The Defenition of Success,- by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mr Emerson defines success in an “abstract” way, meaning that he sees the social goals as what matters in life and not the material part. His very definition of success is to leave the world a better place, by that meaning he wants to do something good for others and “give one self” to the world.

Here is his consideration of what matters:

Personally, I think that this list accounts for more people than him, but many people are not aware of what these points truly stand for.

A vast number of people often forget to appreciate the small things in life, whereas a good laugh and the appreciation of friends and family matters. The moments of joy and happiness are often taken for granted and thus not enjoyed to its full potential. You should also try to find a meaningful cause to which you dedicate your life, like helping others in need.

If you look closer, all of these points are rather obvious, everyone and each represents the values that gives happiness and a meaningful life, thus leading to success in life and a feeling of accomplishment.

So remember, live your life to its fullest, but also remember to be yourself doing so. Don´t forget, life is a box of chocolates. Enjoy it!

The American Dream

The American Dream is often explained as being able to rise up to become something great, even though you may have started out with very poor conditions. Today, after reading an article in the New York Times, I have gotten the impression that most of the current population of America, still believes in the American Dream, and have faith they will achieve it within their lifetime.
The definition of the American Dream may have changed somewhat over the many years since it first became a term of speech. Now, today, one could say that the definition of the American dream is to have the freedom to be able to do what one self wants, and pursue their own dreams.

Oscar Wilde Quote Reflection

Tasks: «Language workshop» p. 332-33

“Then”: Back then.

“Than”: Rather than…  Better than you did.

“Which”: …, which you did.

“Witch”: She is a goddamn witch!

“Through”: Are you really going through with it?

“Threw”: Throw – Threw

“There”: Over there.

“Their”: It´s theirs.

“They´re”: They are.

“To”: Go to…

“Too”: I want some too!

“Two”: Two, three, four…

“Lose”: Nobody really wants to lose.

“Loose”: Now that he is on the loose, bad things are going to happen.

Patrick Wayne is the new rising star in the world of English authors. He recently made his debut with “Life´s Important Addresses“, which is a collection of short stories regarding the everyday life of the ordinary human, and a few thoughts as to how one should enjoy it. Mr. Wayne was born on the 5^th of September in 1998, in the town of Blackberry´s Hill. So far in his life, he has visited a great many places, making for some good experience and inspiration for future books. There are rumours that his trips has been financed by political parties, but neither the Conservatives nor the Democrats have confirmed this. One thing is for sure, though. Great work can be expected of Patrick Wayne.

Ahistorical: Something that is completely unrelated to history.

Autobiography: A biography written by yourself.

Bilingual: You speak two languages (fluidly).

Impassable: Something you are unable to pass, it is impossible. Example: Terrain (impassable).

Dysfunctional: Not working.

Communicable: “Is it communicable?” Something you can use for communication. 

Just as an Afterthought

Today i´d like to talk a little bit about a statement made quite some time ago:"To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity." 

This quote is from a man named Oscar Wilde, an Irish dramatist. What he meant by saying this was, that if you don´t quite fit in, have beliefs that go against the public´s general opinion, or state something looked upon as inappropriate or very unlikely, a vast majority of people will most likely judge you, and call you mad, disgusting or quite insane. That´s how I see it.

Actually, this quote can be applied to the modern society of today. If you switch out "the British public" in the quote, with only "the public", it would be a statement that fits perfectly well into the context of the world we live in today. 

Maybe that´s a little something to think about... 

Road trip UK 2014

In the spring of 2014 Mathias, Thomas and I decided to go on a road trip in the UK.  This was supposed to be a safe and “educational” journey through the land of the United Kingdom, but to be honest, in the end the things we learned on this trip had little to do with education.

Before we arrived in the UK, we had devised a plan for where we wanted to journey. Our starting point, we decided, would be in Wales, or more specifically in the city of Cardiff. From there we would travel to Birmingham, then Manchester and York, followed by a short stop in North York Moors National Park and Northumberland National Park, before heading to the Scottish city Edinburgh. Our last stop was supposed to be in Aberdeen. We had calculated that this trip would take approximately five days by car.

On our arrival in Cardiff, we immediately felt the need to get our hands on the vehicle we would use on the road trip. We had done a little research beforehand, and concluded that we needed something cheap, yet awesome, and that this special car was located in a shop nearby. Therefore, the first thing we decided to do was to pick up our ride. Its style and unique character struck our hearts from the very beginning. In addition, we figured it would attract SOME nice attraction, and we figured that could be fun! The magnificent piece of art was covered in something that seemed like old rabbit skins, with floppy ears on the roof. In fact, the car was so hairy, even the license plates were covered by grey hair. This, we would later come to regret, as we found out that in the UK, the license plates are required to be seen.

We drove out of Cardiff that night, toward our next stop, Birmingham. When we arrived in Birmingham a couple of hours later, the sun was starting to rise in the horizon. The scenery around Birmingham was magnificent, but the weather was something else. The whole time since we left Cardiff the rain had been pouring down upon us. This proved to be fatal for our car’s looks. People kept looking weirdly at us, mainly because our car looked like a drowned sewer rat. Our goal for the Birmingham stop was to watch a baseball game at Regions Field. The teams playing were the home team Birmingham Maple Leafs and the Norwegian SWAT (Telemarksbataljonen). Proving to be true Vikings, the SWAT team crushed all foreign resistance. After the match, we sort of crashed in a pub with some other Norwegian supporters.

The next day, we woke up to find that in the course of the night, some funny little guy had shaved our car. Nevertheless, we continued our epic adventure to our next big stop, which turned out to be Manchester City. Here we wanted to experience the most important thing to an English man´s heart: a football match. It proved to be everything we had expected it to be, and more. The stadium was completely filled with football fans and the roars could be heard several streets away.

The 4^th day of our trip was mainly used to drive. And drive. York turned out to be a place for crazy country folk, and not much interesting to us. Therefore, the most important thing we did here was to eat and visit the bathroom.

However, the stop after York proved very much to be an interesting place. The North York Moors National Park had the most amazing scenery. It seems that this beautiful place is also somewhat famous, as it has been used in well-known productions, such as Harry Potter and Heartbeat. Apparently, there were bears there, so we just decided to drive on, instead of camping.

After a long night on the road, the sleep came crouching, so when we finally arrived in Northumberland National Park we set camp and fell asleep. After all, we had just seen another National Park, and therefore thought; “How different can they be...?” Our snoring could be heard several miles away that day.

The 6^th day was the day of our arrival in Edinburgh. We had been looking forward to this moment. As it happened, this was, by pure accident St. Patrick’s Day and the streets were filled with people in green costumes and happy smiles. The air was filled with the smell of corned beef and cabbage floating from the restaurants. The weather was perfect and we suddenly felt renewed for the rest of our journey. Even though we were quite tired of the long drive, we started exploring the city. As it turned out, they also had good beef and a bottle of Scotch, so the lads and I had a very nice time relaxing some. Later this day we visited the Edinburgh castle and had a nice tour of the castle grounds. The night was spent in the company of many other people in a VERY nice nightclub, Boom Boom Club, with lots of fiiiinelookin ladies!

In the course of the night our car had mysteriously vanished (one word: poker), so instead of using lots of time looking for it, we took a train to Aberdeen on the 7^th day. From here on, we used some of our cash, the prize money from last night’s gambling, to buy ourselves a goddamn fast piece of engineering, currently going by the name Lommey. It´s a yellow Lamborghini Aventador.

 After buying the car, we did of course have to test-drive it. Since Loch Ness was close by, we decided that would be our goal. A quick trip was our intended purpose. We should not have let Thomas drive, however. That was our first mistake. The second one was not to remember the shots we´d given him at the last pub we visited. I guess that was sort of our fault. As we drew closer to the Loch, it became apparent that he was still affected by the liquid, and the results were rather devastating. Short story: the car ended at the bottom of Loch Ness and we were left disoriented on a cliff above the lake. That´s how we ended up walking to the airport at Inverness, to take a flight home. That marked the end of our road trip. 

Letters to Nazneen

Dear Nazneen!                                          15.07.13

I´m sorry for not writing you earlier, but things have been a little hectic lately, as you probably understand, and the opportunity had yet to arise until this evening. Malek and I had a few difficulties at first, getting out of the village unnoticed proved somewhat more difficult than we first had imagined, and staying on the road without attracting unwanted attention from bandits and such. We have tried travelling mostly by night in these first weeks, and have had to live mostly off the things that crossed our path, that occasionally being the belongings of other travelers.

After about a week and a half we started feeling a little more secure, considering that we had put a good amount of land between us and the village, and any family members with a potential grudge. We decided that it was probably safer now to let ourselves into a city. You see; we were starting to become a little desperate for some real food, and suddenly the thought of entering a city was not as intimidating as before. However, with little money to buy for, there seemed no other option but to try our luck pickpocketing. Evidently, the streets of the Golden City are crowded with foreigners, their pockets bulging with wallets and dollars, ripe for the taking. I shall admit to a certain pleasure, as well as a hint of pride, in lifting them of their heavy burdens.

Now, finally, it seems we have found our safe haven in a small estate out in the country. The sweet, elderly woman owning the land here is of old British family and has been very kind to the two of us (a number I suspect is soon about to increase…!) and taken us in as extra help in the maintenance of the estate. Perhaps also as company for her lonely soul.
Anyway, how are you doing Nazneen? I miss you so much, and I really hope you are okay! If you want to see me again sometime soon, you should go find that place we always talked about visiting, in the Golden City. You will find a clue there as to where you should go from then on.

Lots of love

Hasina    

When? Why? How?

The Anglo-Saxons first settled in Britain around the fifth and sixth century. The settlement of the Anglo-Saxons made the basis for the language we refer to today as Old English. They spoke a variety of Germanic dialects, closely related to each other, although with some significant differences. This lead to the many varieties of English in texts from the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries. The most common words from that time, that we still have today, are words related to farming and such, like sheep, shepherd, field etc.

In the ninth century, the Scandinavians started making their appearance in Britain. They were many, and dragged with them Norse words such as gate, here referring to a street, take and they. It was easy for the English to pick up these words, as Old English and Norse were both Germanic languages, and therefore similar to a certain degree. Today, we have examples of the Scandinavians taking back some of the words the English once gained from them, like bag.

In 1066, after William the Conqueror´s victory at the battle of Hastings. After this, the English of that time underwent some serious changes, concerning the inflectional system of Old English, which completely broke down, and a new period in the history of English began, Middle English. In this time, the English also got a great number of loanwords from French and Latin, increasing the size of their language, due to the invasion in 1066.

In the 16^th century, the printing press became quite popular. This finally concluded the standardization process of English that had been going on since the medieval and early modern times. There was also a considerable change in the pronunciation of English over time, leading to, what is today known as the Great Vowel Shift. With this, Modern English introduced itself as a new chapter in the story of the English language.

With the British´ colonization and explorations around the world, the English language began its road to become a world language. Today it has achieved that goal, being a language of administration and diplomacy used around the whole world. Because of being a world language, English is still adopting new words, and evolving ever further. 

The Making of a World Language

The development of the English language began when people from different countries “visited” (or sacked, in the Vikings case) the great Isle of Britain, and when there, influenced the original language of the Englishmen, giving them new words, sometimes just based on the foreign words, other times adopting them.

Another important fact was the creation of terms and phrases, which writers (such as Shakespeare) and scientists stood for, and the makings of several dictionaries.

In addition, the only way for the English to expand their territory, was to go overseas and conquer unknown lands on different continents, because they lived on an isolated island, and in this way spread the reach of the English language.

It is also important to mention that when conquering new lands, the English would often come across things new to them, and then borrow words from the native inhabitants of the land to call them by, thus making the language more familiar to the natives.

Besides all this, during the World Wars, and especially the second one, English became a language used by most of the allied forces to communicate, and in this strengthening its position as a world language.

The Road You Take

This Road of mine was not the straightest path I ever took. It turned and twisted, and brought me to places I have never been before, to views I have never before behold. Over a bridge I went, tiny it was. To the woods, it brought me, and a clearing nearby. It smelled of pinetrees, broken things and a new fall coming. The ground moist, and my steps careful. In the end the Road turned out to lead to nothing and knowing…  

The Art of Parenting

“When you teach your son, you teach your son´s son.”

This quote is from the Talmud, which is a Jewish collection of quotes, and besides the Tanak, is one of the most important Jewish books today.

The main point of this quote is, I think, to underline the importance of raising your child with uttermost care and wisdom. This is very important to be aware of, since children are very adept at learning from their parents, often noticing small things without even realizing it themselves, and then unconsciously beginning to grow the same habits, good or bad, that their parents have. 

Therefore, to all you fresh parents out there, I suggest you all behave well in front of your kids, and remember that you have a responsibility not only for them, but for those who comes after your child as well!  

School Trip

Hi ya´ll!

This past week I have been on an interesting, but also entertaining, trip in the very elongated land I am proud to call my own. The trip began when we drove from school, at Tuesday. From there on we made good time, using E18 as our main driving route. Ooh, I forgot to mention! It was not a completely ordinary trip, it was also a geography excursion. That meant that we also had to pay attention to the landscape that we were passing, and in Norway, the landscape is ALWAYS shifting!

Anyway, one of our first stops was in Hell. Quite literally. There is a place in Norway called Hell, in fact, there are several! The point of this short pause was to visit the great potholes that are located there. For those who don´t know, a pothole is formed by a lot of swirling water, over a great many years. 

Later that day we also went to see another geographical phenomenon, called "Kvitskriuprestinn". Now, I know, it´s difficult to read (and pronounce) but it´s Norwegian guys, so please excuse me. "Kvitskriuprestinn" are a few columns of white rock located up in the mountain-/hillside. They are made when a "large" rock lies on top of softer rock/ground. Acting like an umbrella, the rock prevents the softer stone underneath it from being corroded by the rain. The result are these somewhat unique rock pyramids.

That evening we camped by the river Sjoa. The next day started early, with rafting in Sjoa. I promise you, it was fun! Afterwards, we continued on, and soon we found ourselves in a small town called Lom. Here we visited an exhibition in the Norwegian Mountain Museum. Later we drove up to "Juvashytta" close to "Galdhøpiggen" and went inside an icedrift nearby. Pretty cool I´d say! 

The next day we also went up to "Juvashytta", but this time to make our way to the top of the highest mountain in Norway. It was a long walk, about 3 hours I think. We started by walking from "Juvasshytta" to a glacier, then continued on by crossing the glacier, called "Styggebreen", before we began the climb to the top. And was it worth it? Most definitely! The view from the peak is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend taking the time to go up there! 

This excursion had, I guess, a somewhat funny end to it. You see, I for one, and evidently the rest of the class too actually, had forgotten to use sun cream. Now, we all look like a bunch of tomatoes!     

Relationships:

Recently I heard two songs and a poem in class, and they got me thinking... These three texts describes some different views on how we should relate to other people:

I am a rock
The essence of the text is that when you let other people in, you also make yourself very vulnerable, so that if those people, whom you have trusted with your friendship and love, leave you, it will hurt very bad. The writer talks about all the steps he has taken to ensure not getting hurt, which is basically a life in solitude.

You´ll never walk alone
In this text, the important message is that you will never be completely without support. There will always be someone there to stand by your side, someone that believes in you, and will cheer you on when you´re feeling down. Never give up!

No Man is an Island
In my opinion, "No man is an Island" means that no man is just himself. It means that every single individual, no matter how small it may seem, is part of something bigger, an entirety. Every man (or woman, mind you) is just as important as any other man or woman.