Congrats to nkuvu!

i truly empathize with you my friend. You really find out who your real friends are when you move. You find out what someone's word is worth. and i know that physical pain all too well. it is the reason so much stays in boxes that you expected to unpack the next day:(

as for the compulsion of Christianity, it wasn't really that clear cut. The norse probably would have won an outright battle like they had every time before. But like i said, the leaders let a shaman type make the decision and from then on it was more a matter of enforcing their own decision than of bowing to the conquering heroes. not that you were wrong about christianity having been forced upon lots of other cultures. but the norse were a very different story and so very unique in history.

and Kris you are very right about the new being built upon the old, with the new being built by believers in the old, so there are lots of pagan symbols in those old places of worship. many have since been 'adopted' by the church. others disguised or interpreted to fit modern theology. but then, it was ok to worship both as long as you worshiped Jesus as the head God so to speak. and the connecting with the rest of Europe, not really sure if that was a good or bad thing when we look back on it from this point.
 
Originally posted by Ed Spruiell
as for the compulsion of Christianity, it wasn't really that clear cut. The norse probably would have won an outright battle like they had every time before.
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I think you should read the story of the battle at Stiklestad, Norway.

and the connecting with the rest of Europe, not really sure if that was a good or bad thing when we look back on it from this point.
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When Christianity came to the Norse countries, they built monasteries. In other words they brought with them the latin alphabeth and more complex arts of writing. More people learned to read and write. This layed the fundament for the advantage Gutenberg's later inventions. I'm sure it would have come anyway, but not until later. The Norse countries now became a part of Europe, in a whole new diferent way. And this was positive. Of course, there was negative aspects too. The Norse people suffered a lot under the Christianity for a long time.

nkuvu; I'm sorry your moving didn't go so well.. You have my sympathy.


Kris
 
It's pretty sad, but I know next to nothing about European history. In school we memorized dates (1066 Battle of Hastings!) but don't ask me to even explain what they are. I mean, the fall of Rome is pretty obvious, but I have no idea what the Battle of Hastings was all about. Some grumpy people, I'm sure. :p

Moving wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it wasn't fun. The worst part is that no one seemed to be really upset about the fact that they didn't help. The two friends who went to Phoenix honestly forgot that we were moving this weekend when they made the appointment to look at the truck. But their response was "Well, we would have helped you move." Oh well, what's done is done, and I'm not sore anymore, so I guess I can stop dwelling on this and move on with my life. :)

Another semi-random question (or two) about the Edda -- how long is it, and is it all in short verses like the examples provided so far?
 
Uh, can you say *bump*? :D

So here I am again, talking to myself...

Hey, anyone, how crowded are European schools? What's an average class size? How well are teachers paid?

If anyone is interested in seeing some pictures of the new house, let me know and I'll post a web page. If not, then I won't go to the trouble.

Is everyone's life getting really busy, or is this just not an interesting thread? Like I've said before, it's OK -- I can amuse myself...
 
I read through some of my older posts in this thread, and discouvered that I had written something wrong about the Eddas. The youngest is also called Snorre-Edda, not the eldest (I have corrected it now). Anyway. I'm no expert on the Edda, but what I know is that most of the Elder Edda is written in verse, like the examples I showed from Hávamál. A lot of the Elder, which is about families and such, is not written in verse, but I honestly don't know if this goes for the whole of the Elder Edda.

European schools have between 20 and 30 students in each class. And it's very common with at least three or four classes at each level. Teachers doesn't, as far as I know, earn that much money. But I know that in Switzerland they have different policy. There, the teachers that teaches the youngest kids, earn the most. Which is, in my opinion, not such as bad idea.

I've got a question.. :) A strange on, though.
- How can one determine if a person is nice or not? I know, "nice" is pretty relative, but still.. I'm asking this because I know a person, which I find really interesting, but I'm not quite sure this person is nice. He speaks a lot about himself. He's also very argumentativ, and argues with everything he doesn't agree with. Everything. All the time. Perhaps the reason for his behaviour is insecurity, I don't know. Any thoughts?


:)
Kris
 
but I'm not quite sure this person is nice. He speaks a lot about himself. He's also very argumentativ, and argues with everything he doesn't agree with. Everything. All the time.
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I think that you have answered your own question here.

When it comes down to this sort of decision I always rely on gut feelings. You are the only person who really knows.

R.
 
I think it is going to be very difficult for anyone to tell you if he is nice or not, unless they know him. Argumentative doesn't necessarily mean bad. He could just like to argue. My sister and her husband argue all the time, but it's something that they both enjoy doing. It sounds a little strange, but they have a great relationship (from what I can tell, of course) and can agree on the things that really matter.

How does he treat other people? How often does he listen to the other side of the argument? How much does he do for other people? Does he go out of his way to find arguments, or does he just attack the things that come up?

Just some more things to ponder...
 
Roger, I have a question for you -- where is your avatar? About half of the time I see you post, there's a nifty mountain avatar. The other half of the time it's a broken image. Do yo just have it on your computer, and it goes away when you disconnect?
 
i'm pretty sure his avatar is always there for me. i'll start checking more closely. (the hardy boys go back to the clubhouse and get ready to embark on "the Case of the Missing Avatar"):D
 
Originally posted by nkuvu
How does he treat other people? How often does he listen to the other side of the argument? How much does he do for other people? Does he go out of his way to find arguments, or does he just attack the things that come up?
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I have thought about your questions nkuvu, and my "conclusion" is that he's not nice. - At least not nice enough. But his benefit is his way of talking. Scary.


Kris
 
My ex-girlfriend argues about EVERYTHING, whether she agrees with it or not, but in a thought-provoking rather than a belligerent way. It would be kind of easy to think that she just likes to argue but the truth is she just likes to talk, and having to play Devil's Advocate is a small price for her to pay for an interesting discussion.

-the valrus
 
I don't mind people talking :) (or arguing), but I find it rude when people interrupt when I'm trying to say something; all the time. After a while they just get on my nerves.. But then again, not everybody fits together in a friendship (/realationship), and that's just they way it is.


Kris
 
Heh, well, whereas arguing can be perfectly all right, interrupting all the time is just pretty much always a pain in the (self-censored).

-the valrus
 
Interrupting has been drastically reduced by the invention of online forums. :)

Interruption is most common in telephone conversations, so we're pretty much safe.
 
Originally posted by xoot
Interrupting has been drastically reduced by the invention of online forums. :)

Interruption is most common in telephone conversations, so we're pretty much safe.
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And if all of your communication is through online forums, you're safe. If you're anywhere near normal you converse with one other person (via phone or face to face) at least once a day.

But then again, we're talking about xoot here, so... :rolleyes:

:p
 
Oops... I forgot this:

But, in online forums, there are people called insane posters, which post one-word, one-letter, or meaningless posts, therefore making interruptions. You can ignore them, but they are very annoying.

That was me! :)
 
"i'm really a nice guy. If I had friends, you could ask them."

from the movie "Splash":p
 
You should have posted that to the movie quote thread, Ed. It needs a boost of rejuvenation juice...

It takes a unique sort of person to be able to ignore interruptions. I'm not one of them. I always stop what I am saying. What's more, I won't continue. No no, you interrupted me. That means you weren't listening or didn't care, so why should I say it? Drives people nuts. :)

Oh, I am tired. I finally got done with the moving bit. We still had the odds and ends at the old place (there was no pressure since we paid rent for all of June). You know, the kind that doesn't pack well? I ended up just piling it in my car, and acting like my car was the big box. This is after I sorted all the remaining stuff into three piles. Keep, garbage, and charity. Unfortunately the keep pile was largest. :p The friends I mentioned earlier (who bought the pickup truck) showed up just in time to load the charity pile into their truck and take it away. Just in time, after I'd basically cleaned the whole place. I'm not bitter, I didn't expect anyone to help, it was just a lot of work. Let me start closer to the beginning...

I was born at 8:16pm in....

No, too far back. Try again.

My roommate works nights. 8pm to 8am in a veterinary emergency clinic. Yesterday morning she told me that she'd stay up past 8am to help finish moving and cleaning. I had already planned to have my car serviced (regular maintenance kind of service) and we agreed that I'd drop off the car, and then we'd do some cleaning together. Well there was a partial misunderstanding. I knew that the servicing would take about two hours, she apparently missed that part. Not that I intended to leave her there by herself for that time. I thought that the dealership would offer drop-off service (where they drive you somewhere while they work on your car). Not offered on weekends. :( So I walked home (to the old place) from the dealership, about a half hour walk. When I got there, my roommate was surprised to not see the car, and had expected to be able to move the last of our stuff our of the house so we could clean properly. Well we did the best we could, and got about half of the place clean before I had to go back and pick up the car. So I trudged off, and we were pretty much done for the day. Oh, yeah, did I mention that it was 112º yesterday? :p :p :p I'm pretty sunburned.

So today I went back to finish it off. I didn't get to do much yesterday, since I was busy trudging around in the blazing sun. So I expected to spend a bit of time cleaning today. The sorting and moving of stuff really didn't take long. What took forever was mopping the living room and kitchen. It's a tiled house, with white linoleum (I think) tiles. Well anyway, I didn't realize how bad it was until we moved some of the more permanent things from the house (like the table that was never moved). Everywhere that we didn't normally walk was white, or pretty darn close. Everywhere else was a grey color. Blech. So I spent nearly three hours mopping a room that's probably no bigger than fifteen feet (about 4.5 meters) square. At multiple points I had to get down on hands and knees to scrub. Icky yuck. I also swept up enough dog hair to fill a pillow.

I really didn't think that we kept our house dirty -- the majority of the dog hair came from underneath furniture, and the floors didn't look bad until compared with the near-pristine white. We even mopped regularly.

So anyway, our friends with the pickup truck decided that they wanted to buy our washer and dryer, since we have those provided at the new place. So after spending three hours mopping I got to help them load the washer and dryer into the pickup.

But the old place is completely clean, about a thousand times better than when we moved in. And all of our stuff is here now. Which means that it's all piled in the living room, but that should sort itself out fairly quickly.

Yay! I'm a tired but happy tortoise...

Oh, and before I completely forget -- xoot, there are plenty of people in the real world who talk in short, meaningless sentences. It's not just an online forum kind of thing.

And sorry for the extra-long post... :p
 
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