Something wicked happened to me today while waiting for the bus to take me home. I was sitting there enjoying the sun (which we haven't seen for ages now) when I felt something sting on the inside of my thigh. I waved at whatever it was, and then I saw a wobbling wasp on the ground. The pain was immediate and then lasted a long time; there's still a burning sensation where I was stung.
A little like love then - hits without warning, and hurts like hell...
Although I managed to write an A-paper in under a week, it doesn't mean that I think it's good idea to start that late, neither does it mean the work isn't in progress long before I finally sit down and hit the keyboard. My mind is constantly occupied with trying to understand what's going on and how things are connected (very tiring, I do need to find a way to let things pass...), and if I'm not too absorbed in my own emotional traumas my thinking is quite constructive. On the other hand I believe everything is connected in some way, and my last paper was a lot about communication which is important in all relations, be it in a large organization or between two friends. So my little blog writing about this and that helps me organize my thoughts, and when I then start writing the paper itself the text more or less emerges on the screen as I go along. Funny, this sounds sooo easy; have a vague memory that I didn't feel that way when writing the papers! But if I tell myself that's how it's work, I might not be so stressed next time? A self applied positive imprint on my mind?
So far I think I've embarked on every semester at the university feeling rather optimistic, and like "Now! Sure my gloomy days must be over? This will be fun!" I'm slightly more realistic now, realizing that life is up and down, no matter what. Accordingly, this semester will be just as frustrating as usual (as my academic life is invariable tied to my personal...), but I will also get through it - as usual. This is my last term coming up, and my bachelor assignment is due soon. Writing a bachelor paper is a little different from what I've been doing so far, in that it's more or less up to me which topic I choose. There are so many things I'd like to explore, but I have a hunch is going to be centered around the humanistic side of humanistic informatics - the field between conversation, communication, information, media and information technology. And I'm already thinking about how we people seem to construct and recollect our history through the telling of it, and how computer technology and the web are suitable tools for that.
In addition to the bachelor assignment I have to take another course in order to finish my degree, and I thought "Culture and Narration" could be relevant. Then again, everything and anything can...
At least the ones that won't work.
I drive an old Nissan Micra, not fancy, I know, but usually it takes me where I want to go. There's been a nasty sound from it for a while, and I knew I had to take it to a garage very soon. Not funny, 'cause that's money I sure could use for something else. Anyway, I left for Sweden and knew I had to deal with that car when I got home again.
The last week of my vacation, we took a little trip to Germany, me, my father and my daughter. I drove my fathers car (which also is an old wreck), and everything was fine until we were on our way home again. Just after we'd crossed the border from Germany to Denmark the waterpump went to pieces, and we were forced to stay the night in Denmark. I must stress though that that incident could have been far worse in so many ways, but still, very annoying. It all worked out quite nicely in the end, and we arrived back in Sweden only a day and a half late.
So, back to my own car. I arrived home in Bergen on Monday morning, and was supposed to pick up my daughter at the airport Wednesday afternoon, which then was the first time I tried to start the car. I said tried, because it wouldn't start. It's dead! Probably "just" the battery, but now I'm real p....d off. If it wasn't for the fact that I wouldn't get any money for that piece of junk, I would probably sell it.
Better take a shower and go catch that bus, I'm off to the city to buy some yarn. Still keeping up my creative side...
...or put in more modern words "the butterfly effect", is a very interesting phenomenon which could be applied to almost any area in life. It means that even the slightest change in the initial state of any event will alter its outcome. Let's use the ball-on-the-hill-metaphor. A ball placed on the crest of a hill can roll down in any direction depending on its starting point, and even undistinguished differences will have an effect. But as usual I can't resist the temptation of exploring the possibilities of a metaphor.
If the initial conditions determines which way the ball will roll, does it mean that it has to stay on that path? If you see the ball is going to hit a rock, wouldn't it be possible to change direction? If the ball stops for some reason before it reaches its destination, couldn't you remove that obstacle? Couldn't two different ways lead to the same location? Anyway, the possibilities are endless, and to be able to predict the consequences of your actions you'll need some experience and good knowledge of physics - "the science that deals with matter, energy, motion, and force."
I don't feel this post is finished as it is, but I'll publish it anyway. Maybe there's some input from cyber-space. A small and distant flutter of wings?
I thought I'd like to do a backup of my blog. Partly for reasons unknown even to me, but for one I was curious about how much I've written in the blog since its "birth" two and a half years ago. So I started the tedious task of viewing each post and then select, copy & paste into a Word-document, and so far I've covered 72 posts and have still 250 to go. The result is approximately 50 pages including comments, and if this meets the average for the rest it means I've produced enough bull to fill a whole book! Even a quite substantial one, reaching 450 pages. Impressive or scary, I don't know...
