Monday, January 21 2019

07:00 I take a little look at my smartphone. There is a blood-red moon at the moment, according to the media, though here it’s cloudy. But this kind of event always excites the members of Lois’s sect. I have access to a chat room that sect members use, so I can follow the mounting interest.

And military operations between Israel and Iran also increase the enthusiasm - I have noticed that the sect's members tend to think that the media either ignore such operations, or else show bias against Israel, which is interesting.

Members of the sect tend to believe that the end of the world is nigh, but as far as I know, blood-red moons are completely natural events that happen occasionally, but I'm not one of the experts, to put it mildly.

10:00 I start reading two chapters of Njal’s saga, written in the 13th century - the saga is the local U3A Old Norse group's current project. The group has its next meeting on Wednesday in the town's Everyman Theatre, our first meeting since December 5, due to the group's annual Christmas break.

I was planning to start on these two chapters yesterday, but yesterday turned into a bit of a disaster, to put it mildly, and I didn’t actually read a single word of this 800-year-old text. Wednesday is fast approaching and I have to make up for lost time before it’s too late - yikes!

The Icelander Gunnar has now become the saga’s hero, at least in this part of the work. Chapter 30 is full of his travels by long-ship into the Baltic Sea, and his mysterious battles with all and sundry, fights that start for no apparent reason, it seems to me. Just some men meeting other men and it’s not long before a fight breaks out. And Gunnar is in tiptop form, killing up to 14 men a day.

Gunnar, in tiptop form, getting on with the job,

and  killing up to 14 men per day

And I really like Gunnar's laid-back style of fighting - there's a delightful cameo, for example, where he stops in the middle of a fight to grab a glass of mead, which is nice. He drinks the glass down, savours it, and then carries on with the fight.

Before I retired (in 2006) I had a work colleague, Hazel, who had theories about whether you play darts better if you have a glass of beer either in your hand or at least "to hand". She believed that a sober person, if at all nervous, tends to throw the dart in a trajectory that’s too low: and a drunk person's trajectory tends to be too high. But her theories have not yet been confirmed by sports science, as far as I know.

I suppose Gunnar had experimented and found out that one glass of mead was the ideal amount of alcohol if you were aiming your spear so as to stab your opponent in some place where it would be reasonably painful, but that’s something I'm not completely sure about. The jury is still out on that one.

In the 31st chapter of the saga, Gunnar starts his voyage back to Iceland with a bunch of war booty. On his way home he swings by Earl Håkon’s  place (in Norway, possibly, it isn’t totally clear).

Håkon invites Gunnar to spend the winter at his castle. Håkon is eager to find Gunnar a wife - and Gunnar develops a megacrush on Bergliota, a woman in the Earl’s family. However he decides to continue his journey back to Iceland first, and maybe come back later to snap up the beautiful Bergliota.

But like Håkon himself the reader of the saga cannot be totally convinced that Gunnar will ever come back and pick her up - the jury is still out on that one.

Bergliota, a relative of Earl Håkon , a woman that Gunnar

develops a megacrush on

Your stupid fool, Gunnar - snap Bergliota up while she’s on special offer !!!!

11:30 Meanwhile, Lois drives over to the local Sainsbury’s supermarket to buy some Seville oranges. She plans to make some jars of homemade orange marmalade on Wednesday - yum yum!

The Seville oranges now waiting in our larder

for Lois to make marmalade out of on Wednesday – yum yum!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap. I wake up from time to time and look at my smartphone. Steve, my brother-in-law, has sent me an interesting and thought-provoking article about Shoshanna Zuboff's new book on what she calls "surveillance capitalism".

The author describes today's digital world, where companies such as Google, Facebook, etc. have suddenly discovered tremendous opportunities to monitor and exploit our profiles and web history for commercial and other purposes, in an absence of much significant regulation.

And she compares this phenomenon with groundbreaking turning points in the past, such as the invention of printing in approx. 1439, which suddenly opened up a massive new and unregulated world of publishing, which, among other things, led to the undermining of the Catholic Church's authority and paved the way for the Reformation.

She also compares the new digital world's massive new opportunities for exploitation with Columbus's discovery of the (geographic) New World where Europeans found that they could take possession of islands, countries and extract the local natural resources much as they wanted , in a total absence of regulation, obviously, in this case.

Shushanna Zuboff, of UC Berkeley

Fascinating! I often think of how fortunate it was for Eastern Europeans that communism collapsed before the Internet really got going, because of the unlimited possibilities the web provides for monitoring ordinary people - much more effective than, for example, East Germany's Stasi and its stone-age methods. Unfortunately, China is not too late to exploit the web for bad purposes, which is a bit of a shame to put it mildly.

15:00 I get up, and sit down in front of the computer. Lois swings by the neighbours (Bill and Mary) to have a little chat with Mary, who is suffering from dementia. Lois is so warm-hearted. If only I could be more like her.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching some television. Monday night is TV quiz night at our house. "Only Connect" and "University Challenge are on.

Lois and I are always happy about the questions we can answer, but which all the fresh young brains strike out on, because we believe it proves that we are not yet suffering from dementia, but perhaps we are deluding ourselves - who knows?

In "Only Connect", both Lois and I find that we can answer questions that all the "brains" do not have the faintest idea about, which is nice. I use my knowledge of the German language to answer the following:

What is the connection between the following 4 things?

The correct answer is that what we have here are 4 pieces of music , all written by German composers whose names in German mean the same as the English word above them - simples!

For example, the "Messiah" was written by Handel, and "handel" is the German word that corresponds to the English word "trade" - simples!

22:00 We go to bed very happy, almost as if we were demented ha ha - zzzzzzzzzz !!!!!!

Danish translation

07:00 Jeg kigger lidt på min smartphone. Der er en blodrød måne for tiden ifølge medierne, selvom her er overskyet. Men denne slags begivenhed volder altid  begejstring blandt medlemmerne af Lois’ sekt. Jeg har adgang til et chatroom, som medlemmer bruger, så jeg kan følge med den stigende interesse.

Og militære operationer mellem Israel og Iran øger begejstringen – jeg har bemærket, at sektens medlemmer har tendens til at mene, at medierne ignorerer sådanne operationer, eller viser partiskhed mod Israel, hvilket er interessant.

Medlemmerne tror, at verdens ende er nær, men så vidt jeg ved, er blodrødmåner en helt naturlig event, der foregår indimellem, men jeg er ikke en af eksperterne, for at sige mildt!!!

10:00 Jeg går i gang med at læse 2 kapitler af Njals saga, skrevet i det 13. århundrede – sagaen er den lokale U3A oldnordiske gruppens nuværende projekt. Gruppen har sit næste møde på onsdag i byens Everyman-teater, vores første møde siden den 5. december på grund af gruppens årlige julepause.

Jeg planlagde at påbegynde disse 2 kapitler i går, men i går blev til lidt af en katastrofte, for at sige mildt, og jeg læste faktisk ikke et enkelt ord af dette 800 år gamle værk. Jeg må indhente det forsømte, før det bliver for sent – yikes!

Islændingen Gunnar, er nu blevet til sagaens helt i denne del. Kapitel 30 er fuld af hans rejser med sit langskib ind i Østersøen og hans mystiske slagsmål med Gud og hver mand, slagsmål der starter af ingen synlig grund. Mænd mødes med andre mænd og der går ikke lang tid, før et slagsmål bryder ud. Og Gunnar er i tiptop form, dræbende op til 14 mænd om dagen.

Gunnar, i tiptop form, i færd med at dræbe

sammenlagt 14 mænd i løbet af dagen

Og jeg kan vældig godt lide Gunnars afslappede stil under alle disse slagsmål – der en henrykkende cameo, for eksempel, hvor han standser midt i et slagsmål for at snuppe et glas mjød, hvilket er rart. Han drikker glasset ud og fortsætter straks med slagsmålet.

Før jeg gik på pension (i 2006) havde jeg en arbejdskollega, Hazel, der havde teorier om, hvorvidt man spiller darts bedre, hvis man har et glas øl i hånden eller ved hånden. Hun mente, at en helt ædru person har tendens til at kaste pilen med en projektilbane, der er for lav: og en fuld persons projektilbane har tendens til at være for høj. Men hendes teorier er ikke blevet bekræftet af sportsvidenskab, så vidt jeg ved.

Jeg formoder, at Gunnar havde eksperimenteret og fundet ud af, at ét glas mjød var det ideelle beløb af alkohol, for at dolke ens modstander i et eller andet sted, hvor det ville være rimeligt smertefuldt, men det er jeg ikke helts sikker på. Juryen er stadig ude om det.

I sagaens 31. kapitel begynder Gunnar at sejle tilbage til Island  med en masse krigsbytte. På vej hjem til Island sejler han forbi Håkon jarl, der inviterer ham til at tilbringe vinteren i hans slot. Håkon er ivrig efter at finde Gunnar en kone – og selvom Gunnar får et megacrush på Bergliota, en slægtning til jarlen, beslutter han først at fortsætte sin rejse tilbage til Island, og måske komme tilbage senere for at snuppe den smukke Bergliota.

Men læseren er ikke helt sikker på, at Gunnar nogensinde vil komme tilbage og afhente hende – det er juryen stadig ude om.

Bergliota, en slægtning til Håkon jarl, som Gunnar

får et megacrush på

Din dumme nar, Gunnar – snup Bergliota, mens hun er på tilbud !!!!

11:30 I mellemtiden kører Lois over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe nogle Seville-appelsiner. Hun planlægger at lave nogle krukker hjemmelavet appelsinmarmelade på onsdag – yum yum!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur. Jeg vågner fra tid til anden og kigger på min smartphone. Steve, min svigerbror, har sendt mig en interessant og tankevækkende webartikel om Shoshanna Zuboffs nye bog om overvågningskapitalisme.

Forfatteren beskriver nutidens digitale verden, hvor selskaber som Google, Facebook osv pludselig har opdaget enorme muligheder for at overvåge os og udnytte vores resulterende profiler til kommercielle og andre formål, i et fravær af betydelig regulering.

Og hun sammenligner dette fænomen med banebrydende vendepunkter i fortiden, fx opfindelsen af trykning i ca. 1439, der pludselig åbnede en massiv ny og ureguleret verden op, hvilket for øvrigt førte blandt andet til undermineringen af den katolske kirkes autoritet og banede vejen for reformationen.

Også  sammenligner hun den nye digitale verden med sine massive nye muligheder med Columbus opdagelse af den (geographiske) nye verden, hvor europæerne fandt ud af, at de kunne tage besiddelse af øer, lande og udvinde de lokale naturlige ressourcer så meget de havde lyst til, i en komplet fravær af regulering.

Shushanna Zuboff, af UC Berkeley

Fascinerende!  Jeg tænker ofte på, hvor heldigt det var for østeuropæerne, at kommunismen kollapserede før internettet blev skabt, på grund af nettets ubegrænsede muligheder for at overvåge almindelige folk – meget mere effektive, end fx Østtysklands Stasi og dets ældgamle metoder. Desværre er Kina ikke for sent til at udnytte nettet til dårlige formål, hvilket er lidt af en skam, for at sige mildt!

15:00 Jeg står op og sætter mig på computeren. Lois smutter ind hos naboerne (Bill og Mary) for at snakke lidt med Mary, der lider af demens. Lois er så varmhjertet. Hvis bare jeg kunne ligne hende mere!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. Mandag aften er tv-quiz-aften hos os. De viser ”Only Connect” og ”University Challenge.

Lois og jeg er altid glad for de spørgsmål, som vi kan besvare, men som alle de friske unge hjerner har problemer med, fordi vi tror det beviser, at vi ikke endnu lider af demens, men måske vildleder vi os – det er juryen stadig ude om!

I ”Only Connect” finder både Lois og jeg at vi kan besvare spørgsmål, som ”hjernerne” ikke har den fjerneste anelse om, hvilket er rart. Jeg benytter mit viden af det tyske sprog til at besvare det følgende:

Hvad er forbindelsen mellem de følgende 4 ting?

Det rigtige svar er, at vi har her 4 stykker musik, komponeret af tyske komponister, hvis navne betyder det samme som det overstående engelske ord – simples!

For eksempel, ”Messiah” blev skrevet af Handel, og ”handel” er det tyske ord, der tilsvarer til det engelse ord ”trade” – simples!

22:00 Vi går lykkelige i seng – zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!