Obdormio.com

Loki’s timing is a bit off here, as I actually set aside time today to write here. Unless of course he used “currently” to mean “at this precise moment, 1:11 AM, September 16th” or a similarly narrow definition. Knowing him, he probably did.

Anyways, over a month has passed since the post where I said I was leaving for Bergen. Wow, where on earth did all the time go?

Actually, I have a good idea where all that time went. A good portion of it went to Babylon 5, which I’m fortunately almost finished with now. Very good show, that.

Another sizable chunk went to schoolwork. The intensive class Academic Writing has consumed many a night lately. When you cram a ten point subject into five weeks, it figures that it’ll take a lot of time. (For comparison, the other two subjects I’m taking this year, each also worth ten points, last at least fifteen weeks each.) Academic Writing, too, is almost over now.

And I’m not dead! I’m living and breathing and learning in Bergen, the city of rain, the Seattle of Europe. (Actually, I’m fairly sure Bergen was there first, so it should be that Seattle is the Bergen of America.) The city from whence the Black Death spread across Norway and killed off half the population. A city that, like Trondheim, is a much better choice for capital than Oslo. A city I could easily see myself living in, if not for the terrible lack of diverse products in grocery stores.

In my last post I said that Raptus was about to start. It is now over, leaving me with much less money than before, but also a nice little collection of comics containing stories by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. I also got hold of Rosa’s “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Companion” yesterday, so I have plenty and plenty of reading material. Especially if you factor in “A Game of Thrones”, “Eye of the Labyrinth” and “Deadhouse Gates” as well.

Hm, I foresee much more time vanishing in the near future.

So, what else has happened the last month?

Andy Weir has put Casey and Andy on indefinite hiatus, in order to focus his efforts on Cheshire Crossing. While I’m sad that we have to wait for the grand finale of C&A, I’m also excited that this probably means less waiting for the next issue of Cheshire Crossing. Weir reports that he is sick of C&A, which is extremely sad, and that he might not finish the arc at all, which is nothing short of tragic. I certainly hope that he feels better about it when the CC-issue is finished, it would be a crying shame for a great comic like Casey and Andy to end in the middle of its final arc.

Sluggy Freelance has started a new Oasis-story. Pardon me while I squee. It even looks like we’ll get some actual, definite answers in this one, though I’m not taking anything for granted when it comes to Sluggy. I’ll hold my tongue until it is over, I think, though I have to say that I love the new supporting characters. The setup has all the markings of a truly great sitcom, and it’s a shame there isn’t one like it on TV already.

The Gods of Arr-Kelaan have lost Ronson! Eeek! Well, no, not really eeek, we all know he’ll be back, as we have seen him appear in stories set at after the current one, but this should still be a very interesting story.

No doubt a lot of other stuff has happened as well, but this is all I can think of at the moment. Any omissions will have to get separate posts later, an arrangement nobody should be angry about.

Now I have to go fill the fridge.

It isn’t easy, especially when you have friends clearly set out to sabotage your academic development in any way possible – by, say, lending you five seasons of quality television-series mere days before you need to really start writing your assignment. Or lending you even better books, mere days before that. Or nagging you into joining a board game taking up one of your precious set-off-for-writing-afternoons. Get the picture? ‘Cause Obdormio sure has.

That’s right folks, your one and only beloved GUEST-BLOGGER is back, and I’m here to tell you, our gracious host simply doesn’t have the time to stop by and complain about how he doesn’t have time to stop by and complain.

Thus, I’ll do it for him, despite having tons of stuff to do myself, because that’s just how nice a guy I am.

WAAAAH, I DON’T HAVE TIIIIIME!

There, now that that’s over and done with, what has Obdormiboy been up to lately? Well, aside from his compulsive just-one-more-episode-habit of watching ”Babylon 5″, he’s been writing his assignment in ”Academic Writing”,
a compulsory introductory-course in Norwegian universities. Booh-yeah, right? No problem for good ol’ Dormie?

WROOOONG!

He’s struggling, people! Struggling! He needs all the help he can get, and that’s not all – he needs MORE help than he can get, which might be the problem.

You see, he can’t get his summary summarized enough. Mind-shattering, I know, but the man turns out not to be perfect after all. While the rest of us are now no doubt sighing as one in unison relief, we have to be understanding if Obdormio doesn’t join in. He is, after all, way too busy with shortening down his summary. Something which presents quite the challange, considering his working-schedule opens for maximum four minutes work per episode of B5, and that DOES include mentally preparing oneself for working, a ritual which has been known to take at least five minutes.

In other words, our boy is in a dire mess. We should help him out. I should help him out. I don’t have time, though, because the only spare time I had today has been used up writing this post. But at least I got his weblog active again. I’m sure he’ll be ever so pleased. :D

Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

What? So I’m taking Roman History this term. Sheeesh.

… and rarely has it been more anticipated. This summer has really helped convince me that the job I’m aiming for (teacher) is the right one for me. The hellish graveyard job in particular has made me eagerly await the beginning of fall.

It wasn’t so much the mowing itself, as the lack of equipment, communication and understanding. This job will not be applied for next year.

Tonight, I am leaving for Bergen, and on Monday, I will begin my studies at the university there. I do not know how long it will take to get set up and online again once I arrive, so bear with me if I disappear completely for a few days.

That is all.

My vacation has come to an end. After a week of worship, it’s back to the graveyard grindstone. It was a good week. Lots of good music and several good speakers. I shook the hand of the heavenly man, a very inspiring speaker, and got a signed copy of his book, which I am looking forward to reading.

On the long bus and train rides, and the long, long waits between them, I finished Shaman’s Crossing and Forest Mage by Robin Hobb, both excellent books. Robin Hobb never seems to stop finding ways of torturing her main characters. She must hate them all. I also purchased Eye of the Labyrinth by Jennifer Fallon and Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson. I also bought and read T Campbell’s A History of Webcomics, which was an interesting read. Can’t say I understand what all the controversy was about, but then again, controversy is what makes the internet go round.

Speaking of comics, I also bought books one and two of The Books of Magic. Then I found out that book three was out of print. Smeg. I also bought the first book of Y: The Last Man, which I’m now looking forward to reading. Spending what holiday money I had left I have ordered the two Starslip Crisis books, which I am also greatly looking forward to.

Also, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean while waiting for the bus. Said bus goes once every twelve hours, it was a bit of a wait. I don’t know why people disliked it so much. I had been a bit worried when I heard they were making this one more of a comedy, but I loved the results. It was funny, exciting, and well worth the money. The only complaint I have is… Well, I think Greg Dean has pretty much summed it up.

Finally, an updating of the comics links. Terror Island now has 15 strips under the belt, and the concept is holding well so far. Also, I got to be Stephonian Prime on their forum, so it moves up to Recommended Comics. Something Positive, which I’ve recently begun reading again, and Queen of Wands, which was omitted form the link list by an oversight, are both added to the same list. Lokes eskapadar is added to Norwegian Comics.

And I think that’s it for now.

He’s back today, after a week without computer or internet access. Since he seems to be unable to put any of this into writing here, I figured you probably won’t notice much of a difference if I typed it instead, and thought I’d let you know all the same. Wouldn’t want anybody to think he was ignoring them.

Like I said, I now mow graveyards. It’s not a great job, it’s only fourteen hours a week, so I won’t make as much money as I should. Some money is better than no money, however, so there you go.

Certain people seem to think that this is a bad-ass job, but it really isn’t all that exciting. All I do is cut grass. I really don’t like mowing. I hate it, actually. I long ago promised myself that I will never have a lawn.

One of the two graveyards I mow is actually pretty easy, because it has one of those four-wheel mowers. There is something strangely satisfying about rinding around on a machine that can, if I read the warning labels correctly, kill babies if they look at it. Most of the work is done with a normal mower, which would be fine and easy if somebody hadn’t put up tombstones all over.

Speaking of the tombstones, it is a bit interesting to see that even graves are slaves to trends and fashion. The 1890s seems to have favored tall and pointed stones, while just a few years earlier people liked to be buried under small obelisks.

Another trend of the late 19th century was apparently to bury six people on top of each other on the same plot, and then randomly scatter their tombstones above them, making mowing hard. It cannot have been easier with a scythe (as we all know, machines didn’t exist before the eighties), so they either maintained graveyards with scissors or just let them grow wildly.

Working on a graveyard should be depressing, I suppose, but it isn’t really. Both the graveyards are nice sunny, open places, with pretty trees and mostly nice graves, and some lamp posts, in case people come to grieve in the middle of the night I guess. They’re peaceful places, at least until I show up with my noisy and noxious mowers. They aren’t the gothic and spooky cemeteries you see on Buffy. And let’s be honest, if you build gothic and spooky cemeteries like they have on Buffy, you want vampires. Vampires would be very much out of place in the cemeteries I mow.

Building crypts is inviting monsters. There are no crypts.

There are some wicked echoes off the stones though, that could give any man a fright before he got used to them.

Also, I should like to take this opportunity to apologize to several dead people. I didn’t mean to cut the flowers of your graves or crash the mower into your tombstones. That thing can just run a bit out of control sometimes, and the exhaust make me dizzy so I don’t always see what I’m doing.

I’m also sorry for the many, many shivers you no doubt felt in life, what with all the running back and forth I’m doing.

I think that’s all for now.

I think I’m broken.

I can’t seem to do anything even slightly productive. Everytime I try to sit down and write something, all my energy disappears instantly. I feel uninspired, unfunny, tired and useless.

I got a job, mowing graveyards, and I’m doing that at least, but beyond that… I got nothing.

Seriously, I got nothing.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!

Classic FM, because of new licence terms with the music industry, has discontinued streaming for people outside the UK.

I’m outside the UK! I can no longer listen to the lovely music, because of stupid new licencing terms. Some of the stuff they advertised for is available here, I could be a potential customer! Why lock me out? Damn you, music industry!