We left the USA 3 months ago. We’ve figured out how to do life, but I’m still working on how to do a dissertation.

I spent the day with 10 Commandments research and reading and typing up curse content in to Nota Bene software, which I use for the dissertation. I only have to enter in my bibliographic references once for the rest of my life (hopefully), and then just link them. It will automatically format the footnotes and bibliography as well. I also have note pages for many of my sources, so these notes are searchable for the rest of my life too. There are other coding functions–but no so friendly–and I won’t bore you with them.

When I’m in the writings zone, I’m using all these software functions;

 

• Nota Bene and Ibidem (bibliographic and notes) software
• Logos software (searchable Bibles and 500 other resources)
• NVivo (qualitative research transcription analysis)
• Word
• Evernote (notes)
• Internet (library, searches, online sources in full text)
• Adobe reader
• And Hebrew fonts for typing too.

Today, I learned about the Behistun Inscription, which was for cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone was for Egyptian hieroglyphs.

It is a multi-lingual inscription located on Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the city of Kermanshah in western Iran. It was crucial to the decipherment of cuneiform script. It is authored by Darius the Great sometime between his coronation as king of the Persian Empire in the summer of 522 BC and his death in autumn of 486 BC. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behistun_Inscription)

I had to take a walk to get groceries for tomorrow. Along the way I see lots of trampolines and orchids in the windows. Anya gets sick of me commenting on seeing another orchid. So, she gets me back by commenting on all the trampolines that she sees.

This was also my view from the grocery store–Gandsfjord.

Anya loves musicals and listens to musical music streamed via Spotify on her phone. She will often ask me, “Who sings this?” or “What musical is this from?” She is a veritable encyclopedia on musicals! So, if she asks me a musical question, I now ask her a theologian question. Yesterday, it was 20th century German theologians (Barth and Bonhoeffer). Today, the questions were African women theologians and biblical scholars (Musa Dube and Madipoane Masenya). I’ve met Madipoane. It is good to be known as Knut’s student in the African Biblical Hermeneutics conferences.

Knut was in Sweden today giving a paper. I prayed for him today. He’s working so much, and this past weekend, he and his wife took care of two of the 2.5 year old triplets–not much of a weekend. So, keep Knut in your prayers.

With blessings,

Beth