Busy, busy, busy!

They've published the results of the second round of the Physics Olympiad. Guess who qualified for the Norwegian finals! *grins* March & April will be quite busy for me. I'll be in Oslo for the chemistry finals for a week, then I'm off to the Netherlands to take my Dutch exams, and then it's back to Oslo again for the physics finals.

Of course the muse chose a time like this to come back with a ton of ideas...

I've decided to put NaNo07 away for the time being and start editing NaNo06 instead. I've rewritten a few scenes here and there and already I'm getting new walk-ins and plotlines. Geravan suddenly decided that he has an uncle who really needs a role, Thiadulf has deserted from the Roman army (ahem, wtf??), Marcus has become suicidal (I thought I knocked that out of him last year...) and Embric has finally told me his backstory. Well, technically Thiadulf told me which makes it even more complicated, because how the hell would Thiadulf know?

I've also started another writing project - a trilogy about Knut Hamsun and penguins. A friend of mine was so inspired by my penguin snippet that she decided to write about it herself, and now we've decided to do it together. We've got most of the plot worked out already (including why the penguins want to murder Hamsun) and my friend has a few scenes written down already. It'll be awesome :)

Bits of old stone, from Rhodes.

Not impressed

I got a letter from the Uni admission office. An entire page of educational laws paragraph this-and-that - basically it said I needed to get my diploma plus pass Dutch and English exams. It also said I'd find information about further entrance exams and subjects and whatnot in the envelope. The envelope, however, was empty.

And their knowledge of geography is a bit, well, how should I put this? My place of birth, according to them is "Utrecht, the Netherlands, Norway".

Then I got an email from the admission people, telling me they were very sorry, but they couldn't verify my personal details, and could I please send them a copy of my passport.
I have. Twice, as a matter of fact.

Seriously.

Oh glorious insomnia!

Total amount of sleep last night: 0 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds!

After tossing and turning for an hour or two, I figured, what the hell, it's not like I'm going to get to sleep anyway so I might as well do something useful. So I read up on my Dutch grammar and realised I should be doing just fine next month (Uni entrance exams, lol) since my dialect is as close to standard written Dutch as it is possible to get. And then I read The Eagle's Prey by Simon Scarrow. I like the Eagle series, but why do the Batavians always end up getting slaughtered? 'S not fair *sulks*

I managed to crawl out of bed sometime after dawn (no school this week, muahaha) and felt a bit of a wreck. Looked like it too. I mean, I always have dark circles under my eyes (which is totally the Romans' fault, where's the PFJ?) but today I looked like I'd been punched in the face.
Nothing an inch of concealer can't fix - helped of course by liberal amounts of tea and a handful chocolate covered coffee beans. Then I was all hyper for hours but now the after-effects of this morning's caffeine haze are starting to wear off. My eyes are burning and the head feels like cotton fuzz. But I don't feel like sleeping. I hope it's not going to be one of those several-all-nighters-in-a-row weeks because I have an eight hour shift at the deli tomorrow.

But right now there's only one thing to do! Rewriting that scene where Marcus comes stumbling into Mainz half dead. 3/4 dead is probably more like it.

The pigeon invaded my post without permission.

Because I'm too scared to read about the theory of relativity

Memes are more fun anyway:) I stole this one from Kirsten's blog.

What’s the last thing you wrote?
Today I've written a few paragraphs for "Suddenly, ninjas arrived", which is my NaNo07 novel about the Romans in Wales (I still need to find a good title for it).
Technically, though, the last thing I wrote was something physics related about electromagnetism.

Was it any good?
The physics was good. It had an integral symbol, and they make everything look smart. Very good indeed.
I'm not so sure about the fiction I wrote, though. I always write a very rough and extremely messy draft first just to get the ideas down on the paper, and then I edit later (and I procrastinate a lot when it comes to editing). So those paragraphs contain some ghastly prose and maybe some grammatical errors as well, but I think I'm getting somewhere plot-wise now. Ingomar won't be too happy though, because I've decided he's going to be the human sacrifice instead of Butimas.

What’s the first thing you wrote that you still have?
Probably this little beauty:
It's (supposed to be) Dutch and basically means "The hot sun beams reach the earth if the sun doesn't leave quickly we'll be burned finally the sun has left" (who cares about punctuation anyway?). I think I was five when I wrote this... Can you believe I still haven't found a publisher?
And then I have some stories I wrote when I was seven or so about a butterfly and a spider, and one about a rabbit (which I never finished, and that bothers me, because I stopped with a cliffhanger), plus some books I wrote (and drew) with my little brother when I was about eight.

Write poetry?
Not much. I wrote quite a lot when I was younger.

Angsty poetry?
Never. It only makes me laugh

Favourite genre of writing?
NaNo-genre! (aka historical fiction with the odd ninja thrown in) Fantasy is rather fun to write as well because you don't have to follow the laws of physics.

Most fun character you ever created?
I'm not sure. Geravan maybe. He usually listens to me but still has a personality of his own. Same with Marcus, though he tends to be whiny. Oh, and Merula (when he doesn't talk to trees, that is).

Most annoying character you ever created?
Hmm... Verax. He is actually historical, but his personality was created by me. He's an opportunistic, ruthless bastard who keeps messing up the plot. Embric is a close second (do you mind *not* getting Geravan accused of treason??).

Best plot you ever created?
When I started, "Suddenly, ninjas arrived" had a decent plot, but now it has become so messed up that no two paragraphs fit together. So I think I'll go for NaNo06, which is about the Batavian revolt (and pretty much titleless). It follows Tacitus' account closely but I've built the plot around it in a way I'm quite pleased with. And now that I've left the thing alone for a few months all sorts of new ideas are starting to form. Muahahaha! (Sorry, Liaueld, but my mind is made up)

How often do you get writer’s block?
When I have time to write, I usually manage to write. PMS sometimes scares the muse, but usually he just flies into a murderous rage and I end up killing half the walk-ins just for the heck of it. By looking at NaNo06 I can actually tell which bits were written when I had PMS - every 40 k or so there's a flurry of completely unnecessary and very violent deaths. It's scary.

Write fan fiction?
No.

Do you type or write by hand?
Both. When I have ideas I prefer to type because it's faster, but when I'm not sure what to write I prefer writing by hand. Pages fill up faster that way and I worry less about editing. Plus I can write during class (add a few Romans and double religion is suddenly tolerable)

Do you save everything you write?
Yep.

Do you ever go back to an old idea long after you abandoned it?
Sometimes. The notebook with the outlines for the fantasy story I started years ago is pulled out of the drawer every month or so.

What’s your favourite thing that you’ve written?
It has to be NaNo06. Yaay for the Batavian revolt!

Do you ever show people your work?
Hardly. If I'm really really happy I might post a snippet here. It's mostly because everything is just a messy first draft (like a stick figure drawing compared to the Mona Lisa I hope it'll be eventually)

Did you ever write a novel?
Yes (and it feels so good saying that!). I finished the first draft for a novel about the Batavian revolt last autumn. I cried like a baby when I finished it. It requires heavy editing, but I've written it!

Ever written romance or teen angst drama?
No. Not really my style.

What’s your favourite setting for your characters?
At the moment it seems to be the northern fringes of the Roman Empire, 1st century ad. But they thrive in my fantasy world as well.

How many writing projects are you working on right now?
Actually writing: 1
Editing in my head: 3
Plotbunnies I've pushed under the bed: Half a dozen or so

Do you want to write for a living?
Mmm... no. Yes. Maybe. I dunno. I want a 'normal' job and then write in the evenings. Because otherwise I'd probably have a deadline (one that is less friendly than the NaNo deadline)

Have you ever won an award for your writing?
If top grades for essays count, haha. I've never entered any writing contests, so no.

Ever written something in script or play format?
Just for school. I wrote a few sketches for the Russ revue last autumn - made fun of the local "news"paper and the firstgraders.

What are your 5 favourite words?
Vraisemblablement (French). Try saying it ten times fast. Oh, and caribou. Nice, woody sort of word (okay, no more Monty Python for me). Hmm... I don't really have favourite words.

Do you ever write based on yourself?
I hope not.

What character have you created that most resembles yourself?
Oh, that's difficult. I don't really resemble any of my characters (I think...). There are just a few personality traits and quirks. Marcus shares my horrible sense of direction and Geravan is the lucky winner of my short temper.

Do you favour happy endings, sad endings, or cliff-hangers?
It depends on the story. Happy-open like in The Lord of the Rings is probably my favourite, but some stories just need different endings. Like The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff.

Have you written based on an artwork you have seen?
Maybe unconsciously. I see so much art that it's impossible to remember everything.

Are you concerned with spelling and grammar as you write?
Yes. It's messy enough as it is without grammatical errors. I usually don't make mistakes (I hope, haha), except when it comes to compound words. In Norwegian these should be written as one word, whereas in English you seem to be allowed to add spaces wherever you like (I write my fiction in English). So when I write 'snowballfight' or "stickfiguredrawing" and that red line comes up I always want to kill that stupid spellchecker. Spell checker. Whatever.
Oh, and when I'm tired I mess up homonyms. So far my favourite is "The lake was covered with a thin layer of eyes"

Does music help you write?
Of course. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the LotR soundtracks, Gåte... And I howl along to the music as well, much to my brother's displeasure (I can't sing to save my life).

Quote something you’ve written.
From the titleless novel about the Batavian revolt:

Ercuin shook his head. ‘The revenge of one man can't be allowed to ruin the future of an entire people.’
‘The revenge of one man?’ repeated Geravan. He gave a hollow laugh. ‘Oh, yes of course. And you think that Civilis’ motive was not revenge? Do you think that he would have attacked the Romans if his brother hadn't been executed, or if Labeo hadn't just been promoted?’
‘That was then,’ said Ercuin. ‘This is now. Listen, Geravan. I knew your brother well; we served in the ala together for many years-’
‘But you will not let me avenge him?’ said Geravan bitterly. ‘You can't have been on friendly terms, then.’

This is probably the best meme I've done in a while because it helped me find a name for Ercuin. Up till now he's gone by 'Batavian4'. Stupid walk-ins.

At art school today...

... I got to be the canvas!
*grumbles*

Owowow!

I've strained a muscle, in my shoulder neck area somewhere. I can hardly keep my head up. It hurts when I lie down, when I sit and when I write.

Just what I need right now.

I have to write an essay about Quisling, finish a chemistry report, do 20 physics exercises about electromagnetic induction, read 40 pages about astrophysics, write an essay for religion and study for a Norwegian test. All within the next two days >.<

Badminton training tomorrow will be fun, for sure.

It's official!

I'm a bloody genius. Further proof of that arrived today...

*insane screams of joy which can't be transfered to a blog post*

I qualified for the Norwegian finals of the Chemistry Olympiad!

I can't wait 'til my brother comes home on Thursday so I can rub it in (he never got past the second round).

Anyway. This means I'll be going to Oslo for a week to take a crash course of advanced chemistry, with the sixteen other finalists. Four of us will be chosen to represent Norway in the international contest.
It's so good to know that all the studying I did during the Christmas holidays wasn't a complete waste of time :)

The nerd qualified too, btw, but that's not all bad. Now at least I'll have plenty of motivation to work. Muahaha.

I'd hand out chocolate to celebrate if I could figure out a way to upload it. Meanwhile, have a pic of Orakei Korako, a geothermal area in New Zealand. Very pretty, but with a not-so-delicious smell of rotten eggs.
And bugger, I still need to finish my poetry analysis. No, hang on, I still need to get started...

Some art

Drawn after a pic by Johnny Shumate - "The appearance of 'Agricolan' Batavian soldier" - from the June/July 2007 issue of Ancient Warfare.

Apologies for the absolutely horrible quality. I had to take a picture of it with my camera and then add some more contrast on the computer.

Pretend he's not wearing crocodile slippers.

I'm still not completely happy with it, though. The legs look completely off, the helmet's weird and don't even get me started on the shield, ugh! But otherwise I'm quite pleased with it.
Now I'm trying to find the courage to start painting. All that chain mail. It'll be a nightmare o_0

And once more, in negative, because it looks cool.

I don't believe this...

The Uni can't verify my personal details (even though I sent them a copy of my passport) *bangs head against desk* Damn, damn, damn. I was all happy because I got through the application process alive.

But anyway. I think the 2nd round of the Chemistry Olympiad went okay. I don't know the results yet (it will probably take a week or two) but I'm fairly confident that I beat the nerd. And that, after all, is what this is all about.
I flunked the second round of Abelkonkurransen (mathematics) though, but who cares.

And I hate my phys ed teacher. We doesn't like gymnastics, does we, preciousss? And neither is we very good at it. Ssss... I'm all sore (which was especially nice since I had to work this weekend) and I managed to sprain my wrist too. I can hardly write, which is not a good thing since the second round of the Physics Olympiad is soon (does it ever end?!).

I really should stop procrastinating. I need to analyze a Norwegian poem from the first half of the 20th century. Luckily we get to choose the poem ourselves and I actually found one that I understand. Yaay.

Ahum. Pic.
Acher de Dom. Behind the Dom Church, Utrecht. This street runs exactly on top of the wall of the old Roman castellum, which was called Traiectum. Yaay.

Chemistry, chemistry, chemistry...

The 2nd round of the Chemistry Olympiad is tomorrow. I'm not nervous. Honestly, I'm not. I'm terrified. Lol.

I thought I'd paint something totally random at art school today, to take my mind off chemistry for a moment, but well, see for yourself.
If you look closely you'll see chemistry. Three things. Four, if you're creative.

I'm off to do some last-minute reading about aldehydes.

I love my pillow

And I hate mornings. I've hardly slept for the past three nights. I keep waking up in the middle of the night, 3am or so, and then I get out of bed because I think it's time to get up. Where's the sense in that? Well, there is none, but common sense usually does not return to me until I've been up for an hour or two and had at least three cups of tea. Sometimes common sense just wanders off in the middle of the night and doesn't come back at all, but you've probably realised that already. Uhh... anyway. So I get up and go to the kitchen to make tea, wonder why nobody else is awake (except the cat who's hiding behind a door to jump at me, argh) and then I see that it's 3am and I can sleep another four hours. So it's off to bed again (after once again having been attacked by my cat). And then this process repeats itself a couple of times. Three nights in a row, now.
Come 7am, I'm a complete wreck (with a nice set of scratches, courtesy of that black and white furry feline which is then purring contentedly on my bed with that "I don't have to get up, mwahaha"-look). To this, add the fact that it's dark (sunrise at 10am, yaay, and sunset five hours later) and there's ice on the bicycle tracks. Eeks.
The worst of it all is that though I'm so tired I fall asleep standing at school, I'm wide awake in the evenings. So no chance of an early night either.

Eeeeevil cat with sharp claws. Do not be deceived by her cuteness. Lol.

On the bright side, I finally finished my Uni application. I had to apply on their website (site crashed about three times) as well as fill out this application form by hand. And that took ages. It had questions like "How do you plan to finance your study? Please give us specific information" and then about a square inch to write an answer. I got my report cards from the past two years translated and signed up for exams in English and Dutch (costs a small fortune). I have to take those to show that my knowledge of these languages is sufficient *rolls eyes* Luckily the Dutch exam is during Easter, and the English one the day before Whitsunday, so unfortunately, I can't come to work those days (busiest days of the year, mwahaha). My boss is going to be so extremely pissed off. Rotflol.

I've started writing an essay about runes but it'll be a while before it's up here. The second round of the Chemistry Olympiad is next week and I still need to learn, well, a lot. I hate organic chemistry.

A meme

Gabriele tagged me. I'm supposed to list seven things about a historical character, so say hello to (don't tell me you're surprised!) Julius Civilis, leader of the Batavian revolt in 69-70 AD, and shown here wearing a silly hat.
Painting by Rembrandt, 1662. It's now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

There has been a nice deal of confusion about Civilis' nomen - whether it was Julius or Claudius. As far as I can tell, historians nowadays agree that he was in fact called Julius, though you can still come across Claudius Civilis here and there.
I have two copies of Tacitus' works. In one (English, first published in 1964) he's called Julius Civilis and has a brother called Claudius Paulus. In the other (Latin, published in 1911) they're called Iulius Paulus and Iulius Civilis. I'm thinking of just calling 'em Bob Civilis and Bob Paulus in my novel. Much easier.
Ahem. There is a nice theory that Julius Civilis revolted partly because he felt that Batavians who had only recently gotten the citizenship (along with the nomen Claudius) were becoming a bit too powerful. Julius vs. Claudius, nice little family feud.

1. Three nephews of Civilis are mentioned by Tacitus; Verax, Julius Briganticus and Claudius Victor. Funnily enough, Briganticus (the only Julius of the lot) was the only one who stayed loyal to Rome during the revolt. He didn't get along very well with his uncle.

2. As well as nephews, Civilis had at least one son. After defeating two legions at Vetera (Xanten), Civilis supposedly gave Junior a couple of Roman prisoners to serve as targets for spears and arrows.

3. Civilis had a nasty habit of getting himself accused of treason. He first got accused, along with his brother, during Nero's reign. According to Tacitus the charges were false, but Paulus was nevertheless executed. Civilis had more luck. He was sent to Rome, where the new emperor (Galba) pardoned him. So Civilis went back home, started plotting, got himself accused of treason again and was pardoned again. And then he revolted.

4. Like Hannibal, Civilis only had one eye. How and where he lost the other is not known, but he did spend 25 years in the Roman army. Plenty of time to lose an eye.

5. Just like every other barbarian who managed to put up some resistance against Rome, Civilis was unusually intelligent for a native. He also used evil cunning, bribery and well-composed speeches. All according to Tacitus, of course.

6. Unusually intelligent or not, Civilis at least had enough sense to bring in siege engines when attacking Vetera. Not that it helped. In the end they had to starve the legions out.

7. What happened to Civilis is not known, since the last part of Tacitus' Histories is missing. When it became clear that the Batavians would be defeated, Civilis decided to negotiate with the Roman general Cerialis. Civilis was offered a pardon, but it is of course possible that nobody cared and they killed him anyway.

And I tag Linwe. Muahaha.

Happy 2008!

Best wishes for 2008! May it be a year filled with chocolate, tea and ninjas - erm, I mean, cooperating characters.

That's me trying to write '2008' with a sparkler. I'd post pics of the fireworks, only I don't have any. Except a few very blurry ones. Okay, here is the best one:

Last year's pictures were better. It's not my fault, honestly. It's those crazy Norwegians - their timing is awful. They watch 'Dinner for one' on the 23rd and set off the fireworks at 11 PM.

Here's an old pic of fireworks:

Same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?

The crazy Norwegians watch it on the 23rd instead of the 31st. Pfff...

However, I know there are actually people who have no idea what 'Dinner for One' is (barbarians!), so enjoy...

Work today was as hectic as ever (except slightly more fun because I get paid more on Sundays, yaay). I worked at the fish instead of the meat and I spent the entire day cutting and packing lutefisk. Lutefisk is a traditional Norwegian Christmas dish. It's basically fish (usually cod) that's been kept in lye and it smells like a mixture of soap and slightly rotten fish. I've never eaten it and I have no intention of either (and it's not only because I'm a vegetarian). I don't think I've ever met anyone who likes it. So why does everyone have it for Christmas? Damn good question. Because it's a tradition I guess, though there are other theories as well: 1) It makes you appreciate the rest of the meal and 2) You need to drink a lot to get the taste out of your mouth.
But I wish people weren't so keen on those traditions. When I came home today I was covered in lye. I've showered twice and washed my hair three or four times. In the end I decided that masking the smell was probably easier than getting rid of it. So now I smell like Christmas cookies. Yaay!

And I got the Christmas tree up (but not before I had a tinsel fight with my brother, muahaha)
The bottom is under-decorated because my cat attacks any baubles within her reach. A couple of years ago she managed to knock down the entire tree.

Merry Christmas!

Hello birds! Hello trees! I'm alive! I'm alive!

Somebody hasn't posted for a while!

I have excuses, honestly. The Russ Revue took the entire weekend. But that's two weeks ago. Anyway, it went well - I didn't forget my lines. I can't believe the mess we made though. It took hours to clean up the next day, even though there were about forty of us. According to the drama teacher our revue was the best one for at least 20 years.

The planning could've been better though. I hardly had time to study for my math exam (which was of course just a few days later), but I discovered that it is possible to learn 200 pages in five hours, even without chocolate covered coffee beans.
The fact that I had to present my rune project the same week didn't help either. I'd been "working" on it for two months, with a friend, but you know, we're both procrastinators... It was all a bit last minute. But the project itself was fun to do. I like runes (I use runes when I NaNo in class...). I thought I'd write a post about my project because my blog is slipping more and more from random posts about history & literature to rants about physics.
Did I have time? Nooo... There was a history test, and of course they asked all the cliché questions. Why did WWI start? I really felt like writing 'Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry' but I doubt my history teacher has a sense of humour.
Then I discovered to my horror that I was a little behind with my Norwegian homework. Procrastinators unite! ... Tomorrow. But I did it. Five essays in two days. And in Nynorsk too. Ivar Aasen will be the next to be stampeded by penguins.

Today was the last day of school. Miraculously, the headmaster's speech lasted for less than ten minutes. That's a record. Unfortunately, during the time he had left he decided to call up the students who had qualified for the next round of Abelkonkurransen, that national math test. In front of the entire school. And I had to go up there and be handed three diplomas - math, chemistry and physics. Why couldn't they have just sent in in the mail?!
To make matters worse, none of the diplomas has my name spelled correctly. Seriously, how difficult can it be?

Anyway. Christmas holidays. For once they're actually long - two whole weeks! I'll see if I can write something about runes, but don't get your hopes up. I seriously need to start studying for the second round of those science tests, and I have to work a good many days.
I worked this evening, and it was insane. Christmas madness is upon us, preciousss! Hundreds of people running through the supermarket, all of them dropping by the meat & deli. Buying all that traditional Christmas food and whatnot. I've never seen it so busy. I think I did a cubic metre of dishes today, and that was only a part.

I don't want to go back tomorrow. It's just too busy (and of course the boss doesn't think it's necessary to have more people at work. Idiot). It's getting on my nerves. Why is everybody so stressed anyway? Whatever happened to peace and calm and all that Christmas stuff?

So far, my cat is the only one who is in a Christmassy mood.

No actually, I'm alright. Swedish tv is showing a Led Zeppelin concert. Yaay!