Summer

As previously mentioned, I've been away last week and as a result of that, I haven't posted anything here last Wednesday. I haven't posted anything yesterday either, but that's mostly because I was lazy.

Since I'm also lazy now, I'll simply tell you a bit about what I have done and will do. Last week - when Stefan and I were at a Mensa youth camp thing - was fun, although people played way too much poker. We saw some birds of prey there, we think they were buzzards. I've never really seen that kind of bird before, not even high up in the sky, but these actually flew low now and then when we were taking a walk. So I found that quite exciting.
Before and after the camp we were at Stefan's place where we watched the first 4 Harry Potter films on dvd in order to be ready to wacth the new one in the cinema which we did Monday. We also ate a lot of candy. Monday we also went to a Mensa café meeting in Copenhagen, and Tuesday we went to Århus and attended another one.
Today we are going to leave Århus again to go to Sunds, a small town close to my hometown Herning. There's a lake where my family has a small house. We'll stay there along with my family till Sunday, and then Stefan has to get back to work on Monday. I'll probably stay a bit longer.

And that's pretty much it.

Ships!

Today I went to the harbour to watch a lot of beautiful sailing ships. They are doing something called the Tall Ships Race where they sail along a certain route and make stops in some harbours. This year it starts here in Århus, and the ships are here for some days before they take off. There were stands with food and drink and souvenirs, a small travelling tivoli, and free gigs; and you could get on board some of the ships to take a closer look at them (different ships were open for people at different times). I got on board two big ships and two or three smaller ones, and I liked it a lot. On a ship from the Mexican navy they were playing loud Mexican music which was kind of funny.
One of the stands had different kinds of fudge and marshmallow and nougat and such - all in big chunks. It was quite expensive, but I had to buy some anyway.

I stupidly forgot to bring my camera (and I'm one of those stone age people whose mobile phone isn't equipped with one), but at the homepage of the event you can see some pictures of some of the ships if you want to (there's both an English and a Danish version, I see, so it should be fine for all my readers ("all" sound like there's a huge bunch of you which is very untrue, but you know what I mean)).

I know I didn't update last week - I simply forgot, sorry. Next week I'll be at a Mensa event, a camp arranged by our YouthSIG (SIG = Special Interest Group) which is a SIG for the young and young at heart. Therefore I may not update next Wednesday either.

The okapi runs across the post holding a banner saying "the post ends here"

The Return of the Polar Sandwich

A deserted cellar, once dark, but now flooded with sunlight through a big man shaped hole in the upper wall and ceiling. A polar fox sits on the floor, looking very confused.

Polar fox: "What's happened? Where am I? Who am I?!

It pauses to think.

Fox: "Or should I say "what am I?"? I have the oddest feeling that until recently I was some kind of sandwich. But sandwiches don't have fur, do they? At least not the kind you wish to eat. And somehow I recall being eaten. This is all very confusing. My poor ham - I mean head! Perhaps I need some fresh air."

The polar fox jumps onto a table and then out through the man shaped hole. It falls over as it lands and tumbles around in the long grass outside. As it looks around it sees that it is in a clearing in a forest, just outside a very old house.

Fox: "A very odd shaped hole now I think of it. I wonder where that came from. Oh, I do wish my memory wasn't so blank. All I recall is being eaten. No, wait, something else too. All that tumbling around reminds me of something. I've done that before, and I think it's somehow connected to the whole being eaten thing - My goodness! Someone ate me and then threw me up! Yes, I'm sure of it now. How utterly horrible. But I don't remember who. Or what happened before I got eaten. If only I knew who made that hole I might be wiser."

Suddenly an okapi walks into the clearing and sees the polar fox.

Okapi: "A polar fox?! Well, well, well, I sure haven't seen you around before. Who are you?"

Fox: "Sadly, I have yet to discover that myself. All I know is that I have been eaten and thrown up, and that I think I might have been a sandwich until very recently. But you called me something yourself, didn't you, and it seemed to stir something inside my ham - my head, inside my head, yes. Could you repeat it?"

Okapi: "I called you a polar fox, old chap, and that's what you are! Congratulations on being such a fine furry fellow! Doesn't really answer WHO you are, though, now does it? And all the stuff about being eaten, well, I'm afraid it sounds just a little farfetched to me. Unless of course you were in league with that evil social structuralist who used to live here. He fled right through that wall a few weeks ago, left a big hole and all!"

Fox: "Oh my! It all comes back to me now! He was my master, I loved him more than anything, and helped him make a plan to drive his students insane - he took all the credit for it, by the way! And he betrayed me - he started a discourse where I was seen as a ham sandwich, and then he ate me. And later he threw me up again, yes, that must have been him, though I didn't know it at the time, being a ham sandwich, you see. He ate me! His most devoted little creation (yes, he did construct me himself - socially, you know! Brilliant thing to be able to do, really!) - and he turned me into a sandwich and ate me! I must have only turned back into a polar fox because he fled and there was nobody else to carry on the discourse in which I was a ham sandwich. But oh, my master was evil, and he betrayed me, and ate me, oh the agony of this!"

The polar fox starts sobbing uncontrollably, and the okapi moves closer and pats it on the head.

Okapi: "Easy now, mate, easy. You got away didn't you? He probably felt sick when he found out his plan didn't work, and that's why he threw you up again. Yeah, it failed, you know - I'm sure your idea was brilliant, but he probably didn't manage to carry it out properly, see? So he got so mad he almost choked, felt sick and puked you right up, and then fled for good, without even taking the time to go through the door. And the forest is a a much nicer place now, if you ask me!"

Fox: "Bu-bu-but st-still, *sniff*. He made me, you know. Rather splendidly too, I have to admit. How can I live with that?? How?!"

Okapi: "Well, see now, I can solve that little problem for you just like that! See, he may have made you up, but he only acted as a tool, you know what I mean? See, there's this girl, you know, and we're really just characters in her blog. So was he as a matter of fact, although he was powerful in his own right too. So really, she's the true creator of you. So nothing to worry about!"

Fox: "But isn't that bad, to exist only in someone's blog?"

Okapi: "Not at all, my furry little friend, not at all! As long as it's a nice home, who cares? And it is, you know. We have this nice forest to live in, plenty of food, a few bad things now and then, but mostly it just adds some sense of adventure. And we get regular excercise too - when she doesn't know what to write, she'll just let us do all sorts of silly things. It's really cool, really!"

Fox: "Well, in that case, why don't you show me around a bit?"

Okapi: "Alright. I don't think she can think of anything more to write about us anyway."

The polar fox and the okapi walk out of the clearing together.

A visit, an anniversary and a complaint

Last night Anders (who may read this, in that case hi :)) came to visit Rasmus (hi to you too) and me, and our friends Signe and Erik came over too, as Anders is only in Denmark for a short while to take an exam. Otherwise he is abroad to stay with his girlfriend.

Anyway it was very nice to see him again, and we all had a nice evening, although there was a bit too much talk of computer games that only I had never played. It was late when they all left (well, relatively), so that's my excuse for not updating this blog yesterday although it was a Wednesday.

Tomorrow Stefan and I will have been together for 42 days which you will see the importance of if you've read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you haven't read it, you ought to :)

Also, the administration at the Institute of Psychology has once again proved how stupid their communication to the students is. We will get our exam results sometime the week after next week. Exactly when, however, is yet to be announced. I think it'll be announced on Monday, because that's what I seem to remember from the notice that's hanging at the Institute and which was also once on their website. However, the bastards removed that piece of news from the website now, so I can't be sure. Which means I'd have to go to the Institute to find out when I can find out. It would of course make sense to go sometime during next week, but I'm planning to spend that week with my family and to go to their place (in a different town as you probably all know) Sunday when I take Stefan to the station anyway. I may be back in Århus a short while before next weekend, but will be back with my family again (together with Stefan) very quickly, and I don't know if I'll have time to go to the Institute while I'm in Århus. So I really hope they put the schedule online so I'll know whether I have to be back before Tuesday (one teacher let us know the we'll get the results in his subject on Tuesday). If it's not put online I'll have to check the schedule at the Institute Monday morning which will be quite annoying in case I get results on Monday afternoon because I'll either have to hang around till then or go home and back again.
I really wish they'd finally realise we live in modern times and routinely put all relevant news and schedules on the website. They have shown some improvement by putting exam questions (for papers to be written) online this semester. But that's the first time they ever did so!

Well, enough for now, I think. Not the most exciting post, sorry. I shall be more interesting when funny stuff decides to happen to me.

Random stuff

I haven't been able to come up with a good idea for a subject today, but I thought an update was long overdue. As a result, I shall write random stuff that occurs to me. I know this is very discriminating towards random stuff that doesn't occur to me, but alas, there is no practical solution to this problem.

The evil Peter M. has failed. I am no more (and no less, but that's less relevant in this context) insane than I was before I started writing my exam paper. Actually I don't know if any of the other students have gone madder than they already were, so I suppose it's not entirely correct to induce from my own case that he failed completely.
This reminds me of something funny. Stefan (that's my boyfriend) and I are both members of Mensa and went to the Danish annual gathering called MIK. Among other things a visit to a nearby science museum was on the schedule. One of the things on display was some kind of thing where you could stick wires in different holes. They were placed in groups of two holes and two wires together. I attempted to put a wire from one group into a hole in another group, but it wasn't long enough, so I told Stefan: "Noring, you can't even put the wires in the holes grouped with other wires". He then proceeded to do just that, only with another wire than the one I'd used (one that was actually long enough). I tried to justify myself by saying: "Well, the first one worked and then I induced from that single case that it would never work!". He replied: "And what can we learn from that? ... Induction doesn't work". Tadaa! A great joke, and I helped make it. Even if I did so by behaving rather stupidly.

But to get back to university stuff, I also finished another exam paper and handed that in, which means it's now my summer holiday - wee!!

Aside from that, Stefan has met a few more of my friends, and I have met a few of his. That was nice.

Today is a very hot day, and I walked into town on the path along the Brabrand lake (any non-local readers must be content with knowing that this is a lake that has a path along it which can take you into town from my place, provided you actually go to it first and that you follow it in the right direction). In town I bought a book (Dune, which I've read a long time ago and would like to read again) which was mostly paid for with a gift certificate I won at the MIK because my team won the pub quiz that was held there. The main reason my team won was that one fo the others is one of those people who know freakingly much. My friends tend to find my knowledge of trivia impressive, but it's nothing in comparison. I knew more about Simpsons and friends than he did, though. And I had Auguste Rodin's first name right while he insisted it was Pierre (it is Auguste, as you may have figured out if you're very very clever).

In the weekend I expect to be far away in Copenhagen unless my friend Anders (who may just read this, at least I gave him the link to this blog) very soon announces that he'll be in Århus exactly then. It'll be the first time I see Stefan's place, so that should be interesting.

It's been a long time since I last updated, so I think I might need a regular update day. I hereby declare that it shall be Wednesday. I may write stuff at other times too, but I will definitely write something every Wednesday, except when I forget it. So expect to find something new unless there's nothing new to find.

My plants could do with some water. I bought a small brain model at the science museum I wrote about. I'm currently reading Harry Potter so that I'll have read the six first books by the time the seventh and last is published. I'm also knitting a moebius shawl.

At this point my random stuff seems to be limited to things that can be said in one sentence, so this is probably a good place to stop.

An evil plan

In his dark and sinister cellar, the evil Peter M. sits, working on his cruel plans.

PM: "My attempts to drive the students insane have all failed! They have made it through all the lectures in spite of the evil and mad theories I have so cunningly placed in them. Annoying little mentally stable bastards! What is an aspiring supervillain to do?!"

Peter M. jumps up in frustration, walks in hexagons (simple circles won't do it for an aspiring supervillain), and finally socially constructs a small polar fox to calm himself down.

PM: "I must make a new superplan. The master of all evil plans. And I have one final chance: The exam. But the students have shown their ability to tolerate mad theories - what else can I do to drive them insane?"

The polar fox: "Ahem! Excuse me, my Lord!"

PM: "Who are you now? What do you want?"

Fox: "I am - very humbly, may I add - the insignificant little creature you so splendidly constructed socially."

PM: "Huh? Oh, right, you. I forgot to replace you with a new discourse like I normally do with my social constructs to prevent them from bothering me afterwards. I must have been too preoccupied with my frustrations. But as you're already here annoying me, tell me what in the holy name of Postmodernism you want to say!"

Fox: "I was only going to suggest to you, oh great Social Constructor, that you might try to give the students an exam question which they will never be able to answer in a satisfactory way within the limits given. I make this suggestion with the utmost admiration of your efforts so far, of course, and in the knowledge that of course you must already have thought of it yourself and merely need to be reminded."

PM: "Why of course, that was just what I was thinking. I would have remembered it if you hadn't started interrupting my thoughts, you know..."

Fox: "My humble apologies, oh the most facilitating of all facilitators".

PM: "Quiet!"

Peter M. starts writing down six simple questions.

PM: "There now. Six questions, and with only 14.4 pages to answer them in, at most. That must be impossible."

Fox: "You might also make them ambiguous and hard to understand so that they will never know exactly what it is you wish from them - which, of course, you were already about to do, oh Master of the domain of reflection."

PM: "Why of course, you pestering little rat!"

Peter M. makes the questions ambiguous and hard to understand.

PM: "There now. I feel much better now".

He jumps up, this time from sheer joy, and starts a discourse that views the polar fox as a ham and cheese sandwich which he then eats.

Writing

This post is not going to be any fun at all, I warn you. It is, however, going to have meta-quality. That is, the quality of being on a meta-level, not some kind of meta-quality that judges the quality of quality. I'm quite sure its quality has no quality at all. However, it is going to contain meta-writing, i.e. writing about writing.

I'm writing a paper on a consultative approach to marginalisation in schools. If it sounds boring, that's because it is. If it doesn't, well then it's deceptive and evil as well as boring. And I'm stuck on it. I know approximately what I want to write, but it's too vague and I can't quite put it in the right words. Actually, I'm not sure it even is vague, I just can't get my ideas to do the metamorphosis into nice little sentences - or evil and nasty little sentences for that matter. I feel like someone stuffed my head with wool.

So what better thing to do to than go here and write about it? Funnily, writing about it is no problem at all, in fact I'm enjoying it in spite of the less than mesmerising subject. Maybe it's just because I get to talk about myself. And complain.

I need to get more readers for this so I can get my complaining spread to a wider audience. Just one person so far is very little. And until I get myself some non-Danish readers, writing in English also seems rather pointless. Not that I don't like pointlessness...hmmm. Hermed en dansk sætning, som så kan være meningsløs for i hvert fald visse læsere, når jeg får fat i de udenlandske. Bare fordi.

The subject of writing seems to have been emptied by now, so I'll try to go away from here and do something useful. More to follow in a few days or so - hopefully, by then I'll have something to say which isn't complaining.

Starting over

This is the very first post of a completely new blog. I had another one - well technically I still have it - but it seemed too related to old stuff I finally broke free of to make me want to continue it. Hence this new one. Which in fact isn't very new, as I created it quite a while ago, but never got around to using it after all. But making a third one just to make a point of starting over seemed rather silly - which would be a perfectly good reason to do it except for the fact that it would also mean a bit of extra work, and we really can't have that!

So, a new start is the theme of this post. Luckily starting over is something I feel like I've been doing lately in more ways than just starting this new blog, so I won't be forced to have an entirely self-referential first post. Not that self-reference isn't amazingly cool, of course.

Anyway, I was going to write about why I feel like I'm starting over. In December I finally put an end to the withering remains of a fairly unhealthy relationship that officially ended 2 years ago. It turned out to be a relief more than anything else which led to a lot of thoughts about why I had hung on to it when my actual feelings for the man in question appeared to have gone a while before I actually put an end to it. I concluded that it had a lot to do with some of my own issues, and as a result, I have actually worked on those.

And last, but not least, it seems that the universe actually rewards people for this kind of personal growth, because I have actually got a new boyfriend now. This time someone who is both appropriate, nice and capable of doing his share in taking care of the relationship. It's all very new, but already I'm noticing how completely normal and sensible I am compared to how I was in my last relationship. I used to think I wasn't very good at it either then, and now I'm suddenly realising that I wasn't that bad. I just got that idea from judging myself based on my behaviour when I was put in a very awkward situation and forced to give a lot more than I got back.

So, here I am, in happier and more healthy circumstances, and with a more realistic and more positive view of my own ressources. That deserves a new blog.

That was a fairly serious first post. You should not, however, conclude from that fact that future posts will be equally serious. Most likely they'll consist mostly of silly nonsense. All I can promise is that they'll be filled with my strange thoughts about things, my strange thoughts about my strange thoughts about things, my strange thoughts about my strange thoughts about my strange thoughts about things, and so on. Hence the name "metamentalisations", although I can't promise to be on the meta-level at all times. Mentalisation, incidentally, is a psychological term meaning "to think about/understand yourself and others in terms of mental states". So you could say that mentalisation already implies a meta-level of thoughts, and that I have thus indicated a meta-meta-level with my title. Again, I doubt I'll be on that level always, but knowing me, I'll certainly get there at times. And if not, you, the reader, can always mentalise a bit about why, and add a new meta-level that way, and all will be good (there's nothing like being able to put the responsibility upon the readers!).

Without further ado then, I shall press "publish", and launch this new blog!