The massive door of the so-called King's House, Lund, with hewn columns flanking it.

Hittite word of the day:
Āškaz ("outdoors, outside", literally "out of the door/gate", ablative).

Getting back to work on my next English-language monograph; it had been stalling a bit due to article work and Swedish books. I have to finish this thing in the not *too* distant future! Also, fun!

Två böcker att pinggola om! Den undflyende ormen av @olawikander.bsky.social och Bokens folk av @joelhalldorf.bsky.social.

"Him, whose Mind pulsates outward through the eyes and the other organs, shining like the light of a great lamp placed inside a pot with various holes, shining, thinking "I am aware" — him, all this world reflects.
To him, in the form of the Revered Teacher, this praise, to the Lord Dakṣiṇāmūrti!"

Nānāchidraghaṭodarasthitamahādīpaprabhābhāsvaraṃ
jñānaṃ yasya hi cakṣurādikaraṇadvārā bahiḥ spandate –
"jānāmīti" tam eva bhāntam anubhāty etat samastaṃ jagat:
tasmai śrīgurumūrtaye nama idaṃ, śrīdakṣiṇāmūrtaye!

(Dakṣiṇāmūrtistotra 4)

Hot take: Romhacks are the "rewritten bible" of video games.

4QRewrittenFinalFantasy, coming soon to a cave near you.

Cherry blossom tree in Lund, with green grass and a path in the background.

ルンドの桜。

Well, it was four:
* Brideshead Revisted.
* Twin Peaks.
* Agents of SHIELD.
* She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (the 2018 one).

The theology is officially back in Daredevil (Born Again). With a vengeance - or mercy. Awesome stuff.

Am at a seminar/mini conference day at the Royal Physiographic Society - on "Chaos", and I've just done my thing, in a dialog with Sven Lidin, chemistry.

It's quite funny when – as has happened – I say something biblical studies-ish, and some American evangelical (vel sim.) says that what is said must come from "Mormonism".

News flash: Mormonism isn't exactly huge where I'm from. Fight your own battles, dude...

Stream of water running through a verdant gorge, with a wooden bannister in front.

Ugaritic word of the day:
nḫl ("stream, watercourse, wadi").

Glottal stop with the vowel /a/ following it. There are three different signs for the glottal stop, depending on which vowel accompanies it. Sometimes, they are just transliterated a, i, u for convenience, but I used the more "explicit" rendering here.

Sun peeking forth behind a tree, with green grass and a building and several other trees in the background.

Ugaritic word of the day:
ảṯr ("behind").

Both sides claiming victory after a ceasefire. Getting major Battle of Kadesh vibes here.

The current Swedish government is made up of collaborators, weaklings, and idiots. Shame on them for their silence.

I will never forget how a threat to annihilate the Iranian people has been met by silence from European govts, especially the Irish and Swedish ones.
I didn't expect them to say anything, but that doesn't make it any easier to live with the fact that we are ruled by gutless cowards and racists.

It's extremely funny that Richard Dawkins and William Lane Craig look so alike nowadays. I actually got them confused when I saw the thumbnail of a YT video.

Also, it turns out Jacques Duquesne is actually totally badass. Who knew!

For the first season, they could say the parallels to Trump and especially ICE were coincidental. Now, they are clear, painful and very openly intentional. Excellent stuff.

Ok, the second season of Daredevil Born Again is actually pretty awesome. The first was famously wonky, but now, it's really back to its paces.

Ola Wikander

Ola Wikander

Ola Wikander framför publik

publik

Och @olawikander.bsky.social pratade om kaosmonster, drakar och etymologi.

Guilty as charged :-) !

Tack för att jag fick vara med!

People who fall in the middle (like yours truly, firmly in the "intermediate" camp of modern Jap.), and btw, sometimes know some weird specifics (like rather a bit of bungo in my case) don't fit into that schema.

One thing that can be difficult with some (nb: some) learners of Japanese you meet in person and online (nb: not native speakers!) is when they only count with two levels of ability: absolute beginner who knows nothing vs. completely fluent speaker that knows every kanji [...]

Yeah, but "performative"? Books being regarded as hipsterism? Ugh.

Posting that image made me feel like that old joke image showing the roller-skating dog with an ice-cream cone, if you remember that one...

I AM PERFORMATIVE.
Apparently.

Just saw a Reddit post enumerating "niche" or "performative" things, and among them were... "wired earbuds" and "books".

I weep for humanity.

Aljoša receiving his diploma.

Ave, praeclarissime doctor!