Some months ago my old mobile stopped feeding, and and since the warranty had expired I had to buy a new reasonably cheap phone fast. After all I can't live without one! So I decided on a flip phone, since they looked kind of cool. So far I had only owned candy bar telephones. Now I have had my flip phone for about four months, and to tell you the truth, I do not like it much. I can't say I hate it, but unlike the old ones I wouldn't be sad to see it gone. I find the endless flipping annoying. And since I live in a country where text-messages is the normal way of communicating (gossip, making arrangements, getting job-offers, sending in tax reports....), there is a lot of flipping during the day. So, since I at the moment is slightly not-poor I planned on using some money on a new phone, which I really do not need, but would very much like. I have contemplated a slide phone, but am worried that the sliding will annoy me equally much as the flipping. So I turn to you my wise LJ-friends, slide or bar? Or is it just me who hasn't understood the beauty of the flip phone?

Poll #1185250 Phone-shaped poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I think it is important to vote - even in a mobile-shape poll

Which shape is your mobile phone?

Which shape do you prefer

Why do you prefer a ...-shaped phone?

Can mummimamma buy herself a new phone?

Recommend a phone

As you understand - my life is really hard at the moment...

ETA: Perhaps I should go for this lovely Buddha-phone? Although I need to brush up on my Chinese (if that is the language it uses) first...

Currently I must be the most boring friend in the world. Whereas I usually am an enthusiastic and spiritual conversation partner in topics as varied as my students, languages, Norwegian language, Latin language, Greek language, etymology, Finnish language, second language acquisition, science fiction books, science fiction films, lack of women in science fiction in general, badly written woman roles in science fiction films, badly written women characters in science fiction books and science fiction and languages, I currently have only one topic; house hunting.

All right house hunting topics can be broken down into various topics;

Economy; How much capital do one have, including debate on BSU, a Norwegian home investment saving scheme with tax deduction for young people. How big a loan can one get. And even more important, how much will the interest rate increase, or will it decrease? Discussion of national and international financial politics may ensue. Also I get to talk union politics, since I get a lower interest rate as a union member. Related topics, renting versus owning.

The house hunting itself; Currently I think most of my surfing time is spent here, browsing for apartments. When I have found some that seems reasonable, well not too unreasonable, I make a list and go to the viewings. I have realised that the people who take pictures for the brokers are really fond of the wide angle lens, there is also a photographer who likes to take pictures of the bathroom in a bird perspective. Most of the flats I have a look at have been styled. Which means that it in no way resembles a flat I would ever inhabit. I have seen one - ONE - flat where they had bookshelves. Some of the stylists have certain strange ideas, one likes to have a guitar in the room, one likes to arrange pillows on the floor in a corner, and there is this one stylist who obviously likes dragging the hide of a dead cow around. I am also slightly puzzled by the fact that most flats seems to have been refurbished within 12 months of selling it. In general I think many of the new refurbishments are ugly and boring. Current trends are the colour white, downlights and open plan kitchen/living room (is that what you call it? When the kitchen is a part of the living room). I am not a fan of either.

What I want; After three months of viewings I have decided that I have a lot of things I want in a flat, but I have some thing that are absolutes:
* I shall be able to walk naked from my bed to the bathroom without meeting or being seen by anybody. This is the result of sharing a flat for 8 years. I do not want to buy a new bathrobe.
* I want a separate kitchen. It don't have to be huge, but I want a separate kitchen, preferably with a door I can close and a window I can open. I like to cook, I don't like cooking grease on my books.
* I want a separate bedroom. I have had too many people occupying my bed without offering having sex with me. Friends should sit in the sofa, at the kitchen table, not in my bed.
* I don't want to live in a cellar. I have lived in a way to humid flat where I never had to water my flowers and I got systemic pneumonia. I don't want to live below ground. Preferably not at ground level either, but this is renegotiable.
* It should be within walking distance to the centre of Bergen, but preferably not in the centre itself. And accessible to my workplace, NHH, without changing buses

Obviously these are difficult demands, especially the kitchen one it seems. Mostly the market is going slow, excepting just the kind of flat I am looking for, I've found two that where great, both in the same area (Solheimsviken, an area built 1930-1960, which means a separate kitchen is the norm), and the same price 1.2 - 1.4 million kroner i both went approximately 200.000 kroner above the estimate, whereas most of the other flats are currently going below, if at all. 1.2 seems to be the loan one gets without any savings.

So I was contemplating, what are your absolute demands in a flat - or do you demand a house?

Poll #1170432 Absolute house
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I must live in

Absolute demands

I would like (but must not have):

I want to live (check all that sounds reasonable)

What have I forgotten to ask about?

Is mummimamma too demanding?

We've now had several (at least two) planning meetings about our trip to Marrakesh. So far we've established that there will be shopping, eating, hammam-ing, relaxing and postcard-writing on our holiday. And perhaps and perhaps a day trip out of town.

And since my contributions are the postcard-writing (and the hammam-ing, eating and relaxing), I present you with the traditional postcard poll:

Poll #1147242 Postcards from Marrakesh
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

I want a postcard from Marrakesh!

Address (and name)(and country)

On my postcard I would like

Anything else on your mind?

Since I now have a full time day(!)-job I planned to take a course in something. Earlier I have taken courses in Finnish, calligraphy, Chinese calligraphy and storytelling.Originally I wanted to take a course in Arabic, but that is on Mondays when I have choir practise. Arabic because I've wanted to learn it, and also I'm going to Marrakesh in March, and probably to Lebanon some time in autumn / winter. On the other hand why do I need an excuse to learn a language? But sadly Arabic is out.

Currently my options are belly dancing and a writing course. Doing both would cost a bit too much I think.
So, a poll is in place as usual.

Poll #1118244 Leisure activities (isn't that an oxymoron?)
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which activity should mummimamma take up this semester?

Any other comments or recommendations for mummimamman activities?

I am sitting here again, pretending to write on my article. But really, I am doubting myself more and more, especially concerning the article I'm writing about Ludvig Holberg's Jewish History, because I am not a historian, and have no idea what I am writing about, I feel like I am writing an undergraduate paper; a handful of more or less useful quotes from the work in question, a couple of quotes from theorists that may have something useful to say, tied together with moronic commonplaces from the author student. My main problem is that nobody has ever done any research on the Jewish history, so I have to write one of those overview-articles. I just don't think I'm the right one to do it, but I promised I would do it, so...

The other article is easier, since it's on Holberg's Jewish epigrams. And epigrams I know. Except modern epigrams. And religious epigrams. But neither does anybody else.

But whining aside, I need your help do make a point in my article, so - a poll!
Poll #1082185 Important research poll about modern readers
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I consider myself a modern person who is

I know my Bible (or at least what the poll maker would call the Old Testament)

I have heard about (but can not necessarily retell) the story about

I know and can retell the story about

This is not a question whether religious literature should be read, and where and by whom - although that is an interesting question, but simply a question to which extent modern readers are able to recognise stories from the Bible, which is a point I'm making in my article.

Also, you serious academically inclined people; When you have a character limit, is that with or without spaces?

I had a very nice weekend where I didn't mark a single one of my twenty million exams, and spent a lot of time in bed, about of half of it with a hangover.

Sunday I went to visit my mother. It is kind of strange to come home to the Urheimat now, I feel like everything has shrunk, houses are pressed closer together, the huge fields and playing grounds are shrinking (well, in fact the play grounds are disappearing, since now mostly middle aged people lives there). I feels like I've become this hulking giant that can't quite navigate properly, they've also gotten these speed humps that my feet don't regocnise, and makes me stumble when I walk along roads that I've walked countless times.

And when I sat in the bus this morning I was thinking about commuting; what is a long commute. All the time, from I went to kindergarten until I was 16 years, old my mother and I went by bus to the city centre every morning. It took about an hour, and if it wasn't or that bus ride I'd never done any homework (although it made my handwriting more atrocious than it really was). But then this one hour commute was long, but not overly so. By the time I moved away from home the same trip took 20 minutes by bus, but it was - and is considered by many people to be "somewhat far away". But a 30 minutes commute isn't far at all, not really is it, or?

Thus a poll:
(Work/ place of study or suchlike)

Poll #1071568 Work poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How do you get to work?

When do leave home?

How long time does your commute take one way, in minutes?

What do you do during your commute?

What do you consider at long commute, one way - in minutes.

I weren't quite clear on how to formulate at question about, where people lived and size of city and such, but that is a huge element in this since whenever is considered a long commute is cultural, but feel free to tell me all about in the comments.

Now I need to locate a man to take me for lunch.

It is time for the important "mummimamma is going on a holiday"-poll!
In case you wonder what the tea-question is all about, you can read this.

Poll #996943 Faroe-poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

First: The important tea question

Which shoes do I need?

Recommend a book (or two). Any and all subjects.

Do you want a postcard (in case I get around to write some)

If you want a postcard, I need your address here. Remember name! And country! And all the things inbetween

Have an extra line :)

What have I forgotten now?

I've been grumpy-teacher again. The students are lazy and don't read their homework, don't learn any  the vocabulary, and it makes me horribly impatient and grumpy. These last few lessons I've been Grumpy-mamma during the lectures, scolding them because they never prepare for class (well, a few of them do, but that is the minority). I don't like being grumpy, but I don't like teaching an unresponsive class either. A class were we can't do anything because they don't do any homework. After each of these grumpy-sessions I hope they'll start being eager and bright-eyed students. But still no luck. Perhaps next week?

Today we've been talking about the clock, which many of them find quite complicated, and tangentially to that I found an article on BBC quite amusing: At noon on the dot, punctuality will make its debut in Peru.

I forgot to talk about punctuality... Personally I don't like people being late, and I'm infamously known for arriving on time at parties - ie two hour before everybody else, while the host is in the shower.

And apropos punctuality, another cultural difference I've been thinking about lately is space. I'm Norwegian, I'm reserved and I like to have my personal space big! If you stand closer to me than 70-90 cm I'll back off. Since all my students are foreign (!) and for different cultural backgrounds than me the size of their personal space differs. the students from Germania usually have more or less the same space as I, but the one from further south always stands closer than I like. And I take a step backwards. And they follow. And I take a step backwards. And I feel very, very rude. One day I will have to explain that I'm not being rude, I'm just Norwegian. I want to keep a distance to them both since I'm Norwegian (70 cm) and their teacher (+20 cm). Men can usually add another 5 cm.

Poll #937911 Space
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

How big is your personal space

Where are you from/ Where do you live?

What do you do when somebody invades your personal space?

And now: Yoga-time!

All right, it's time for applying for jobs and summer holiday-language fun.

First off is summer holiday language study. Last year I studied Finnish-Swedish in Kuggom (and met niora! and teap!), this year I plan on applying for a place at a course either at Tórshavn to learn Faeroese, or in Reykjavik to learn Icelandic. The courses in Icelandic are usually more popular than the ones in Faeroese though.

The second part of my worries, the one causing me actual worry, is that they've announced several sendelektorater, which I have no idea what is in English. Basically it's a form of exchange lecturing. Norwegians are sent abroad to teach Norwegian for a limited time - between one and three years. And lecturer from the other university is sent to Norway to teach Norwegians Chinese, German, Hungarian etc. So, they've announced seven such lectureships. I'm eligible to apply on the ones in Budapest, Beijing, Vilnius and with some imagination the one in Reykjavik and St. Petersburg. Here I actually have some preferences, and Budapest and Beijing tops my list, although I've heard some less than good things about the department in Budapest and the department in Beijing is all new which probably means a lot of extra work.

In both these applications I am supposed to prioritise my choices on the application, so, dear friends - help!?

Poll #927304 The future of mummimamma
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

1: Summer semester. Which language should I study?

2: Next year. Which city wants me as their Norwegian lecturer?

Sigh, and I'll probably need some serious help when filling in the box of 400 words of "Why do you want to teach in Foreignia / learn language during summer holidays", but they I usually write while drunk so they'll have to a wait until the weekend.

Since I seem to have better time this semester, and that I constantly am wondering why nobody updates whatever part of internet I'm perusing I want you to broaden my horizon (horizons?)(Can one see more than one horizon?)

Poll #911162 Un-bore me!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Have you polled?