Historiological Notes

Age Wisdom

I am visiting my parents and relaxing with old magazines in the sun. One of my mother's regular reads is a magazine for the 40+ lady. It has a regular column where a famous woman in the 40+ age group tell what she did when she was 25. They tell of uncertainty and sometimes frustration, and few of them had started anything like a career.

This is a great comfort for people like me; under 30. Hope is definitely not over yet. Why does not magazines for the 20-something woman tell of this wisdom? Instead they focus on the bright young things, surfing life on a different league from the rest of us.

Weekend expectation

During my studies I usually worked Saturdays, and I read most days. Usually I did not have many lectures a week, so the day off could as likely be a Tuesday as a Sunday. And Parties could be any day a week.

Being a teacher I had work to do seven days a week, so the weekend was sort off gone.

Now I have tried "normal work" for a short while and I see that everyone around me are very anxious to have loads of plans for their weekend. And I now start to feel an obligation to start earlier in the week to make plans for the weekend. Earlier I have usually waited until Friday to check what is going on, now I feel I need to make sure it is going to be something great.

Then what happens is that I have to work though the weekend to make a Monday deadline... and things are back to my normal.

First day of summer?

This afternoon, glancing out of my office window I could see a woman sunbathing on the lawn. It must be a sign that summer has arrived.

Another sign of late spring is approaching exams... I have just now handed in my reading list.

Geometry Calendar

I have always had an interest in paper - all structures and qualities - and together with my fascination for mathematics this has developed a growing interest in origami. This autumn I folded several geometrical shapes, amongst them a perfect dodecahedron and a rhombic dodecahedon. However, I had not thought of making a calendar of 12-sided figures. However, someone else has. (The top one is a cut out one, not an origami one, but the bottom one is).

While we are waiting

In the supermarket today I came across a stand with Christmas chocolates and Christmas marzipan. The display also included a poster with a nice snowy window and the text "While we are waiting". When I came to the till I also found a Christmas magazine; the best decorations, the best food, the best gifts etc.

Isn't it a bit too early?

Light

I have just been a short trip to Copenhagen to visit a friend. As everyone know one should by Danish Design whilst in Copenhagen (not cheep alcohol and ham as most Norwegian do). This time I succeeded very well and bought an IQ lamp shade. IQ does not stand for Intelligent Quotient, but Interlocking Quadrilaterals. I love the mathematics of it. I have not yet assembled it, but a model is included in the pack as to learn the skill.

Some day my prince will come...

...until then I will have to use my prince-turned-frog IKEA marigolds.

Mac

I have struggled with my laptop since November. It is slow and the screen has a omnipresent pink veil. This has of course not been very encouraging for my writing.

This week I have become aware that I have a "fairy godmother" who can do magic and I have been given money towards an iBook which have been ordered today and I hope it will arrive in a week or so. For those interested it is a 12" iBook 512 MB RAM, 60GB hard drive and with bluetooth as extra.

I have wanted a Mac for more than a year. The reasons easy programs, less virus, good design and a wish to try Tinderbox.

On-line soon

Thank you for the happy and optimistic thoughts on my viva. As the days have passed I am more and more optimistic that things will sort themselves out. I have been more or less off line for the last week and have found in nice to enjoy spring and some nice novels. However, I plan to be back in the historiological world tomorrow.

Ironic?

I feel it is a bit ironic that my PhD application is longer than my M.Phil thesis. Just on my way to send in my application I can see that it is quite an amount of paper. It consist of 154 pages; that is five pages application form, ten pages research proposal, two pages CV and five diplomas/reference letters; 22 pages times seven copies. My thesis was only 132 pages long.

I do not understand why they need seven copies; most other positions requires four copies. Well, they write on the information page that an application that does not fullfill the right criteria will not be considered, so better do as they say.