January Pieces Of My Mind #1 [Aardvarchaeology]

• From now on I’m not appending my CV with job applications any more. I’ll send a list of my LinkedIn endorsements instead.


• We’ve seen a series of arson attempts on Swedish mosques, almost certainly motivated by xenophobia and racism. A lot of good people are showing their solidarity with the country’s Muslims by sticky-taping paper hearts and letters of support to the doors and walls of mosques. I’m conflicted. I condemn arson, xenophobia and racism. But I also oppose collectively organised religion. I don’t want the country’s mosques or churches burned down. I want them converted to secular uses. I’d rather sticky-tape my paper heart to an immigrant than endorse a religious organisation.


• Wife shocked to find me putting sweet mustard into my bacon & pea soup. I be like “Behold the Swede in all his ethnic glory”.


• Last night Jrette beat two seasoned male gamers who shall not be named at RoboRally. *proud*


• Movie: Love Is Strange. Old gay couple is forced to sell their apartment, stays separately with various family for weeks. Tensions but also intimacy ensue. Grade: pass.


• It was a milestone when Jr started babysitting Jrette. Tonight we’ve passed an even bigger one: Jrette simply stayed at home with the iPad and a helping of Dad’s mince patties when her parents went for a movie and meal. We’re a post-babysitter couple now.


• You win, Autocorrect. From now on Gilmorton does mean “gomorron” to me, that is, “good morning”.


• Aaah, it’s great not knowing anything about iPhones and iPads. No user support on those when family members run into trouble!


• Jrette is wise beyond her years: “Whatever words you google, you always get a picture of a half-neckid girl”.


• Yay! Wife is joining me for moonlight skating on the lake! We’re bringing ice spikes and a rope. I only wish Jr would come too.


• “… why in the name of the Lord should anyone so to speak perform charitable acts as a reader of books? No moral law tells us to. On the contrary, any moral law on the subject would say ”Read good books and ignore the bad ones as completely as possible”. Frans G. Bengtsson, letter to Sigfrid Lindström, 30 april 1928. FGB is one of my favourite authors and I recently learned that my old thesis supervisor met the man once as a child.


• My study debt is down to $6200 or SEK 49,000.


• Home now from my last trip to Umeå this semester. Will be commuting to Kalmar instead from late February on.


• I find Harlan Ellison’s celebrated 1967 story “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” to be pointless and forgettable.


• Took me more than 12 years before I noticed that the Swedish edition of Mad Magazine had been discontinued.


• Story germ: protagonist realises that his friend is contemplating suicide because his book queue on Goodreads is dwindling.


• I’m re-recording Jefferson Airplane’s seminal 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow under the title Atavistic Pillow. It’s all bestial grunts and howls to an accompaniment of rustling leaves, cicadas and stones being bashed rhythmically against the skulls of large herbivores.


• The German equivalent of “We’re fucked” means “We’re fucked in the knee”.


• It’s almost as if the Boko Haram were a bunch of drugged-out and crazed former child soldiers. Oh, right.


• I’ve heard lots of Jamaican and Cuban music, but I don’t know anything about Hispaniolan music. Are they too poor there to support a class of musical innovators? Or is it just a question of distribution networks?


• Bronze Age book has an ISBN and is in the hands of the designer!


• Instead of appending my CV to job applications, from now on I’ll just send a link to the Wikipedia article about me.


• Wife mumbles to herself over her psych textbook: “Tourette’s syndrome…”. I immediately yell “Willie!”. She pays me no attention.


• Kinda tired of getting followed on Twitter by authors who put the name of their new book in their profile. Guys, that means “spam account”.


• For decades, legendary Swedish archaeology professor Stig Welinder has been co-publishing papers and books with students and local historians, and insisting that all authors be credited in alphabetical order. This means that he’s always last, even though it’s pretty clear that he’s done most of the writing. His co-authors rarely show up elsewhere as independent authors. Here’s what we should do: we should all add Stig Welinder as lead author of everything we publish.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1CvEkNL

• From now on I’m not appending my CV with job applications any more. I’ll send a list of my LinkedIn endorsements instead.


• We’ve seen a series of arson attempts on Swedish mosques, almost certainly motivated by xenophobia and racism. A lot of good people are showing their solidarity with the country’s Muslims by sticky-taping paper hearts and letters of support to the doors and walls of mosques. I’m conflicted. I condemn arson, xenophobia and racism. But I also oppose collectively organised religion. I don’t want the country’s mosques or churches burned down. I want them converted to secular uses. I’d rather sticky-tape my paper heart to an immigrant than endorse a religious organisation.


• Wife shocked to find me putting sweet mustard into my bacon & pea soup. I be like “Behold the Swede in all his ethnic glory”.


• Last night Jrette beat two seasoned male gamers who shall not be named at RoboRally. *proud*


• Movie: Love Is Strange. Old gay couple is forced to sell their apartment, stays separately with various family for weeks. Tensions but also intimacy ensue. Grade: pass.


• It was a milestone when Jr started babysitting Jrette. Tonight we’ve passed an even bigger one: Jrette simply stayed at home with the iPad and a helping of Dad’s mince patties when her parents went for a movie and meal. We’re a post-babysitter couple now.


• You win, Autocorrect. From now on Gilmorton does mean “gomorron” to me, that is, “good morning”.


• Aaah, it’s great not knowing anything about iPhones and iPads. No user support on those when family members run into trouble!


• Jrette is wise beyond her years: “Whatever words you google, you always get a picture of a half-neckid girl”.


• Yay! Wife is joining me for moonlight skating on the lake! We’re bringing ice spikes and a rope. I only wish Jr would come too.


• “… why in the name of the Lord should anyone so to speak perform charitable acts as a reader of books? No moral law tells us to. On the contrary, any moral law on the subject would say ”Read good books and ignore the bad ones as completely as possible”. Frans G. Bengtsson, letter to Sigfrid Lindström, 30 april 1928. FGB is one of my favourite authors and I recently learned that my old thesis supervisor met the man once as a child.


• My study debt is down to $6200 or SEK 49,000.


• Home now from my last trip to Umeå this semester. Will be commuting to Kalmar instead from late February on.


• I find Harlan Ellison’s celebrated 1967 story “I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream” to be pointless and forgettable.


• Took me more than 12 years before I noticed that the Swedish edition of Mad Magazine had been discontinued.


• Story germ: protagonist realises that his friend is contemplating suicide because his book queue on Goodreads is dwindling.


• I’m re-recording Jefferson Airplane’s seminal 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow under the title Atavistic Pillow. It’s all bestial grunts and howls to an accompaniment of rustling leaves, cicadas and stones being bashed rhythmically against the skulls of large herbivores.


• The German equivalent of “We’re fucked” means “We’re fucked in the knee”.


• It’s almost as if the Boko Haram were a bunch of drugged-out and crazed former child soldiers. Oh, right.


• I’ve heard lots of Jamaican and Cuban music, but I don’t know anything about Hispaniolan music. Are they too poor there to support a class of musical innovators? Or is it just a question of distribution networks?


• Bronze Age book has an ISBN and is in the hands of the designer!


• Instead of appending my CV to job applications, from now on I’ll just send a link to the Wikipedia article about me.


• Wife mumbles to herself over her psych textbook: “Tourette’s syndrome…”. I immediately yell “Willie!”. She pays me no attention.


• Kinda tired of getting followed on Twitter by authors who put the name of their new book in their profile. Guys, that means “spam account”.


• For decades, legendary Swedish archaeology professor Stig Welinder has been co-publishing papers and books with students and local historians, and insisting that all authors be credited in alphabetical order. This means that he’s always last, even though it’s pretty clear that he’s done most of the writing. His co-authors rarely show up elsewhere as independent authors. Here’s what we should do: we should all add Stig Welinder as lead author of everything we publish.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1CvEkNL