getting others to do their fighting for them showed their cowardice. In Roman eyes, this could be explained by their living in Africa. It was considered that the hot sun meant that Africans had little blood in their bodies, and so, fearing to lose what little they did have, they were scared of wounds, and thus were cowards. A final 'proof' of their barbarity, their otherness, was that they were believed to eat dogs.
The negative ethnographic image of Carthaginians was constructed partly out of reality (they did sacrifice some of their children), and partly out of fantasy (they almost certainly did not eat dogs).
- Harry Sidebottom,
Ancient Warfare - A Very Short Introduction. page 9.
Wednesday, 5. August 2009, 15:18:40
megalomania, politics, doomed optimism, people
...
Miss Kingsley repeatedly chided the colonial powers for abolishing political systems they did not understand and for then showing pained surprise when the natives failed to reveal a proper gratitude.
The imperial story, she wrote, was very like "that improving fable of the kind-hearted she-elephant who, while out walking one day, inadvertently trod upon a partridge and killed it, and observing close at hand the bird's nest full of callow fledglings, dropped a tear, and saying 'I have feelings of a mother myself,' sat down upon the brood."
- Mary Kingsley on British impreialism in Africa in the 19th century,
as rendered by Basil Davidson in African Kingdoms, page 167-168.
Thursday, 7. February 2008, 21:18:57
studies, nationalism, religion, roman-religion
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In a world with an infinite number of gods, divinity, or at least what made divinity worth cultivating, was always relative: not whether someone, emperor, beloved, or Jupiter, was a god, but to whom this was so.
- Ittai Gradel, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion, page 270
Tuesday, 5. February 2008, 15:25:04
Angel-referances, always-wanted-to-do-that, Browncoaty goodness, DC Comics
...
Today, Santa Claus gave a lecture on the American revolution and early government, referencing Luke Skywalker, Napoleon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Superman, and then went on to state that "God wants greedy Americans" and "Sweeds are whimpy".
It was the best day ever.
Tuesday, 20. November 2007, 00:12:45
quote of the day, general obnoxiousness, nationalism, studies
"If you really are a great general, Marius, come down and fight it out!"
"If you are, make me."
- Quintus Poppaedius Silo and Gaius Marius during the Social War of 91-88 BC,
as cited in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans: Life of Gaius Marius.
(From Penguin Classics' English translation in the collection Fall of the Roman Republic)
Sunday, 11. November 2007, 18:57:19
politics, quote of the day, nationalism
For he who seizes a tyranny and does not kill Brutus, and he who sets a state free and does not kill Brutus' sons, maintains himself but a little while.
- Machiavelli, Discourses
Saturday, 20. October 2007, 18:06:22
rant, always-wanted-to-do-that, expectations, I implore you
...
Billionaires don't get rich by being stupid, honey bun.
- Anthony StarkThese two volumes collecting the second run of "the Ultimates" (so, really, they're simply volume 3 and 4) are continuing
Mark Millar's tendency to write stuff that's simply awesome. Ohyes. They really are. (There's a reason they got him to write "Civil War"...) This is his final run on the series, the helm will now be taken by Jeph Loeb, who's (in my meager experience) a far more variable writer than Millar but both matches and even outshines him the times he really hits the mark - so I'm hoping "the Ultimates" will keep on shining and not go the way of "Ultimate X-men". The art's very good too, the kind of realistic-but-pretty comic book art that I strongly prefer, huge props to Bryan Hitch.
YOU THINK TOO MUCH!
- The Hulk.While the first run on the series was excellent, I actually like this second one even more. It's got horrible betrayal(s), excessive violence, Hawkeye rocking like only someone called "Hawkeye" can rock, Thor paraphrasing Jesus in every second line he has, the overly posh Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sporting a disturbing relationship shown just subtly enough that it's charming and cute rather than nauseating, and it's got Iron Man.
Iron Man, who throws off these kind of lines as easily as other people tie their shoes:
I have to warn any terrorists down there that I might be utterly wasted, but I'm still an excellent shot.
Now, I might be biased, but after this and "Civil War" it's my firm opinion that Mark Millar should be chained to a chair writing "Iron Man" for the rest of
his life the world's existence.
Anyone reading it after this rant, by the way, should be aware that it's in the second volume things truly get awesome, the first one is mainly a set up. But what a set up. Ooooh, what a set up.
I'm not saying anymore. People should just read this. The comic moved me and awed me both with tender, personal moments, horrible tragedies and action like nobody's business. It looks and feels as awesome as this kind of flashy multi-cast superhero comic books possibly can - I dare anyone to find me something better. (And I'd love to be proven wrong, too!
)
Also. Any comic book with this line is a comic book any self-respecting Norwegian against membership in the EU is morally obligated to read:
Did you see my little clues? Did you see how clever I was? Norway's not even in the European Union!
- Loki, Norse God of Tricks and Mischief
Friday, 21. September 2007, 15:44:59
always-wanted-to-do-that, general obnoxiousness, conspiracy-theories, norse religion
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Fornjót (Old Norse Fornjótr) is an ancient giant in Norse mythology, the father of Kári (a personification of wind), of Logi (a personification of fire), and of Hlér or Ægir (the ruler of the sea) and a king of Finland [. . .] Fornjót is also, following a particular legendary genealogical tradition, the first-known direct paternal ancestor of William I of England
-
WikipediaScore one for Finland, then! This DOES mean they can claim the crown of England, right? Or at least, seeing as there's no Finnish royal family anymore, vice versa? (Let's be honest, it's Finland, this would both be steps up)
Amusingly, this makes Elizabeth the second part giant. More amusingly still, it makes her part Finnish.
Edit: Interestingly enough, a genealogy on the bottom of the page also shows Fornjót and the vanir god Njord as being the ancestors of the Swedish House of Yngling as well as the famous "first" Norwegian "historical" king, Harald Fairhair. Sheesh. Those giants certainly got around.
Tuesday, 18. September 2007, 21:21:38
rant, Obdormio, nationalism, he implores you
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Obdormio says:
Islandsk er det norsk burde ha vore, utan all denne danskeinnblandinga
Obdormio says:
also, they have policies of linguistic purism
Obdormio says:
gotta admire that
Loki! - wistfully flying - Is a context to a text like a conman is to a man? says:
får sikkert norske medlem av Språkrådet til å sikle i draume
Obdormio says:
Språkrådet!
Obdormio says:
pah!
Obdormio says:
veike sveklingar, heile hurven!
Obdormio says:
krypande larvar framleis fanga under samnorskskuggen!
Obdormio says:
kvar er reformane for klarare skilje mellom nynorsk og bokmål? reindyrking av begge til fordel for begge?
Read more...
Thursday, 6. September 2007, 15:32:22
always-wanted-to-do-that, nationalism, Marvel Comics
Surrender?
Surrender??!!
YOU THINK THIS LETTER ON MY HEAD STANDS FOR "FRANCE"?!
- (Ultimate) Captain America, "Homeland Security"
Thursday, 16. August 2007, 20:16:53
doomed optimism, nationalism
In the 60s AD, while governor in Spain, the future emperor Galba ordered a convicted prisoner to be crucified along with other criminals. When the condemned man appealed against the sentence on the grounds that he was a Roman citizen, Galba instructed that - in recognition of his superior status - his cross should be set up higher than the rest and painted white.
- Christopher Kelly's "The Roman Empire - a very short introduction", page 60.
Thursday, 17. May 2007, 01:36:32
time, nationalism
Saturday, 6. January 2007, 14:05:49
Rowan Atkinson, Obdormio, megalomania, blueberry scone
...
Or, hopefully, anyway. I'm not handing out guarantees.
Is this post late, you say? Is this not in keeping with the fine standard I set
last year? And what about the
Prime Minister Speech Review? Didn't do that one this year, either. Nor did I do the review of the King's Speech which I wanted to do to make up for last year.
Fear not, gentle reader.
Oh, and fear not, violent readers, I hadn't forgotten you, either, I'm just favorizing my gentle one.
Anyway, fear not.
'Cause I've got me some explanations.
I was at my grandfather's this New Year's Eve and Day. So, no internet. Zap. Zilch. Nil. Nada. Splonge. Bupkiss. Bippers. I might have made up some of those words. No net, though. Net-depravement is big around those parts.
He lives in a valley so secluded you had to transport your cars there by boat 'til 1989 'cause there were no roads.
Anywho.
No net, no immediate ability to Report On My Thoughts and such. Also, I've been busy. Busybusybusy. As in the kind of state where you're, you guessed it, busy. (Good guess, by the way, were you peeking ahead?) I've had other stuff on my mind. Plus, this whole (non-)blog-thing isn't as new and fancy and interesting now as it was a year ago. Then again that's life. ("
That's liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife! That's what all the people saaaaay." That commercial has killed my taste in music)
The Prime Minister's Speech, that one I would have done a post on. Had I fracking watched it. I just caught the last five minutes. Probably a blessing in disguise, it's not like they ever say anything new. I caught the King's Speech, though, naturally, I'd be a poor sod of a monarchist if I didn't catch the one time throughout a year the King actually speaks directly to the people. But it's been so long since, now, I can't remember enough of it to comment properly. It was the same old same old with the thematic twist of the year, as usual, but I liked it. It dealt a lot with xenophobia and common decency and that kind of thing. Very humane. Sappy, but that's the point, I guess. Kudos to Harald and his speechwriter(s?).
Just for the record, though, I caught the national anthem after both speeches, and the King's song before his speech, and I rose and stood through all three. I might be a closet nationalist. I might just like the song. Or I might just think it's plain cool to revere something which is purely symbolic.
So, the year. Interesting thing, the year. It's a natural cycle. It's not man-made, like the second or the hour or the century or the millenia. There actually would be such a thing as a year even if we hadn't made up a name for it.
Sorry, I digress. I meant "the PAST year", not years in general, and by believing that was obvious, I seem to have misled myself, 'cause apparently, it wasn't. I need to stop taking everything I write literally.
So, the past year. Well, it's past. And it was a very good one. For me, anyway. They hung Saddam, though. Doesn't seem like the kind of thing you can do. I mean, he's even in the South Park-movie. He's like Cæsar; you just can't picture the guy die. Sure, he's a swine, but even so. He's like an icon. Doesn't ring right, his being dead. Like you kind of can't really believe it. It's scary, that, realizing how frail human life is even when you're the world's possibly best known genocidal maniac. If HE can die, everybody can die. He didn't lose his cool, though. Kudos to him. I'm generally opposed to execution as a form of penalty - I figure that nobody can really know what it entails without having died themselves first - and I kind of think imprisonment for life is the worse sentence anyway. Apparently, though, the Iraqi government was clear on this being to spare the people of him, not to punish him, so, that's a moot point. I just can't quite wrap my mind around his being gone. Even though the world is probably a slightly better place for it.
Other people I have never known, met or really wanted to meet have died this past year, too. The only ones of them to make an impression on me, though, were a couple of actors and the like. Right now I can only remember Sverre Holm and Peter Boyle. Thanks, guys. You've made me laugh.
So, that's the morbid section of this post. Me, I'm good. Good year. Better than good. No major bad occurancies in my immediate family, me included. Good health. Good life, rather good economy. Good
getting-my-civic-service-postponed-indefinetely. Good studying. I'm regretting I didn't take an additional course in spring, 'cause one of the two I did take turned out to be far less work than I could have ever dreamed, but still. I re-took an exam in March, and improved my only post-high school grade below B, a D, to a B. One of my prouder moments, that. I had two more exams in June, one in an interesting subject where I got really lucky with the questions on the exam, and one in a dreadfully boring subject where I wrote my bachelor's assignment and somehow did extremely well without having read more than 10% of the curriculum. Summer was nice, but uneventful, maybe. Other than making my
webcomic. Of which I'm rather proud, to tell the truth. Otherwise, this summer, I took a short trip with my family like we usually do in summers, and beyond that, I mainly just worked. I'm starting to tire of working where I work in vacations and weekends where I'm home. I'm starting to grow more comfortable there, yes, with the people there and the assigments there and so on, but I'm tiring of it. It's so dreadfully boring. Anyway, on to the autumn, where I took three *very* interesting courses, making for my academically most interesting term since spring 2005, and the two I've learned the results of yet turned out really well, too. January 17th will prove whether or not the third one followed suit. I have hopes. ("He's got HIIIIGH hopes. He's got. HIIIIGH hopes. He's got high apple pie in the sky hopes!" I love Goofy) If it does, it'll be pure awesomity. Personally, too, it's been a great year. I'm very lucky, I have a very easy life and no major worries, never really did have. I hope it'll last a long while yet. I've grown more social, too. This spring, I kind of regressed, I didn't share courses with anyone I know and I didn't really make much contact with the ones I knew outside my courses from before. Right before summer, though, it changed, and I made an effort to keep it up the first few weeks this fall, and voilà, it held. Suddenly, I find myself socializing almost one day or so every week. It's crazy. Nice people, too. Not a lot of people, but very nice people. Obviously. I'm way too picky to keep up seeing people I don't think are very nice. And I incresingly realize, I know a lot of very nice people online, too. You know who you are, but thank you for making my year that much better for having chatted with you and listened to me. So, great year. And in the humble beginnings of October, it got even better. Sure made me glad I don't keep this weblog in Norwegian.
I hope next year will be as good. Or possibly even better. I've signed up for some courses in Latin on top of my full-time studying history, so academically, it's suicide, but I'm hoping it will be a good year even so. This far, it's looking pretty promising.
To all of you out there reading this, happy new year. I wish you all the best. And thank you for all you've done for me in the old one. ^^ Keep flyin', people. I implore you. As does
Mal.
Oh, and if any
one of you tries making
jokes on how late this post is, there will be
fatal beatings administered.
Friday, 3. November 2006, 16:00:54
politics, awesomity, general obnoxiousness, doomed optimism
...
All it will take is SIXTY well-placed daggers, and we'll rule Britain! Well, our king will, anyway. Scary part is, it'll only take a handful more daggers to have Ari Behn rule through his daughter by proxy.
Dynasties. Gotta love'm.
Monday, 14. August 2006, 22:34:29
DC Comics, Marvel Comics, expectations, nationalism
...
So, I finally went and saw it. And sheeesh, if they hadn't raised the price for a cinema-ticket yet again, the bastards. Anyway, it was, as was to be expected, good. Singer knows his stuff. While I'm no fan of the older movies, I have to admit, the Superman-theme from them was excellent, and Singer's use of it in this one equally so. Makes me want to hear the even better Batman-theme from Burton's two old Batman-movies in "Dark Knight", but as they are obviously trying to establish the new Batman-movies as independent from the previous ones, that's probably not going to happen.
Anyway, regarding the choice to have "Superman Returns" continue on from I and II with Christopher Reeves, I'm glad for the decision to ignore the later ones. II was bad enough, and I'm not a fan of I, either. They got some good and interesting plot-results from continuing on from the old ones, but also some incoherency in characters, mostly in Lex Luthor's. Luthor, in the old ones, was a git. Here, he is almost as smart as Luthor should be, but he's still having the old movie-Luthor's quirks - small wonder, as he's supposed to be the same one. They've also made a small effort to keep the movie in line with Smallville-continuity, more or less, to reach out to the younger audience whose main knowledge of Superman-mythology comes therefrom. Thus, Lex is as mentioned smarter and cooler. Indeed, Lex Luthor is wonderful in this movie, and though I still prefer both the incarnations of the recent tv-series ("Lois and Clark" and "Smallville", respectively) to this one, he's not in any way shaming the Luthor name, and the actor was wonderful.
As for the title character, Singer actually made me care for him, even root for him, in some very small, short scenes. This is an accomplishment. When Superman is pitted against someone, I usually either cannot seem to care very much, or I root for the other guy, whether he be Batman, Luthor or Brainiac. But here, I care for the guy, I feat I think only Jeph Loeb has done for me before. (It is to be noted, though, that I have read way too little Superman-comics, and thus might well have the wrong impression of the character) True, as my brother complained after seeing it (we watched it together), there was way too much American patriotist propaganda in it, but damn it, this is Superman. He's SUPPOSED to be like that. He's the semi-naïve idealistic goodie-goodie-two-shoes boy scout defending TRUTH, JUSTICE and THE AMERICAN WAY. You get what you should be expecting, is my opinion in this regard.
By the way, as character-moments go, when he tells the people in the plane that flying is still the safest way to travel near the beginning - that's pure awesomity. The guy did a great Superman, and a wonderful Clark Kent.
The acting in general was fine for my eyes, but I'm not a very good critic on acting ability. Kudos galore to Singer for finding a Superman who looked so much like Christopher Reeves I in some scenes almost wondered if they'd cheated digitally.
The plot... could be better, but also could be much worse. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the film. I disliked certain smaller aspects, but all in all, it was wonderful, and really showed that the film-makers GOT the character. Still, I would have preffered a lousy "Superman Returns" to have Singer make X3. It is when compared to this I fully realize how much that movie lost on the change of director from 1 and 2. And X-men has a hundred times more interesting and broad character-gallery than Superman does. Superman has Luthor, and maybe Clark Kent and Perry White. X-men has Magneto, Xavier, Wolverine, Mystique, Beast, Nightcrawler... etc. And it is characters Singer is so good at, both in this movie and in his X-men-films. So I'd rather he'd stayed on X-men. If he had, I'm sure we'd get a 4 and maybe even a 5 and a 6.
But, oh, well. It was satisfactory. Not great, but satisfactory. I give it a 7,5/10, which is more than I ever thought I'd give a movie where Luthor loses.
Cause he does.
And it's just not fair.
Monday, 22. May 2006, 17:51:20
I implore you, Disney, Olaf, nationalism
And if yes, do you live in Norway? Because
Jonas Alexander Larsen, a user on
Andeby Online (
Olaf's page) has made an excellent, neat, nifty and almost sleek-looking
index of all Blot-stories published in Norway. Sadly, my beloved Mikke Krim-albums doesn't seem to be among the albums indexed, but other than those, the thing looks quite thoroughly and well done!
Blot fans,
go buy. I implore you.
Sunday, 14. May 2006, 13:03:39
DC Comics, expectations, it is in fact Teal'c related, lists
...
INFINITE CRISIS: Read it. Though it had the common "huge-crossover-series"-issue of being somewhat messy and having too many characters to make it a really excellent story, it was still good. The ending, however, made everything worth the bother, and parts of it is now my subnicktext on MSN.
You made a lot of mistakes. You underestimated Superman. Superboy. Me. But the biggest one? You didn't let the Joker play.
Now who's stupid?
- Lex Luthor
In other news, I've bought and read "Ultimate X-men Volume 5: Ultimate War" and "Volume 6: Return of the King", and am now officially ajour with Mark Millar's writings on the series. I think I'll wait with checking more of the series out until I've bought some other stuff, now.
Anyway, "Ultimate War" was cool. There was a problem with it - I don't really see why it was an Ultimate X-men-volume, it seemed to me it was just as much, if not more, of a "The Ultimates"-volume. Which is fine, of course, as I've said before, Millar's "The Ultimates" is pure genius, but I felt sort of cheated finding out there's in effect an entire volume of The Ultimates I'd never have read if I hadn't read Ultimate X-men too.
"Return of the King" was magnificent. As with "Ultimate War", I got plenty of Magneto, which is always the Numero Uno thing I look for in any X-men comic. The ending conversation between Magneto and Xavier in the plastic prison gave me the shivers, and I laughed out loud at the last page... I
love how those two characters both cooperate and war with each other at the same time, and how they both think and function on several levels at the same time, most of them quite beyond the people around them.
Also, I've bought "Gardens of the Moon", first book in Steven Erikson's hugely praised fantasy series, and I've read the prologue and the first chapter. Seems good, I'm looking forward to getting more into this.
Non-reading-wise, I'm nearing the season-end of most the television-series I'm watching. Veronica Mars and Smallville are already done, Lost, Prision Break (dear LORD is that one exciting?!), 24 and Scrubs are all nearing their ends, and I just turned from season 4 to 5 in my watching of Stargate SG-1.
The day before yesterday I went to the cinema and watched "Mission Impossible III. It was entertaining, and at times really cool (like when she got his heart back to pumping and he immediately snapped his eyes open and in less than a tenth of a second had grabbed the nearest gun and was aiming at the open door in the other end of the room XD AWESOMEITY! (for you, Ob)) though obviously not a "great cinematic experience" or anything like that. Still, I liked it better than I and II, especially II I don't really care for all that much. 7/10, I think, though had I written this yesterday, I'd probably have said 7,5. (The first movie I give 6,5/10, the second 5,5)
School-wise, I'm studying for my exam in "Religious science 202: Hinduism" these days, as my youngest brother has his Confirmation-ceremony two days prior to my exam in that subject, and I won't be able to study very much then. I've also gotten feedback on the draft of my term-paper in another subject ("Religious science 201: Systematical religious science", blaaarhg), and it was somewhat... well... it was both positive and disappointing. Positive because the feedback was that I was onto something and that I knew how to present arguments and stuff, disappointing because I was recommended to change the structure of the assignment plus read some more articles before I finish it, which is going to take a lot more work than I'd hoped. I'll have nine days to do it after my Hinduism-exam, though, so hopefully, I'll manage.
Personal, hm, well, I'm still anti-social.
I'm trying to go to the cinema with one or two of my few local friends at least once every second week or so, though, so I'm not completely shut-out of human contact. Right now I'm looking forward to going home to my parents and younger siblings on Tuesday, to celebrate Norway's national day on Wednesday and my brother's Confirmation on Sunday.
And that was the update.
Wednesday, 26. April 2006, 01:16:27
British, politics, nationalism, Jon Stewart
...
and yet it still rules Also, see this clip for an obnoxious German! And
XD. Just... XD
Monday, 24. April 2006, 15:54:49
always-wanted-to-do-that, Angel-referances, Avatar, blogs
...
Peeps I know - or think I know, or pretend to think I know, or really just vaguely have some form of relation to - seem to be having weblogs, too. While I do link quite a lot of these on the
Links-page, I suspect you people reading this (who may or may not be the exact same demographic that will now be listed, but in the immortal word(s?) of Richard Fish, by-gones) never really bother with checking the
Links-page, or any of the
other fancy pages this weblog has to offer you.
ANY. WAY. (Put them together and what have you got? Bibbedi-bobbedi? Bibbedi-bobbedi? Bibbedi-bobbedi-bo? (No, that wasn't really intended to be making large with the sense (nor that with the grammar)))
IN ORDER OF TOTAL RANDOMIZATION, I GIVE YOU, THE LINKS!
LOTHAIR.
Ole. Edvard. The Hairy Man From Nordilandet. Way too mature for his own good, despite being, like, a gazillion years yonger than me, sometimes so much so that he's no fun, he'll just burst every single baloon of good, childish fun I go to great lengths to inflate.
But he's a good little chap, and funny, when he sets his considerable mind to it. I came to know the guy through a now-extinct message board, and I haven't let him shrug me off ever since, try as though he might have might.
OUR CANADIAN READER.
My main excuse for keeping this weblog in English. (The real reason is that I figure I have a larger potential base of readers this way. Of course, this is a poor delusion, in truth it only gives me a larger potential base of people choosing not to read my weblog) Lucky, or Sarah, or Jade, (why the heck would anyone named "Jade" ever make a webnick, by the way?! Me, I'd be all over with the flaunting) is a nice girl from the previously mentioned message board, though it wasn't until I realized she was a fellow Whedonite I started pestering her on MSN as well as on the board. She's a graphic designer, wohoo, and she has even promised me a cool Welsey-avatar! That, in my not-all-that-humble-really opinion, makes her The Bestest.
CYANIDA.
That's what used to be Carolinen's awesome nick on the now quite-a-lot-mentioned message board, which by the way suffered from having a lot of quality members mixed in with, well, horrid content. While Caroline and I may not have all that much in common, she's a treat to chat with, and maybe the sweetest person I've ever communicated with. Whenever I feel down, I just chat with her, and voilà, all better. For that alone, I should be linking her LJ every day.
OBDORMIO.
This rascal is way too alike me for my own good. There are differences, though. For one thing, the guy is so lazy he makes me look like Sir Worksalot. Also, he has this unexplicable thing for horrid islandic formations, and he comments on my weblog way too rarely considering how witty he can be when he puts his mind to it. He was, by the way, the main driving force behind me getting this weblog to begin with. Of course, then he proceeded to shift his own weblog, so that we no longer both had opera-blogs, ruining the entire point, but that's just the kind of a guy he is. Luckily, I had pro-actively gotten back at him by making a coup d'forum on him a year earlier.
SHEEP.
From yet the same message board. I think we've grown a little apart, personality-wise, but he's still a good ol' cyber-friend with way too high an opinion of himself, which I totally respect. His weblog, though, is a bit skinny, and I think he started it only to annoy me with its lack of activity. Oh, well.
LOKI.
Loki's just this guy, you know... In all seriousness, though, this chap is great. He's witty, he's smart, he's interesting, he's stark ravingly mad, and to top it all off he's nice, too. He is one of the most modest and down-to-earth people I've ever met, as well. Sometimes, I wish I could be more like him.
MOMS.
Olaf is a very pleasant cyberconversational-partner, who is my alibi for knowing someone adult. While I'm sure he'd protest about being very mature and adult, in my world, he is. He has is own business, for crying out loud, and, from what I gather, he is doing rather well, too! :D Yay for Olaf, people. Also, he has excellent taste in television. Fraggle Rock, Angel and Veronica Mars for the win, folks! And for the record: Anyone with the guts to actually apply for changing (well,okay, adding) their name to something as cool as "Moriarty" deserves all the praise they can get.
The Darth Admin.
Frode is the administrator on a Norwegian Star Wars-board I'm a somtime member of. He's a nice young guy, very into philosophy (these days, up 'til sometime last fall it was politics, I suspect it'll be nuclear physics by 2008) and Mozart, which is cool.
ALATÁRIEL.
A Dane! (OH THE HORROR, yes I know, deal with it, people, it has been like two hundred years, get over it, will ya?) And what inspired me to making this list when she personal-messaged med her weblogadress on a Norwegian Tolkien-message board we're both members of. (Though I've been inactive for a year) She's a really cool lady who loves "Scrubs" (who the Janitor doesn't?!) and as Obdormio can testify to, write really long and interesting PMs. (He used to ask me for quotes :D)
Sunday, 23. April 2006, 20:15:31
nationalism, general obnoxiousness, megalomania, politics
No, not me. I wouldn't dream of peptalking any of those insignificant descendants of quasi-ancient sordid imperialist scum. But
Lothair gave me
this link in addition to the one I posted
here, and, well, the text is just too darn good a read not to link. Pro-Danish or not.
I will, however, hack - yes hack, not chop, hacking is more slow-working but equally terminal - the guy's head off if I ever run into him. Not because I'm hurt or offended, but out of pure principle. ("Retarded little brother" my hairy, soft, lazy and 100% norse buttocks!)
Saturday, 25. March 2006, 14:09:52
Jon Stewart, folk-songs, politics, nationalism
Thursday, 23. March 2006, 22:32:59
always-wanted-to-do-that, nationalism, nature, folk-songs
...
Millom bakkar og berg utmed havet;
heve nordmannen fenge sin heim.
Der han sjølv heve tuftene grave;
og set sjølv sine hus oppå deim.
Han såg ut på dei steinute strender;
der var ingen som der hadde bygd.
Lat oss ryggja og byggja oss grender;
og så eiga me rudningen trygt.
Han for ut på det vågute havet;
der var rusket å leggja utpå.
Men der leika det fisk nedi kavet;
og den leikjen den ville han sjå.
Frampå vetteren stundom han tenkte:
"Gjev eg var i eit varmare land!"
Men når vårsol i bakkjane blenkte;
fekk han hug til si heimlege strand.
Sud om havet han stundom laut sigla;
der var rikdom på benkjar og bord.
Men i kring såg han trelldommen kiva;
og så vendte han atter mot nord.
Lat no andre om storleiken kivast!
Lat dei bragla med rikdom og høgd.
Millom kaksar eg lite kan trivast;
ja millom jamningar helst er eg nøgd.
Og når liene grønkar som hagar;
når det lavar av blomar på strå.
Og når netter er ljose som dagar;
kan han ingen stad venare sjå!- Ivar Aasen.
That's the dude.
Just out of the goodness of my heart, I'll attempt an on-the-spot-translation for my Canadian reader.
I'll not even attempt to keep the rhymes or the rythm in, though, just so we're clear right up front.
Betwixt hills and mountain, by the sea;
the Norwegian has gotten his home.
There he himself has dug up the building-sites,
and he himself has built his houses upon them.
He gazed out upon the rocky beaches;
there was not a one that there had try to build.
Let us clear them up and build us some homesteads
and then we'll own the place safely. (Or something, this is very archaic, this language that's used, I'm not all to clear on the exact meaning XD)
He went out upon the wavy ocean;
it was stormy to venture upon.
But fish played there down in the waves;
and that play he wanted to see.
In the winter he sometimes mused;
"Oh, to be in a warmer land."
But when the spring-sun in the hillsides glistened;
he missed his home by the sea.
South of the ocean he somtimes had to sail;
and there were riches and wonders galore;
but around him he saw the people slaving;
and then he again turned back north.
Let these others of greatness bicker;
let them quarrel of riches and might.
Betwixt bigwigs I hardly can thrive;
yes, betwixt peers I far rather would be.
And when the hillsides grow green like the gardens;
when there's lavish flowers all around;
and when the nights are as bright as the days are;
there is no place more beautiful to him.
Ish. Only, in Norwegian, it's actually good. XD
Wednesday, 22. March 2006, 21:28:17
nationalism, work, pessimism, expectations
...
From the library, which got one of its copies back and mailed me, the one I ordered has not arrived yet.
But anyway, I've got it, and this evening I've been able to read well over a third of it. Tomorrow I'll read the rest, and then I'll try make that damnable draft.
I still have a grim outlook on all this - I still don't know quite what I want to write about - but at least it is less grim than it was this morning! Rah-rah hoozah, gentlemen, ladies!
Sunday, 1. January 2006, 19:02:43
nationalism, time, politics
Not mine, I'm not giving you any, but the Norwegian Prime Minister's. He did good. You could tell he's somewhat new at this, being a bit stiff and unnatural in the stare into the camera (or rather, probably, at the speech written on screens in front of him) and sometimes stumbling just a tad over words, but all that was mere nitpicking, he did good. What interested me the most was how extremely clear he was on the politics of what he said. He used several words arch-typical for his party - "fellesskapet" being the foremost example - and promoted feminism and socialism very clearly, which should please his governmental buddies in the Socialistic Left even more than his own Labour-party-comrades. I'm wondering if I missed something, though, because one would think that he'd throw the third party of his government a bone too, and I couldn't spot it.
Anyway, he was very clear, which was somewhat of a surprise after what seems like an infinity of greyish speeches that really amounts to nothing but "we do well, we will continue to do well, and we should be nice to poor people, especially children" from his predecessor. But refreshing. I preferred the King's speech on New Year's Eve over his, though - I usually do - and he, too, was unusually clear on the political aspects of his mentions. Though of course safely within the boundries of political neutrality.
The speech picked up in the end, where he started dealing with the main theme of his predecessor - and, if I'm to be honest, did it far better than his predecessor ever did - that is, poor people, development-countries and children. He was heavy on the dramatic, from-real-life-examples, but it worked, I think. And he remembered to pay special attentions to Norwegians abroad, something the King somehow forgot to do - or chose not to do - this year.
Well, congrats to him. I'd expected something a notch better from such an experienced politician, but it was still solid.
Sunday, 1. January 2006, 14:25:28
rant, confusion, sleep, conspiracy-theories
...
Hooray, new year.
Not.
I actually enjoyed the one we just had. Wouldn't mind it having gone on for a while yet. But noooooo. Nature had to come and be all orderly all over my life. I probably threw something in the wrong recycle-bin this year or something, because it is so obviously out to get me for something.
But. New year, new opportunities, new happy days, and, just maybe, new Whedony-goodness. (Yes. This is like the one day of the year I attempt to be positive. Those dear to me are far too dear for me to allow myself even the slightest thought of something bad happening to them in the coming year. So I'll skip that point totally. In fact, this whole parantheses, you're imagining it. Yes. Yes. It is a fiiigmeeent ooof yoooour iiimaaagiiinaaatiiioon. Sleeeeeeeeep.) And also - Are you SLEEPING?! In the middle of my New Year's Day-rant?! GET A GRIP, that's not polite, like, at all!
So, in accordance with all clichès, lets recap 2005! Rah-rah, onwards chaps, for the Empire!
2005 began on a somewhat interestingly unoriginal note, with fireworks, the first of January at 00:01. Boom, it said. Fireworks would do that.
Also, there were some sad people all over, due to the weather-thingies in South-East Asia. (Obviously there are people who nature reasonlessly hates even more than me)
Then, school started. I took Asian religion and Extinct Mediterranean, Mesopotamian & Norse Religion at the University. Somewhere, some kid ate a potato without complaining. And the birds sang. My sister had her ninth birthday, and there was much rejoycing. And some melancholy, obviously, she's not supposed to be a little woman of nine, she's supposed to be our cute little baby! After this, we commenced on Easter. Booh-yeah. Once again, we celebrated the death and rebirth of God by placing small yellow cloth-chickens on top of our televisions and tabletops. (Who said religion lead to thinking inside small, limit-imposing boxes?) THEN. Then came May. Oh May you fair and mellow... First of May, Worker's Day. Not that I gave a crap. Eight of May, some kind of gender-fascism went on, I think. Oh! And then, SEVENTEENTH OF MAY. Norway's National Day! It's like the Fourth of July and Christmas all rolled into one, only without the firworks and the pressies. We walk in parades. Like, all normal people. We just do. We line up, and we walk around, waving flags (though there has been some debate as to the colouring of these flags) and generally being nice and cheery.
Lesse. THEN CAME SUMMER. Swooping upon us with its decievingly un-summery weather and temperatures, it took us all by complete surprise when we finally got some time off from tiresome things like work and school. As for me, I did some exams and went back to doing nothing. Yay. For a few weeks. Then I had to work. I do that in summers, if almost nearly never in other times of the year. Silly need of silly money.
But. Nice summer, all-in-all. My youngest brother turned fourteen and stuff. Then came autumn. New subjects. I took three courses; Introduction to European Politics and History, Introduction to Religios Science and Christianity, Islam and Jeudaism. It would turn out I did far better with the stuff I did in spring, but oh, well.
Batman Begins and Serenity in cinemas, which should be enough to give anyone several happies. Oh, and even though it almost completely ruined the saga for me (Palpatine an IDEALIST? Oh-sodding-please!), Revenge of the Sith deserves a mention for being the independently best movie of the Star Wars-saga. Other movies now that I mention the theme, would be A History of Violence, Sin City, probably Narnia once I get around to seeing it, and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy which by an astonishing turn of events, didn't suck. It wasn't extremely good or anything, apart from the hillarious opening with the Dolphin-song, but it did a helluva lot better than I'd have guessed. And probably some others that I forget.
Then came Christmas, which has been really nice. By then, my mother had turned fify, my father fourty-nine (he's constantly nagging her about her being in her fifties while he's still young), and my other brother eighteen. And myself, I turned twenty-one. Oh, the horrors of adulthood growing increasingly nearer.
2005. Norway has had 100 years with our royal family. I've had twenty-one-years with mine. God, whomever He, She, They or It might be, bless us, everyone.
Saturday, 31. December 2005, 04:42:35
confusion, this-blog, time, boardgames
...
Four times today - my "since-I-got-up-until-now"-day - I've sat down to play games. Four times today, I've gotten back up afterwards. It is the last day of 2005. "Since midnight-and-onwards"-day, that is. It is the last day of Norway's first century of independence from the sodding imperialists in blue-and-yellow. It is the last day of my twenty-first-year (allright, technically that was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and the Norway-thingie isn't completely on-the-date either, but for Janus' sake, I'm trying to build a number-theme here!), and thereby the last day of my last year as not one hundred per cent adult in the eyes of my country if not in the eys of anyone else, and it is the first day in an entire year where I'll be eagerly anticipating cool, flashing sky-lights at midnight.
Our chief and central point, for those who missed it: Quadruple? Big theme.
U-huh. Four is big, you say, you got it, so what am I going to do about it? The post isn't quite there yet, I'll admit that. I'm doing fine, though, I've got two paragraphs already, this is the third, all I need is a new one to hit the mark. I'll have to try and make it seem natural, and of course, that will pose a challenge. But it is not the only one. I need other stuff, too. I already pulled one with Janus, but I have a feeling it might be just a tad or four (whee, did it again) too obscure. Hmmmm (did I use four letters on purpose, or was it a coincidence.... YOU SHALL NEVER KNOW! (Wow. Four words in capital letters. This is getting out of control!)) this theme-thing is tricky. What else could I do? Well, I've used the word "theme" four times, that's nice enough I suppose. And there's always the sly bastard among you who actually went ahead and counted the number of parentheses in this post, they're probably satisfied by now. But not me. Oh no. I need to do a big, flashy ending. And then there's that blasted fourth paragraph that is proving to be quite the troublemaker. Also, there should be some kind of hidden, cheesy message. Sigh. I think I'll just give up. Really, I don't know what I was thinking. Even the "use-only-four-question-marks" and see if they notice was stupid! This semi-spooky subliminal stuff? Like putting four words beginning with "s" in a row, that was so obviously not my thing, I even had to use a hyphon. And that sad transit to the fourth paragraph is growing increasingly more awkward. Sigh. Maybe I'll do better on "five".
Right, then. Sleep. Now.
WIDGETIZE