Category Archives: Studies

Sick/Essay/Recording.

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I woke up sick today. Now I feel a bit better but, this morning I was sick. Thought that a trip into town would help be. With all the ‘fresh air’ and stuff. It did not help me. I got the fever. I got it bad. (Well, not that bad. Still.) Hope I’ll be A-OK in the morning. I have a lot to do. Mostly essay related. I have the thing worked out in my head. But, head to hand to pen and paper (or more: fingers and keys) are steps I always have trouble taking. I mean, the philosophy:ing is already done. What I’m doing after is just a rapport. Sunday comes a recording session (I think). There are bits to be done. Some guitars, some percussion, some intros, some outros. You know. I promise to write more interesting stuff. It’s not like I do not think them. But you know. The writings are just rapports.

No need for you to read this.

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Been quiet for a few days. (Well, not on Twitter.)
Have had, and have, lots to do.
Schoolwise that is.
But today, I woke up sick. Soar throat. Pointing towards a cold. No fun. Not needed.

In school I am writing an essay and studying for an exam.
The essay is on epistemology and thought experiments, kind of.
The exam is on everything; a course in Modern Philosophy. The most interesting stuff that has happened in Analytical Philosophy over the past 60 years or so. Boiled down to 6 fine questions.

In the world of my music stuff is going on.
Were recording and stuff.
Think you’ll be hearing from me (or just: hearing me) pretty soon.

Talk to you soon.

Such a wonderful day.

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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Such a wonderful day.
I really ought to be outside, but I need to do the dishes, I need to read up on Causation/Causality; lecture tomorrow.
I also, however, need to go outside. Not now, but later – so the ought to turns to a need, interesting. (And why do I need this? Well, correction, it’s not my need, it’s The Boo’s. He needs to pee. Endless hours of trying to get him to learn to use the toilet has led to nothing, and by endless hours I mean: not a single minute.)

Such a wonderful day.
I really ought to be outside.

A short summary of what I’ve been up to:

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I’ve been quiet for the past couple of days.
Hasn’t been that much to say.

A short summary of what I’ve been up to:

Camilla and I went out with a friend for a couple of beers. While doing that we bumped into an ass (an idiot).
Arsenal drew with Birmingham which left me mad the entire day.
I just chilled.
Read up on my Nelson Goodman.
Had a Goodman lecture.
Had a reoccurrence of my ass-injury. Big set back. Not fun.
Watched Arsenal teach Barcelona the lesson that a game of football is 90 minutes long, not 60.
Helped Lars-Martin and KG build in their studio. (More pics over at Lars-Martins place.)
School has gone fantastic!

Here’s some arty pics of the newly refurbished, empty, studio (and, in the first picture, some random handy-man who just walked into the shot):




Oh, and for those of you wondering; for those of you keeping tabs – wasn’t the great Tomas Halberstad supposed to record guitar for his next album today? – the recording did not happen. Rob is sick… stomach bug. We’ll aim for the 6:th instead.

One last thing, if you hoped that this sudden spur of blog writing would sooth your needs for the next days, in that there would be more, don’t hold your breath. It’s easter, the ‘in-laws’ are coming to visit and we’ll be going all over the place.

Talk to you soon enough!

Yellow Pea-Soup of I Rule.

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I now Sum up the day while having the new Salem al Fakir album [Spotify Link] in my headphones. (Really good album! Super sounds.) Not much have been going on. The rain hit the bedroom window pretty hard this morning so the planned ‘before breakfast’-walk got cancelled. Spent the first hour of the day in bed instead. Half asleep, half awake. All nice. (Man the harmonies on some of these Salem-tracks are really evil.) So yeah, I’ve started a new life. I’m eating less, healthier, more regularly and exercising. Walks before breakfast. Still, pays off. Lost some weight already. I now have my summer planned. I am going to work out. (As I have no summer job; nor want one. I am going to kick it; getting a head start on next semester’s studies.) In the midst of all this dense text it might be good to get a picture in? Yeah. This is part of Camilla’s and my two course dinner; I give you (in a re-hash from my Twitter-feed.) the Yellow Pea-Soup of I Rule:

(They, whoever ‘they’ are, say one should not play with one’s food. Ok? I’m an adult, I’ll do what I please. Camilla’s sister taught me that.) The second part of the dinner was pancake. A traditional combo here in Sweden, although it’s usually eaten on Thursdays. (Six songs in – Damn this album is good!) So, after I hauled my ass out of bed, had breakfast and took a shower I started to let the day slip away by interchanging between doing nothing and reading up for tomorrows lecture: Truthminimalism and the Austin / Strawson debate. After that I took a dog walk and then down on the sofa for some House. (While The Boo and I had that walk I had a tought on Natural Selection, fat foods and fat and not fat people. I promise to share that one with you one day… trouble is those thoughts; thoughts of that nature, of which I have many, just go on and on and on and on. I’ll be writhing for days. You’ll be reading for days. And we’ll all be none the wiser.) Which all brings me to now. In-front of the computer, listening to music. There you have it folks! My day. How was yours?

New Life – Guitar – Recess – TH14.

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I’ve been kicking it today.
It’s been nice.
Just doing nothing,

This ‘new life’-thing, which started on Wednesday, is working nicely. I haven’t made any grand changes to my life but baby steps, baby steps. I’m hoping all will lead to a happier, healthier me. It’s amazing… or; on of two things is amazing: 1. The immense impact my physical state has on my mental ditto; wether it be over-all or pain. 2. The fact that I haven’t realized this earlier (which I probably have but forgotten… so) 2.1. The fact that I have realized this before but forgotten it!

On a musical tip (!), I got a mail from Rob today and were looking to get some recording sessions in these coming weeks. It’s guitar all the way. Let’s hope we can find the time; synch so to speak. For you all, it’s going to be worth the wait; I think the album is going to be really good.

As for school, I’ve taken the last two days off, and plan to continue with that over the weekend.  I really need to get a way from the books and thoughts for a while. Not to mention all the sitting down (since I need to heal my ass).

Then we have the whole Arsenal-Barcelona thing… haven’t made up my mind whether it’s a good or a bad draw.
TH14 is coming home though:

Sunday sun.

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Signed, sealed, delivered!
Which in Aristotle and Descartes exam-writing means: Written, saved as .pdf and e-mailed.
So nice. But I’m only half way. Tomorrow: Relativism.

Still, it being Sunday and all. I took a bit of a break from studying this morning. Camilla, The Boo and I took my sisters car (since she was in München – she has returned no – we had the car) to Slottsskogen for a nice walk in the spring (I guess it’s spring) sun. So hot I had to take my beanie off and the gloves stayed in the jacket pockets for the entire time. Nice. It was not only a Sunday walk but also a celebratory walk as it today is Camilla‘s name day!

That’s about it! Until tomorrow… or today… I guess that’s relative!

Camilla, The Boo and someone’s legs in Slottsskogen:

Be careful out there…

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I’ve been busting my nuts these past couple of days.
But busting ones nuts seem to pay of.
Still, I’m only half way.

When studying for the re-exam in Formal Logic, which I must have told you about earlier, I put a lot of other studying off. It paid off; I passed the Formal Logic course, in flying colors I might add, but now I have to play catch up. And, playing catch up is an all day, everyday kind of thing.

I’ve been sitting the past couple of days trying to complete a home exam for a course on Aristotle and Descartes. The official dead-line is on Monday, and I will make it, but that only leaves me with a week to complete the other exam I’ve been pushing forward, the on Relativism.

It’s going to be a hard few days. The Relativism exam is due in on March 16:th.

(All of the above is also the reason for my not blogging so much.)

On another note: I just want to say one final goodby to all my (former) colleagues over att the guard company. Last night we had a big party. The company I worked for lost the contract with the company where we all (and I think there was about a 100 of us) were stationed, so we had a ‘last night with the gang’-type of thing.

I know I quit in January, and haven’t worked much since I went back to school, but yesterday was really it. There’ll be no more.
It’s been 10 years filled with both the fun and the not so fun but the colleagues, the good ones (because I assure you; there was some crap ones aswell), made it worth while (along with a pay check).

So, thank you! Hope you all will be well and Il  see you down the road.
Be careful out there…

Looking forward I see a pile of dung…

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Aristotle is doing my head in.
I’m sitting here with a home exam for a course they, the University, call Increased Course in Classical [philosophical] Problems. [My hack-ass translation... whatever hack-ass means... can't be good.]
I’m supposed to answer a question on what life is (and in that what it is to have a soul) in an Aristotelian sense. The answer just grows and grows, soon it’s an essay in itself, and I still have 4 questions (one more on Aristotle and three on Descartes) left.
Hand-in in 9 days and one would think that’s enough time. It might be, but I also have a 20 000 character exam in Relativism due in about two weeks time, on which I have written 0 characters.
It’s going to be a fun couple of weeks.

I’m warning you; it’s a time-waster!

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Today started so well.
I sat my ass down in-front of the computer and started to study.
After an hour or so, It all went downhill.

Camilla and I went into town, looking for sneaks. Didn’t find any. Instead we ended up having coffee and wienersemla and went shopping for some kitchen stuff. I got two nice Weiss-beer glasses. (Trying ‘em out tonight.)

Could not get my study on when we got home either. Went for a dog walk and then cleaned the apartment instead. in-between we had dinner and just before typing this I had a Tomas Special. A new kind of sandwich I’ve created. Soooo good.

All in all a pretty uneventful day (and I’m guessing this read was a complete waste of your time).
Now I’m just going to kick it with a beer.

Logic and sneakers.

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Today saw the falling of even more snow.
Not something I like, especially not in the face of us here in Gothenburg having the snowiest winter since ever.

And now it has started to rain.

It’s going to be a fun couple of days.

I have been sitting here, in our (Camillas and mine) office (the smallest room of our apartment, but office sounds cooler; more grown up) all day. Anxiously waiting for the grade of my re-exam in Formal Logic to tumble in on either my e-mail or my user on the school’s website.

It hasn’t.
So, I will wait, being just as anxious, tomorrow.

I bought myself a pair of kicks today. Over at the sneakersnstuff sale. Something like 85% off. A pair of Nike Zoom Ashiko (the link shows the shoe but not in the right color-way), mainly for walking the dog in. I’ve also seen that they have two cool synthetic Nike’s over at Shelta Sneakers… a pair of Air Max 1:s and a pair of Nike Vandal High Supreme Vintage (Neon Pack). Also (and this is turning out to be a whole lot of Nike) their getting in a pair of Nike All Court Canvas Low Quickstrike tomorrow. Man, I do not have the funds for this. It used to be hard shopping for all synthetic sneakers, now it seems there’s nothing but!

And why am I telling you all of this; all these sneaker dreams of mine?
Well, as I wrote on my Twitter-feed, if my grade in Formal Logic ever turns up, and it turns out that I’ve made the highest grade, I’ve promised myself a little treat: A pair of Nike Air Jordan Alpha 1 iD, in a color way that I’ve spent way too many hours designing. (The iD is a custom shoe! The price is there after.)

So. When is someone going to swoop in, yes, swoooop in, and give me a sponsor deal on sneaks?

Sick vs. School.

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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Still sick. And, it sucks!
Made a mistake by going to school yesterday; like the good student I am. Sure, we only had one lecture, but the effort of hauling ass to school and then sitting there trying to focus, listen, take in… and then hauling ass back home, was too much. Have school tomorrow, two lectures, not quite sure what I am going to do.

On top of this I really need to study for my re-exam (it’s a word) in Formal Logic coming up on Saturday. Yeah! Saturday! At 0900h in the morning.

Studying Formal Logic means using ones brain (right).
My brain is like mush.
When a brain is like mush it can’t be used right.

I can’t study Formal Logic.

Guess that last part is a valid conclusion. Even if it is not, I will have to try to study. I’ve got a long way to go before Saturday and I do not want to fail again. 1. Because then I will get mad (at myself). 2. I will have to take the test a third time – and there’s just not time for that.

In other news:
Not much happening.

(Title of blog post.)

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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Just checking in to say: I know, I know.
I know I have not blogged for a couple of days. That’s because the days are packed. So much school stuff going on. Mostly reading but also studying my ass off for the exam in Formal Logic that I have to take again, next friday.

Not much else going on. I’m feeling a cold coming along. Tomorrow I’m going to cut my hair (or the hair cutting person; Evelina, is going to do it). Smalls things like this can be found on my twitter-feed.

Ok. Now I have to nurse this oncoming cold with an early night; a few extra hours sleep.

Bring it on! It’s under me!

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I feel good.
I feel on top of things.
I probably should not say, write or even think that. Because I probably will jinx it, the feeling.

It’s strange. The work is piling up at school; February looks like a tough month, and granted, the first question for the exam in relativism (handed out yesterday) made me freak out a little. Still, I feel I can manage.

Maybe it’s a defence mechanism that I have. A mode that sets in when there’s too much to do, and the only way to cope with it, or to cope with the failure, is this mode. If that, however, would be the case then I have never had too much to do before in my life (and I know I have) because this feeling is new.

So tomorrow it starts:
The studying of Formal Logic. The reading of Relativism. The reading of Decartes. Researching Rawls’ epistemology.
Bring it on! It’s under me!

The utter disbelief in myself and this subject…

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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The ‘on a personal level’-crap does not want to end.
Got back an exam today. The exam I took in Formal Logic. It had a big fat U written on it. U as in Underkänd, U as in fail. I know I’ve said that Logic was/is not my thing. This just underlines it, in red. Big fat red.

Maybe it’s for the best.

As I walked the short distance from the tram stop to the school-house today, knowing I would get the result of the exam upon arrival, I thought: If I pass this course I’ll hand in my exam to the teacher and ask to do it again, because if I pass this course; my passing would be a big fat joke, a stroke of luck. This because I do not know any of the things one should know when having passed this course.

Now, in reality I would not have done the above. The thought rose out of the utter disbelief in myself and this subject, as a pair.

Sadly, life has a way of taking care of situations and things like this; hence my not passing.

This means I have added three weeks of work to this semester, and not three weeks added on. No. Three weeks taken out of nights, weekends, holidays. And I really need to pass this course, otherwise I might not get into the courses I want to take next semester…

Who cares? Arsenal lost.

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Arsenal just lost to United and I feel like shit.
It really gets to me. Worst each time. Hate it. Both the feeling and the loss.

Other than that it’s been a week of meetings I guess.
Not the work kind but the person to person time; the encounters, the good kind.

On Friday I re-connected with a friend I hadn’t spoken to in five years.
On Saturday Camilla and I went to Mr. Brandts birthday beer drinking hang. Nice and mellow around the kitchen table with beer’s and nuts.
Today we all, Camilla, The Boo and I, have been to my ‘grand nieces’ first birthday party.
All very good.

Not much else going on.
School, I guess.

Have a thought about how we value life, and how we give the loss of the same life, in two different, hypothetical, ways different value (on a scale) even though the result is the same; the life is lost.
Do not know if my thought is a blow to consequentialism or to the hypocrisy that then can be ‘moral man’.
Maybe I’ll share that with you one day.
Maybe not.

Who cares.
Arsenal lost…

Is Fully Informed Better Than Cast In Oblivion?

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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I’ve said that I would post my bachelors thesis here.
Not that I think any of you will read it, more as evidence that I really have worked on it; and finished it. This thing I’ve spent so many words describing (here, on this site).

Well, the day has come when you’ve all finally have forgotten it. That day is now (or more likely; months ago). Still, here it is, the Thesis; Is Fully Informed Better Than Cast In Oblivion? A Discussion On The Veil Of John Rawls And The Proviso Of David Gauthier. (Just click on the little .pdf-button and you’ll be in heaven.)

Wednesday-Friday.

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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Really hectic week.
Hence the non-bloggin.
Let me try to summarize:

On Wednesday school, the new semester, started with an introduction lecture. I also, through that, learned/decided what classes I am going to take this spring:
An in-depth course in Classical Problems; concentrating on Aristotle – On The Soul, and Descartes two books: Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy.
A course in Modern Philosophy; concentrating on the analytical philosophy from 1970 and forward.
A course on Relativism; the pros and cons – where the cons is brought forward by Thomas Nagel‘s - The Last Word.
And, an essay course, in which I can write about anything within the realms of Theoretical Philosophy.

Still on Wednesday, after the school stuff, I hooked up with Lars-Martin and Rob for the last of the keyboard-tales for the new album. Only managed to take two pictures the entire time we were there… with my phone… and already published on my Twitter-feed. Anyway, here goes (again).

Lars-Martin and I heading up to the studio by elevator:

Lars-Martin’s keyboard settings for one of the songs. (If you look closely you’ll see that the setting seems to be, at least according to the top of the keyboard-window, classical acoustic guitar, or something. I assure you that this is not the case. I have no ide as to why that text is there. Bug?)

We stayed in the studio untill 0030h. We finished! (Sort of.) While trying to sleep, but failing because of all the thoughts ranting around in my head, It came to me that we had missed recording one synth. An arpeggio… Oh well.

Even though being in the studio all night. I still managed, by text updates on BBC/Football, through my phone, to follow the Arsenal-Bolton game. Yeah! Fuck Bolton!

Ok. On to Thursday. Now, this was supposed to be a quiet one but I slept in. Then had to go to a lecture. Then Camilla and I meet up in town for a coffee. Then  home for a dog walk. (After which I found a little bump on one of The Boo’s paws, which I did not think much of…) Then up to a neighbour for a little computer support. And then I don’t know what happened. Then I went to be early.

Friday was going to be my the first of my study days. I was going to start reading Aristotle. That did not happen. After the mornings Boo-walk I found that the little bump had grown substantially larger. So I called the vet, and had to go there. Now Boo is on antibiotics and has to wear a Funnel over his head to prevent him from licking his wound. He’s got an abscess…

Coming home from the vet. Camilla and I put the funnel on The Boo and then we went mega grocery shopping… by bus. I hate that. Takes like forever! Coming home we made dinner, watched Sweden loose in handball and then comfort-ate little candy and drank soda’s…

Now I am going to vacuum the apartment.
Guests tonight.

I might not blog, but I’ll sure Tweet!

Posted on by Tomas Halberstad
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Yesterday I did nothing.
Today I did even less!
And, I’ve been feeling like shit all day. Head ache, like I’m about to throw up.
Soon I’ll get to sleep though. Ahh, the sleep.

Tomorrow school starts. My second semester studying Theoretical Philosophy. Time does fly.
I’m not sure what to expect. I hope we’re fewer students (then last semester). I’ll give you the lowdown tomorrow (maybe).
I’ll also record the remaining keyboard tracks with Lars-Martin tomorrow, hence the maybe. We could end up ending up in the middle of the night. We really have to be done tomorrow. 1. Because Lars-Martin is a very busy man, about to become even busier. 2. Because the studio shuts down, for a month or so, on February 5, to be refurbished.

So, I might not blog, but I’ll sure Tweet!
Night.