// end hiatus

That’s right, ladies and gents! I’m back from my study & translation & personal recreation hiatus. The first week was terrible and the latter was great! I had to forfeit the latter of two exams because I simply couldn’t bring myself to read another line of anglo-american analytical philosophy. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see why we can’t study some of the noteworthy American philosophers, like C.S Peirce, Kripke, Rorty and even Rawls. But no. Let’s insist upon a completely dogmatic analytic approach, in the tradition of philosophy of language, without reference or appeal to real world appliance except for some murky and undeclared notion of the correspondence theory of truth! Yeah, let’s do that.

Suffice to say being a continental philosopher, in contrast to an incontinent one, I couldn’t get my head around it. Despite some great minds already mentioned by name, we shouldn’t forget we’re talking about a country run by an administration whose major philosophical influence is none other than mr. Hobbes of the 1500s. Talk about a war against common sense and philosophical insight. But I digress.

My first exam went beyond my expectations (I expected a cigarette and blindfold). I was a bit surprised when I had to write 4 tasks (two tasks with subtasks) instead of the usual 1, but that meant that I had at least 2 I could fill out without feeling like a douche bag. Speaking of filling out, there were master students in economics handing in their multiple-choice exams after one (1) hour! These are the guys that you depend on with your mortgage, your loans and your future savings. They get an A on an exam that, in principle, any living species on the planet could get graded A in!
.. so, why not multiple-choice philosophy?

After the exams I was completely exhausted, and I took on the not-so-mindless task of translating the latest edition of the Zenwalk manual to Norwegian. I’ll post a link when it’s published. This job, however, was done in the beautiful scenery of Norway’s most attractive winter-sports site called Hafjell where Lady C’s family has a cabin. I say ‘cabin’ but what I really mean is: ‘Mountain Palace in Beautiful Scenery, With All The Convenience You Have At Home and A Whole Lot MORE!’ From ashy to classy to ashy, returning home.

Writing this, I’m sitting at work updating and error checking a couple of laptops, broke as a badger in a government retirement home, putting that sour bread on the table. I’ve been away for two weeks and when I return it seems like this place has been through the Biblical Flood. As if all the machines around here just decided to collapse in on themselves at the same time e.g. when I am away. Which is kind of good, you know, returning to things to do; it’s just that they are boring things to do. I’ve heard that "boring pays off" but I’ve yet to see it. I have things to live for too, such as Battlestar Galactica, the Tom Waits concert, the Cohen concert, my vacation and continued work on my never-ending novel. Not to mention all that hot steaming sex I’ll be having. Right now, however, all I look forward to is some spaghetti and sausages in the shelter of my bedsit after work. Amen.