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Reading The Philosophy of Boredom by Lars Fr. H. Svendsen.
A pretty interesting and witty essay. It doesn't really come up with any solutions to escape boredom, but it provides some insight and a vocabulary to discuss it with and that is pretty neat.

A Facebook status of a friend a few weeks back had a few great food-inspired death metal phrases.

Bacon: YOUR THIGHS ARE ON DISPLAY IN A BURNING ROOM
Haggis: EVERYTHING THAT DEFINES YOU CAN BE MASHED INTO YOUR GUTS

Two exams down (pre-1500 World History and Examen Facultatum (historiography and methodology)), one to go (pre-1814 Norwegian History). I've been an awful student this first semester, but I'm pretty sure I'll pass these. I need to learn to allocate my time better, though. The difference between high school (30 compulsory class hours per week + homework) and uni (at most maybe 7 compulsory class hours per week) is crazy.

Obviously, Tucson has taken your souls. And is challenging you to go there to take them back.

Myturnmyturnmyturnmyturn!
Why did the Sumerian civilization collapse? Cancer. They refused to switch over to using the much healthier e-ziggurats.

Hi LMNO!
Thanks. Yeah, it is a bit tense and gloomy. Probably because nobody has been recognizing my awful Twitter puns lately.

All even remotely successful empires and states in human history have had to rely on some sort of ideology to legitimize itself, from the God-kings of Sumer to fascist and communist states in the 20th century. Today, it's harder to spot than before. There are few signs of any personality cult. No great, overarching ideas. Just some mostly empty phrases about freedom, democracy and human rights.

But in a backroom somewhere, faceless suited figures hiss into the ears of "your" elected official: "THE MARKETS DEMAND IT." He obeys, and willingly complies with the markets' demands. There is little room for questioning. Politics is just administration and theatre. Nevermind the possibility that "the market" is not a metaphysical being, some sort of deity demanding regular sacrifices to save us from oblivion. Nevermind the possibility that what is really happening is that the decision-making process is being moved somewhere less accessible for us mere mortals. "THE MARKETS DEMAND IT." the voices keep hissing, impatiently.

The distinction between good - bad and non-sinful - sinful seems to have been partly replaced by healthy - unhealthy and normal - abnormal. Get exercise, eat healthy, be happy, or at least go through the motions and pretend to be. Social media leaves plenty of room for keeping a facade (the vague sense of being a fraud that gives you is useful by the way, it makes you less prone to going after the real frauds).

"We have discovered happiness," -- say the Last Men, and they blink. Perhaps we are a variation of the Last Men Nietzsche wrote of in Thus Spake Zarathustra.
^{(By the way I am skeptical of the idea that history of humanity is moving towards any sort of end point, other than our own eventual extinction. If we are approaching something similar to Nietzsche's Last Men, I doubt that those will truly be The Last Men. There will be something afterwards, and I don't think any of us will like it.)}

The world is full of nice people who are blind to the injustices around them. They appreciate human warmth. It keeps sentimentality in force, for it satisfies the craving for good feelings towards oneself and the world. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs against him, for one needs warmth. But this sentimental search for warmth and fuzziness is disconnected from the idea of having to do anything for other people. One might even have pity on those who suffer, but it is a distant thought that one personally should intervene and try to change the existing conditions. They refuse to admit that declarations of sincere compassion are binding and must be accompanied by deeds, they live in an imaginary world in which few things leave traces and where there are no serious consequences. People are offered the choice between Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, but this brand of Diet Nihilism has little competition. I think we ought to give it some.

So, what are we to do?
Expand the definition of "normal" so it's a comfortable space to exist in for real people. Real people are weird. They can try to repress it, and many people try, but then it just oozes out at the other end and that can be truly TERRIFYING.
How?
By being and behaving like real people. Weird, but not zany. It might involve shouting at buildings. It definitely involves showing empathy. And not just to your own kin. It involves compassion, and anger, and getting involved in your surroundings. Realizing that the world does not revolve around yourselves, and that pretending it does eventually will break your necks. It involves not giving a few less fucks about the dominant ideologies of POSITIVITY and HEALTHINESS and NORMALITY, and instead just having a good time and being a decent human being. (This is very much a reminder to myself.)

It probably won't save us from anything. But at least we won't be playing Candy Crush while Rome burns.

Or Kill Me

Reminds me: One single MP voted against the law that enabled forced sterilization of Norwegian minorities in the 30s. He was not a liberal or a communist or a conservative. He belonged to a small party whose ideology was a weird sort of Christian eco-pacifist-psychoanalysis-corporativism. So it was basically only the crazies who thought shitting on minorities was insane.

Also, I have a girlfriend now. It's weird.

I just saw something truly bizarre: An objectivist with a girlfriend.

I live in a country where education and health care is freely available and of high quality, and unemployment is very low.
I was born into a well-educated upper middle class family. I've been formally employed for a total of two days in my entire life, but I still live quite comfortably, supported by my parents and my goverment issued student loan.
I am a largely straight, cisgender, neurotypical white dude.
I am fairly attractive and fairly fit, and seem to possess features that encourage others to trust me.
I am above-average intelligence.
I speak a dialect of Norwegian that has somewhat rural, working-class connotations, but I can easily code switch to a more standard Oslo dialect.

Detractions:
My parents divorced when I was 10.
I have a propensity for anxiety and depression.

A friend just wrote this on Facebook:

"I understand that I should avoid subjectivity, and strive for objectivity in ex.phil (intro to philosophy course, obligatory in most higher education in Norway).

Does anyone know a more objective way to write this: "Thus, Descartes molests his own philosophy with a giant penis, which he terms God."

Pretty much the same in Norway.

And Germany.

Free farts for free burgers!

Norway just elected a right-wing government. This is just a taste of what is going to happen next.
(Nevermind that the old government isn't stepping down before in a month, and that there is still a possibility that the new government will be an inoffensively center-right one without any blatant xenophobes in it, negotiations haven't really started yet)

Misleading marketing. I've never seen pirates who lay eggs.