Last Week's Events

Last week I had events to go to 4 out of the week's 7 days. Tuesday was the usual Mensa café meeting. We tried out a new café, since we're looking for a new regular place to go. So far we've been to one place with bad service, music that sounded like either the cd was scratched or the player was broken, but with nice food; and one nice place where way too much of the café was smoking area (at least after 22 where a large space changed into a smoking area, and we often stay till after 22). So we're still looking.

Wednesday evening Brett Anderson gave a concert at Århus Musikhus, with just him on acoustic guitar or piano, and a cellist. It's my very first Brett solo gig so I was looking forward to it a lot. The night before, he played in Copenhagen, and when that was announced I was quite disappointed I couldn't go because it was a week night and I needed to be back here to go to "work" next day. So I was really glad they announced the Århus gig Wednesday. It was a very nice evening, Brett's voice was wonderful, the cello worked great with the songs, and at the encore Brett played a few bits of songs people suggested - even a little of Stay Together! The only downside was that most of the audience wouldn't really sing along when Brett asked them to. I find it rather understandable for some of the gig, since a seated acoustic gig in a concert hall is a different experience than a regular gig, and it was actually nice to be able to concentrate on enjoying what you were hearing. But in the end when the athmosphere softened somewhat, it would have been nice with a bit more noise from the audience. At the very end he succeeded in eliciting such a response (and getting people to stand up), but I think the audience should have been faster to respond to the changed athmosphere and Brett's requests. But a very nice experience nonetheless!

Friday and Saturday I went to two more Mensa arrangements, and since it was the weekend, Stefan went too. Friday we were at Randers Regnskov by night. For non Danish readers, Randers is the name of a town not so far from Århus, and "regnskov" means rain forest. It's a place where they made a sort of indoor rain forest with plants and animals, and people can come see it, usually during the day. However, you can get to experience it at night too, with a guide, if you're a group of people (and pay for it of course :)). It was interesting to see the animals, but I'd probably prefer going during the day and getting to walk around on my own rather than having to follow a guide and only be allowed to stay for a fixed amount of time. Still, it was fun.

Saturday there was a lecture in Århus about the evolution of man, with a doctor who has written books on that subject. I read one of his books when I did my bachelor thesis, and liked it a lot. The lecture was interesting too, although of course much of it was stuff I'd already read about in the book. It was still nice to get it refreshed, though, and I also got to buy the book - much cheaper than in the shops!

So it's been an interesting week, but I must admit I'm glad I have less to do this week. Some time just to relax will be nice.

Exile

We moved all Stefan's things to our new flat during our holiday last week. It really felt like home. But after going to Århus during the weekend for a party, only Stefan got to go back to our home. I still have 4 more weeks as an intern, so I have to stay in Århus. And my room here doesn't feel like home anymore at all. Only one good friend and a couple of others who've been here a while still live here. Most of the others I don't even know the names of. Nor do I really care to know.

This isn't home, this is some kind of exile, and I'm homesick for my real, new home. And I miss my Stefan so. When I finally get to move there properly, it'll be the best thing I ever did, but waiting for it is so hard. So please, please, be November 16th soon, so I can go home.

A little of this and a little of that

I don't really have much to say on any particular subject, so a few words about several different thing seems the way to go today.

I promised that I'd write about being an intern at a dementia clinic. Well, the patients are interesting, but getting comfortable in the work environment has been quite hard, as has learning to test patients myself. The first because I feel a little bit left to myself which is not easy when you're also quite shy and not good at taking initiatives. The latter because I'm not great at dealing with people (yes, an aspiring psychologist with bad social skills - a bit strange, I know) and because I'm quite perfectionistic and get nervous. At this point I'm doing alright in both those areas, but it still seems to take a fair amount of energy, and after 4 weeks and a day of spending extra energy I'm starting to feel a bit drained. The week after next week is a week off, fortunately, so I'm looking forward to get recharged a bit then. And after that there's just 4 weeks to go, and then I get to go live with Stefan :)

My diet is still working alright. The progress isn't as fast as it was in the beginning, but it's still going downwards, and I'm now less than 1 kg from my first goal.

Stefan and I signed the contract for our new flat, and today he paid the deposit and the rent for the first month. In principle we have a flat together from precisely today! We can't get into it for two more weeks, though, as they're doing some repairing there. But we officially have a place that's ours now, not his or mine - yay!

A new home

Stefan and I will have a flat together!

We signed up for a two room flat at the place where his current flat also is (you get moved up in the queue by already living in a flat in the same place), and were given an estimated waiting period of 5 to 6 months. So I was very surprised when I got a text message today, telling me we had could get a flat (when signing up online you could choose to get notified that way). But it's real: They've offered us a flat from October 1. We really don't need it till the middle of November, but since it seems likely we only got an offer so fast because some other people said no, we can't be sure to get one by then if we don't take this one. And we can afford to pay more than one rent for just two months.
Stefan went to check the location of the flat, and to talk to the current tenants who haven't moved out yet. The location seemed fine, and the girl he talked to said they hadn't had any particular trouble with noisy neighbours or such. So we have now said yes to the offer.

We officially have a flat together, yay! :D

The polar fox and the okapi multiply for the special occasion, so 6 polar foxes and 28 okapis run across the post and throw confetti.

Diet

Since Stefan is usually away on Monday nights, I think I'll move my update day to Monday. I have less to do while sitting at the computer when I'm not talking to him on MSN, so it's nice to have this. When I move to Copenhagen myself to live with him, I'll move update day again, since I'll also be away on Monday nights then (doing the same thing he's doing now).

But anyway, one of the topics I promised I'd write about was my new diet.

The diet is of the type where you reduce your intake of carbohydrates, but it's a relatively permissive one where you keep the kinds of carbohydrates that are not so easily processed in the body. So I can eat wholemeal bread, for instance, but I need to stay away from sugar, potatoes, rice, pasta and white bread as much as possible. This is a bit tricky, but in many ways also kind of fun, since you get to invent ways to replace those things with other things. Today I tried making something somewhat resembling lasagna, and decided to replace the pasta plates with cabbage. It turns out I should probably have boiled the cabbage first, as it's still rather hard, but it works fine as far as the taste goes, since neither pasta nor cabbage has much taste in it.
Not eating sugar (or rather eating very little of it) has turned out to be much much easier than I expected. Diet soda is actually not hard to get used to, and one brand of sweetener (actually one specific kind from a brand that has more than one kind) tastes almost exactly like sugar when you use it in tea. Furthermore, having something that's sweet, but doesn't contain sugar, actually seems to satisfy my occassional cravings for sweet stuff. I'm allowing myself a little bit of chocolate every now and then, because I really love chocolate so much - and because I ate so much of it before that eating just a little bit still makes a big difference :)
And it's actually going quite well. I've weighed myself every day, and except for one day I've lost a little weight each time. Tomorrow it'll have been a week since the first time I weighed myself on my new weight, and if I don't gain anything compared to what I weighed this morning, I'll have lost almost 2 kg during that week.

Bad Luck

Yesterday, my friend Maria's baby boy Noah was baptised. This took place in Kolding, and since I was in Copenhagen, but had to be back in Århus in the evening, we had to get up very early at Stefan's place, bring ourselves and all of my luggage to Kolding, leave the luggage in a luggage box at the train station, go to the baptism, go back to the station afterwards, get the luggage out, and then take trains in different direction (Stefan back to his place and me and my luggage back to my own place in Århus). This sounds complicated enough, but apparently the universe disagreed and added several complications.

First, there were no buses to take us to the station early on a Sunday morning, so we had to take a taxi. That's manageable, since Stefan has a job and thus money.

Second, the dress I had bought turned out to show a lot more of my breasts than I had originally thought. This had the potential for being very troublesome, considering the impossibility of finding new nice clothes early in the morning at a place where you only have the clothes you chose to bring. However, I had also bought a big scarf to wear with the dress, and this could conveniently cover me up while looking nice at the same time.

Third - now it's getting rather more serious. Being occupied with my dress problems, I conveniently forgot the present, and didn't remember so until we'd gone about a third of the way to the station in our taxi. It turned out okay, but the taxi driver had to drive back, breaking the speed limit, I had to get out of the taxi and run to Stefan's flat and back to the taxi in my high heels, and the taxi driver then had to continue breaking the law to get us to the station with some time to spare. He managed quite well, though, so we actually had plenty of time.

Fourth, more taxis. This time from the church to the place where the party was, and from that place to the train station. Another relatively minor thing, since the fare from the church to the party was paid for by our hosts.

Fifth and worst: Luggage box trouble! (this is the grand finale!) Some complete idiot had failed to notice the difference between his own box (no. 2191) and ours (2194) and put his key in our box where he managed to get it completely stuck. So when we came to get our stuff, we couldn't get it out. We notified the staff, and in the end they did find a key that could open the box, but not before we'd refused to let one lady tell us she couldn't do anything about it - apparently she thought leaving us to cope with it ourselves was an excellent way to handle it, until it was clear we intended to keep bothering her unless she actually tried to do something. Fortunately, the other woman whom she asked to help her find out what to do seemed more competent, and the problem was solved.

So that's it for now. Coming up here on my blog: My new diet (I need to lose weight, unfortunately), and my experiences as an intern at a dementia clinic where I started today.

Everyday stuff - but a new kind

I'm spending August at Stefan's place, since he's working and I'm doing nothing because uni doesn't start until September. Thus, we get to try out some sort of everyday routine together, which is rather uninteresting to write about since it is, by definition, not anything earth shatteringly interesting. It's an interesting experience, though, not just being each other's guests, but living together for a little while. The most interesting (and very positive) thing is that it doesn't actually require any getting used to at all.

Anyway, we did do some things a little out of the ordinary:

1) Last Tuesday was Stefan's birthday. We went out with some of his friends, and he got some presents from them, his family, and of course me. I gave him a book about Danish syntax and a toaster. A funny fact: When you live with someone, giving needed household items as presents is something not very exciting (although quite alright now and then as long as one person doesn't always get that kind of thing while the other gets more personal things). When you don't, but intend to do so later on, it can suddenly be something somewhat symbolic (alliteration intended). The book was the main present, though - I don't think you can stretch toaster symbolism as far as making it the main thing.

2) The day after we went to see the new Simpsons movie. It was really good, especially the spider pig thing (and if you don't know what that is, go see the movie - you should anyway). The was a terribly annoying man behind us, though. He kept repeating the punchlines or reading written things from the movie or the subtitles out loud. After a while I actually got sufficently annoyed that I turned around and told him we really didn't need to hear him repeat everything. It takes a while to make me do that kind of thing which says something about how annoying he was. Felt really good too :)

3) We cleaned the upstairs part of Stefan's place which is actually quite something. We threw out quite a lot of things too, among them an old and out of order computer, a computer table, and his bed. The bed was thrown out to make room for a new one that's big enough for both of us. I'm looking forward to go buying that. I like bying furniture and such much more than I like shopping for clothes, really. Weeee, furniture!!!

The polar fox does somersaults across the page while the okapi sings a catchy jingle about furniture.

Reappearance

When I was 12, I began to have some interest in popular music. I wished for a cd player for Christmas, and some cds to play on it. I got one too, and along with it the compilation cd "Absolute Music 10" (by now, my taste has changed, and I'm not all that into the kind of pop that makes it onto such compilations. But back then I liked it). I thought it was great, and felt all cool and like I wasn't quite so much a child anymore (which begins to be a very important thing to a girl that age). So when I came across "Absolute Music 6" in a secondhand shop, I bought it, thinking that was a really cool compilation series or so. I listened to it a lot too, and one of my favourite songs on it was "Jessie" by Joshua Kadison.

Many years then passed, I developed a taste in music less dependent on the current hit songs, and eventually I threw out most of the compilation cds I owned (not that many, I found artists to like soon enough that I rather bought albums by them). The only one I kept was "Absolute Music 6" - because of "Jessie" and one or two other songs that I thought were ... well, not great, but okay enough that I might just as well keep the album.

Yet more time passed, and though I didn't throw out the album, I stopped listening to it altogether. This is, perhaps, 5 years ago or so.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, when I went to the Mensa youth camp thing I've mentioned here, I unexpectedly heard it again in the bus on the way there. The driver was listening to the radio, and it was loud enough that you could just about hear it from where we sat. The song began, and I thought "I know that song. What on earth is it??". After a while, I suddenly remembered that it was that song I used to like on Absolute Music 6, and a little more thinking made the name of the song come back to me (as for the artist I don't think I ever paid attention to his name).

Well, that was that, and it was funny and all, but no more. But yesterday when I went to a café (a Mensa thing again, actually), they played it on the radio. Maybe 5 years without ever hearing it or thinking about it, and suddenly two times only a couple of weeks apart, I just happen to hear it on the radio.

So now I've dusted off the old cd and put on the song. I still quite like it, really. In many ways it seems a type of song I don't normally care much for, but it has a nice melody and sweet melancholic lyrics telling a little story (I like lyrics that are stories in general). And it brings back the feeling of being 12 or 13 and just starting to get into more teenage kind of things.

Why am I telling this little story? I don't really know, but somehow it made me smile - like a little visit from the past. And I found it funny how it seemed to insist on making a reappearance, suddenly being on the radio at places I just happened to be.

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!