Me - lazy?

What Is Your Animal Personality?
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Red hot!

You have Red Wings! Long, Luscious, red wings that
are as crimson as blood, bust as soft as the
clouds, you are very passionate and outspoken.
Go you! People admire you because you have your
firm opinion, and do not care what others think
of you. Youre very passionate toward life, and
will do anything to help a friend in need. You
believe in loyalty, Justice, and the famous
saying: What goes around comes around. Some are
jealous of you, but they never cloud your mind.
You dont need a boyfriend to complete you, and
would rather chill with friends. A born
leader-your wings are truly red, so you stand
out.


What Color are your wings?(Mainly for Girls)Beautiful Pix!
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My Soul

You are naturally born with a gift, whether it be
poetry, writing or song. You love beauty and
creativity, and usually are highly intelligent.
Others view you as mysterious and dreamy, yet
also bold since you hold firm in your beliefs.


What Type of Soul Do You Have ?
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The TABU MONSTER

.. grins you a big welcome to this last Tabula Rasa issue for 2004!

This is my last Tabula Rasa, as I will be going back to Norway after this semester. Thanks for picking TR up and reading it! We are very pleased that this year the magazine has gone from the stands quickly! I have had lots of fun making this mag, and if you are thinking about joining don’t hesitate! :)

This issue is coloured by the facts that elections are coming up, both student elections and federal. Don’t forget to vote! Tabula Rasa elections are also coming up, so if you want to have a say in who runs the mag next year, get in touch and become a member.

We have lots of interesting and fun stuff to read, so enjoy!

And yes, we do know how to spell taboo

--------------------------- Editorial Tabula Rasa issue 6 2004

I'm a Radical! And Justice!

You are a Radical. Right on!

What kind of Sixties Person are you?
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You are the Justice card. Justice preserves the
harmony of the world. Working with opposite
forces, Justice does not seek to criticize or
condemn but rather to accept. The idea behind
the card justice is that opposite forces are
complementary; you could not have good without
evil or light without darkness. Justice's
position is to make sure that if a thing is out
of balance, the weight of its energy is
realigned with its opposite force. This card is
also a card of humour, for it is in pointing
out contrary positions that humour is often
found. The attitude that is found in the
humourous person, being able to shift
perspective and flow with an instinct, is
important in the maintenance of good balance.
Image from The Blue Moon Tarot Deck.
http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/bluemoon.htm


Which Tarot Card Are You?
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I'm Galadriel!! And Neo!! (?)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
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Katz

“Where conventional politics is suffused with ideology, the digital world is obsessed with facts.” (p.51)

“Fresh ideas, fearsome debates, and a bran new culture were rising out of the primordial muck, its politics teeming with energy.” (p.51)

KATZ, J., 1997. The Netizen: Birth of a Digital Nation. Wired.com, 5 (4), p. 49-52, p.184 – 191.

“The less connected people are the more ignorant of and alienated from politics they are likely to be.”

KATZ, J., 1997. The Netizen: The Digital Citizen. Wired.com [online]. Available from: http://hotwired.wired.com/special/citizen/ [Accessed July 2004].

Smith and Smythe

“The ascendancy of the market over the state and inside the state (…) atrophies the public, closes political spaces, and further marginalizes the already marginalized.” (p.184)

“The Internet (…) creates a rather anarchic environment where information flows in a largely unmediated way, and can be shared so as to facilitate collaborative, rather than competitive, behaviour.” (p.194)

“(…) the growth of a global civil society facilitated by the rise of international technologies has the potential to enhance citizenship globally and domestically. By opening public spaces and making critical aspects of politics more relevant new information technologies are revitalising democratic institutions.” (p.203)

SMITH, P. AND SMYTHE, E., 2001. Globalisation, Citizenship and Technology. The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) meets the Internet. In: F.WEBSTER, ed. Culture and Politics in the Information Age. London: Routledge, p.184-206.

hangover

It was T's 21th birthday party yesterday!! And M's 24th. Many people, many norwegians, many mexicans, many samoans and germans. And more. And even some aussies!! E dropped by as well. It was a nice evening. So today I feel a bit groggy, is very thirsty and tired - ie. hangover. I have to go buy groceries though, as I need something to drink! Oh, I just remembered - I smoked 20 yesterday... baaad baad girl!! My throath is not feeling to well... sigh!! :(



Tomorrow is sunday. It will all be better tomorrow.

Eurobitch

A fuckin fuck said this on his blog about me:

... My digital camera so I can take pictures of Helen doing this political protest. Then I'll make sure they 'accidentally' fall into the hands of immigration department officials. You see, people on student visas aren't allowed to participate in political protests, it's one of their visa requirements. (I warned that Eurobitch not to fuck with me)

I'm happy to be THE EUROBITCH!! Yeah!!

No comment otherwise.

apart

he waits for her to understand
but she won't understand at all
she waits all night for him to call
but he won't call anymore
he waits to hear her say
forgive
but she just drops her pearl-black eyes
and prays to hear him say
i love you
but he tells no more lies

he waits for her to sympathize
but she won't sympathize at all
she waits all night to feel his kiss
but always wakes alone
he waits to hear her say
forget
but she just hangs her head in pain
and prays to hear him say
no more
i'll never leave again

how did we get this far apart?
we used to be so close together
how did we get this far apart?
i thought this love would last forever

he waits for her to understand
but she won't understand at all
she waits all night for him to call
but we won't call
he waits to hear her say
forgive
but she just drops her pearl-black eyes
and prays to hear him say
i love you
but he tells no more lies

how did we get this far apart?
we used to be so close together
how did we get this far apart?
i thought this love would last forever

the cure lyrics

'Case watched a drone ..

.. microlight bank gracefully in an updraft at the greenverge of an artificial mesa, lit for seconds by the soft glow ofthe invisible casino. The thing was a kind of pilotless biplaneof gossamer polymer, its wings silkscreened to resemble a giantbutterfly. Then it was gone, beyond the mesa's edge. He'd seen a wink of reflected neon off glass, either lenses or the turrets of lasers. The drones were part of the spindle's securitysystem, controlled by some central computer.'

I'm finally reading 'Neuromancer' by William Gibson. It is very interesting, but it's also a hard read - because he uses a lot of words you could not possible know what means, and sometimes he doesn't explain them.. like mesa.. what the hell is mesa? It just hangs there, and you have to imagine what it could be from the context it is put in. It is sometimes fun, sometimes really annoying. But I am enjoying the book.

I have already written an essay about the book (check this blog on Sunday, March 28, 2004) , well, it's about sci fi literature and cyberpunk in relation to what is actual happening in 'cyberspace' today. Yes, I know, before I even read it.. I didnt have time ok, it was an assignment!

Many of the 'unknown' words in Neuromancer are actually real words today, like the matrix and cyberspace. Gibson was the first to describe what cyberspace is:

`Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimateoperators, in every nation, by children being taught mathe-matical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstractedfrom the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace ofthe mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...'

The Sun

I just asked my roommate E what I should write about in my blog today. I am sitting by the kitchentable eating my oakporridge wanting to write something profound. The sun is shining through the windows - it's a beautiful day! 'The sun' E said. Of course. The sun. The summer is warming the land 'down under' now - with promise of beautiful lazy days by the beach in St.Kilda, icecream and Melbourne Cup Day! I found this nice poem online about the sun. It is written by Mary Oliver.

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone--
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance--
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love--
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed--
or have you too
turned from this world--

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

But my sun is not the australian one, that burns your skin. No, my sun is the midnight sun - the one that never goes away. For me, it's not natural when its warm outside and dark at the same time. Dark=Cold, Light=Warm. And summernights are not for sleeping.

I guess this means I am starting to become a little bit homesick...

Gold Stones

First when my doctor told me I had gall stones, I was sure she said 'gold stones'. I thought that was a way too nice a name for something so terribly painful (I had 'acute cholecystitis'). I have just returned home from the hospital after removing my gallblather with an easy 'key-hole surgery'. Almost no pain and up and about. Weird. But nice. And I still can't believe all the love and support from the friends and housemates around me!! It really meant heaps since all my family is in Norway and I am in Oz all by myself ('Travelling Alone') .. Note that I have never been to Kansas, though.

What ever should I do there? Especially today!

I keep calling the former twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York for the Two Towers. I know it was grusome, but it has a certain true ring to it. (Of course I am referring to the Two Towers the movie, not the book, as that is actually not exactly the same, but I will not go into that now.) I'm just saying that the two towers in the film was the towers of evil. So, yes, I am saying that USA is evil too, and that the attack did not 'come out of the blue', as the Media certainly made it look like 3 years ago. Nothing has changed by the way. Even though I do have red shoes. But as I said, I don't want to go to Kansas.

"... know what I mean?

.. cause... where is the T's? There's one right there. These are the values, and when you get one value, you end up with T, so basically you multiply everything by T... because here is some pretty fucking complex shit... and we were all just like.. this is just fine.. this is the final temperature, initial temperature minus 398... have to find the constant first.. we only really have to get worried when they ask for a second temperature lalala.. oh, I worry all the time..."

No, I don't understand shit.. This is my roomate and her boyfriend and another bio chemist engineer scientist person that is discussing the next days lab or something... Let's just say that I am grateful that I have chosen something that is more vague.. in my studies 'nothing' is true or false, per say. It's more dynamic and you can always argue against almost everything.. Which suits me fine...

A cure for procrastination

I have managed, after many minutes of hard work, to produce the CURE for procrastination. It was a long and hard process, of course - and the success only pure luck and chance due to my dubious intellect and imagination (which is of course otherwise is busy finding new ways to procrastinate, like writing a blogpost ...)

The cure has been painstakingly written down in a small green notebook on a day by day basis. Each day stating what I need to do, so that I know exactly how much I need to do. So what I need to do is do that it says that I need to do, in order to do what needs to be done. Easy.

Some dude named John Perry has written a little paper called Structured Procrastination. Here he states: Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.

I can totally connect to what he is saying, and therefore perhaps I need to put down something even MORE important to do so that I can avoid doing, so that I can get my thesis done.. Don't really know what that could be... hmmm.. If one of you (my 3 readers (?)) have any ideas, I'd be happy to hear about it! Perhaps world peace? I dreamt of George Bush the other night. It was a nightmare... because I forgot to punch his face!! Talk about being a disapointment to myself..

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