What's happening?

Getting ready for some well earned R&R

2009-05-08T16:33:00.002+02:00

Not long now... Another month, then I'm free. Not that I am in any way imprisoned at the moment, but I need at least a few weeks to chill and do absolutely nothing. This semester started out calmly enough, back to the old six hour weeks that I forgot existed. Then, a couple of weeks before Easter, all hell broke loose. Gone were the two or three lectures a week, instead we've been doing 9AM-4PM every single frickin' day. At least.

I'm not complaining, but I seriously don't understand how real people can function and manage full-time work, a family and/or a social life. Adjusting to getting up in time for school was hard enough, nevermind the actual work. For the last month or so we've been doing a television course, learning to shoot, produce and edit television-pieces, while still being journalists. Can't say I like it very much, too much to think about. Camera angles, lighting, editing, etc.

Almost had a breakdown because of it, mostly because I kept assuming responsibility for each group project we had. But I blame the other people in the group. One guy who was pretty good at shooting and editing, me - who did the on camera stuff and interviews, and the third guy, who is a total tool. Or no, I have no way of knowing if he actually is a tool, since he hardly speaks at all. Or does anything, for that matter. We tried our best to involve him, but he lacks any skill in communication, which can be pretty important if when doing something as a group. And he kept screwing up shots and stuff, so finally we just let him hold the camera when we weren't using it.

He still gets as much credit though. Anyway, the pieces turned out pretty well in the end. But yeah, no, TV isn't for me. Or well, it might in a professional setting, since I won't have to worry about every single thing.

It just takes too long. Our 8-hour days have turned into 10-12 hour days for the last couple of weeks, and I still have to be at the radio station a few nights a week to do the news and my show. It's really killing me. My free time during the weekdays consists of 4 or 5 hours a night of sitting on my couch. Staring at the wall, that sort of thing.

Oh yeah, I have a radio show now too. Me and a few others from the journalism class are doing a show on behalf of the Dean of the university. Nice guy. He wants to reach out to students or some such bullshit. Pretty fun though, and I love the fact that they wanted students who actually studied journalism to do the show, when all we're doing is basically ask fluffy questions about how good the university is. Whoring, is what it is, basically. But I don't mind, I'm not far enough along in my career to have principles. And I have a foot in with the dean, which can't be a bad thing.

And I now have my internship squared away for the fall. I was hoping to do my internship with the state radio channels, but those bastards totally stonewalled me, and didn't even bother to answer my e-mails. Funny, when I applied for a summer job there back in January, it was the same deal. Lots of other people at the student radio station at least got interviews, and me they didn't even answer. Not even a "thanks, but no thanks". Assholes. I'm gonna have to swallow my
contempt at some point though, if one wishes to be a radio journalist in this country, the state radio is the only option, since none of the commercial channels do anything remotely similar to journalism.

So no radio internship. I will, on the other hand, spend 10 weeks at the largest newspaper in southern Sweden, Sydsvenska Dagbladet. Really looking forward to that. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing, but they do have an local office here in Lund, and I might be dumped there. Which would save me alot of money for the commute. Not that money will be an issue. As I understand it, they'll be paying me half the starting salary, which is more than the student loans and grants. So I'll be pretty rich then, since I'll still be taking the loans. This will be a part of my studies, so shut up. Hoping to save up a little money, perhaps enough for a hop over the pond at Christmas?

Back to the student radio station. It turns out I won't be the news editor next year after all. They wanted me, but didn't feel comfortable with the fact that I'd be gone for the first 10 weeks of the fall semester. And I don't blame them, there's alot to do at the beginning of a semester, and I simply would not have had time for it. Unless I manage to give up sleep entirely. They told me that they'd get me in a years time, but hell, I might be long gone by then, considering that I graduate in late January. But who am I kidding, as if I'd be able to find a job. Most likely I'll be freelancing one way or the other, which leaves plenty of time for the student radio station. Even though I'll no longer be a student. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

All from me, for now. Watch out for crazed bunnies.

Working and knitting

2009-04-16T14:53:00.013+02:00

So we haven't written anything for a while. As usual. But I guess that's just because we have at lot to do. I just saw Mats in the hall and he seemed to be directing someone from behind a camera. Big shot journalist who's going straight to CNN ... or something.

Anyway. I applied for another phd-position at our department and came in 2nd. Some may say that they hate coming in 2nd, just because it isn't 1st. But after reading a statement from the board saying it was a very close call and that the only thing that separated me from the "winner" was the fact that he's had more time to get things published, I was pretty content. It's just a matter of time before I get a few more things published (I hope), and if I did everything else right in my application, I'm happy. And it helps that the one who got it is one of my closest co-workers.

So hopefully I'll be staying at the department, working on other projects and with administrative things. I really like it here, and I'm not the type of person who likes jobs.

Apart from the world of working I don't really have anything new to report. Life moves on as always, and I stay happy about the small things, like spring weather, "The Daily Show" and having my poor mother help me with displaying my street art (if you can call it that). Check out the pictures below! (The first one is my favorite!)

I love knitting, and apparently my mother loves sneaking around in Lund at four in the morning, sewing my various knitted works onto the local infrastructure. The good thing about it is that it doesn't destroy what is underneath (like graffiti can do, although I mostly like graffiti). Rather, it protects what's underneath. Hope you like them!

Food, tree-decorating fights and tv marathons

2009-01-21T13:44:00.003+01:00

Oh, my ... It's been a while since any of us has written anything here. Ah, well, we're getting older and more career-oriented I guess. Maybe Mats is starting to hate blogs in generel, becoming a journalist as he is.

And first of all: Congrats to the U.S. and their new prez, he has a lot to live up to, but he can (hopefully) hardly do more harm than Bush did.

Christmas was spent at the mother's, with the traditional food, tree-decorating fights and tv marathons. Nice cold weather, nature ... it was all very fitting for Christmas.

New Year's was, at least for me, spent at our apartment, where we hosted a small party with good food (always food), Guitar Hero (still the best game ever), drinking of course, and watching fire works outside in the cold, drinking fake champagne. It was also great.

After the holidays I started to panic a bit, since I started to think about all the stuff I have to do at work. I guess it's a sign of getting older and more mature. I can't say that I'm too fond of that part of it, though. Anyway, after I got some of the stuff squared away, it felt better. But for a while there I just wanted to stay a student for the rest of my life - only having responsibility for myself. Very grown-up.

I was originally staying at this job from September to January, but have gotten it lengthened a few times now, so at the moment I'll be here until March or April. If I were to bet, without being too positive, there will be more. If there isn't, the plan is to do my Master's thesis between April and June. In any case I will probably be applying for a new PHD-student position here soon too .

So at the moment, even though I know what the next steps will be the coming months, I'm still not sure what I really want. Or, yes, I'd like to be a writer, but that calls for things I may not be able to produce. Although I'm working on that too, not as intensely though. At my job here I will be co-author of some research reports I guess, so that will be fun, to be published is step one. But be a scientist? I don't know ... and how will I ever? Both my parents seemed to be confused about this up to ... well, older than I am now anyway. So why do I have to decide now? (You see how whiny I'm getting!)

I guess I'll just have to go with the flow and work hard at what ever I get the opportunity to do. In the days of financial crises and lay offs everywhere (even if we don't get the staggering numbers that the U.S. gets, we're well on our way percentage wise) you can't really afford to pick and choose to much either. And I really don't hate it here.

Next week I'm going to Stockholm to speak at a conference for people working with information in various energy related companies and agencies. For half an hour I am to ignore the panic that I know will be within me. Wish me luck! (Maybe my fear of public speaking will forever be banned! Hardly.)

Stay warm,
love to you all!

PS: I'll post some pictures from the holidays here soon.

Holy-Jesus-Sonofabitch-Bastard.

2008-11-28T10:20:00.005+01:00

I'm of course referring to the numbing temperatures of the great Swedish North. Hells bells! Way below freezing, and frickin' snow. In November. I'll get back to that last sentence in a while.

So the time came for my air traffic controller buddy to move. To Arvidsjaur. So me and another friend decided to go with him, since we hadn't really been that far up in Sweden before. Off we went. We first took the train from Lund to a town called Halmstad, where we picked the movee up. Then onto Gothenburg and the night train that would take us up north proper. 20 hours later, we arrived in Jörn. What's Jörn, you ask? I honestly couldn't tell you, apart from the fact that they have an evangelical church there.

Anywho, we then got on the bus. And an hour later we had arrived. The entire journey took 24 freaking hours. Arvidsjaur is a small town by my standards, pretty large by local ones. 4000 inhabitants, it's also where the Germans come to flip cars in the snow. And there was snow. I'd been told that the snow wouldn't come until much later in the year. Apparently, anything below two feet is not proper snow. Last year they had a total of 20 feet of snow fall during the winter. I wasn't impressed until I realized that in contrast to my neck of the woods, the snow doesn't melt within a couple of day. Luckily I'd brought my big coat, so I didn't freeze. Had to buy new footwear though. Hiking-boot-like-very-grippy sort of thing.

And yeah. The Holy-Jesus-sonofabitch-bastard thing. It was so fricking cold! My beard froze. I actually had ice in my beard! And the locals would laugh to themselves at the southerners who didn't wear long-johns. One man looked at us and said that we looked as if we were going on a polar expedition. I wanted to smack him and point out that we were already on said expedition, but I kept my mouth shut. They're all hunters, you see. They have guns.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad, I had a good time and learned many a new thing about this long country. For example everyone has floodlights on their cars. And there are plug-ins at every parking space so you can heat up the engine. And mailboxes are all mounted on wooden stands that can be placed on top of all the snow. And of course the guns. And the snowmobiles. It was all very different.

Anywho, I came back home last week, longing for the damp, windy, and chilly fall of Skåne. And I was not dissapointed. Upon leaving the trainstation, it started raining.

Here's the kicker. We'd been going on about how the north was weird, with snow in November. Last Friday, it started snowing like hell down here. I slipped outside my building and ripped a pair of pants beyond repair. It sucks. The normal order has been restored now though.

Which brings me back to school. I'm gonna play the sonofabitch-bastard card again. They're working my ass of here. Right after arriving back in the land of the living, I decided to head to school instead of going home to get some sleeping. And yay, what followed in school was one of the most taxing assignments yet.

You see, we had what they call a "crisis-exercise" in which we were handed over to a team of people from various branches of government. They told us that Belarus had invaded Latvia, and that NATO and Sweden were going over there to help them. Our job was to act like a newsroom and write and edit articles on the subject, all while new "news" emerged on a regular basis. We had six hours, and the stories kept coming up until the very end of the exercise. Very stressful.

Then on monday this week it was time for the next assignment. The teachers assigned each of us 25 articles to write in four days. And I'm just now getting finished. I'm tired as hell. They do work us really hard, but you know what? I don't really mind. Sure, sometimes I'd like nothing better than to hear that the teachers had accidentally all impaled themselves on pitchforks, but on the whole, I'm pretty comfortable here.

And I haven't even considered that I might be in the wrong place, which is usually my natural reaction to stress... So I guess I'm actually in the right place, for once...

Following are some photos I took while in Arvidsjaur:

Origin and destination of the journey marked by arrows, and the route.

Me at around 2:30 PM. Snow. Lots of snow...

Be sure to check out

2008-11-12T15:07:00.002+01:00

My boys' new songs on his MySpace page. They are really great, and give a taste of the self-produced cd that will be done soon, and available for anyone who's interested. I'm even singing back up on a few of them, although I'm not on any on the ones on MySpace.

Score!

2008-11-08T02:10:00.003+01:00

You all know what I'm talking about. Congrats to all of the American readers (or readers residing in the U.S.). To all of us really. Ok, he's no Messiah, he's a normal guy. But still. I'm happy.

Election election election

2008-10-31T12:27:00.002+01:00

So, life goes on. I'm working at the university and I am happy with it. It's a good job, pays pretty OK, the people here are great ... at my other jobs I've had to deal with racist, homofobic comments (not directed at me, but bothering me), and there is nothing like that here.

I'm watching "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart a lot. He is my new God. He's very funny and good at pinpointing exactly where the absurdity in American politics lies, or politics in general I should say. Although right now it's mostly about the American of course. I've heard something about there being some sort of election soon ...? If you don't have Comedy Central, you can watch the episodes for free on their website.

When it comes to the election, I must say I've been extra interested this year. Maybe it's because it feels like the good guy actually has a chance this time. I may have thought that Kerry had a chance four years ago, which he hadn't, so maybe it's just me kidding myself. On election night (which is actually night here, not evening) I'll be glued to the TV, watching our Swedish channels' coverage (two different Swedish channels are covering it, which they don't do with any other foreign elections to my knowledge) and BBC World, which is a channel I'm happy is included in our basic cable. Me and the mother are planning to sit through as much as we can, even if the results probably won't be clear until 8 a.m. our time. If it doesn't flip out like in 2000. The plan is to have an American theme, so I'll be going to this store that imports American brands which are not that common in the common food stores here. Maybe some mac and cheese? I dunno, but I'll say this: I'm happy that I get to decide my working hours myself, so that I can get at least some sleep after the whole thing.

Hope you're all going to vote - it's annoying as hell that I can't, haha.

Peace out.

Two intense days

2008-09-21T00:36:00.002+02:00

So I'm back from my little trip to Stockholm. As you may have read below, I went with a friend to Stockholm to see Coldplay. We took the bus from Malmö at about 10 p.m., and then slept through almost all of the eight hours it takes to get there. I had been kind of worried about being able to sleep, especially since we had a LONG day ahead of us after arriving in the big city, but it was quite ok. I mean, it wasn't like sleeping in a king size with high thread count-sheets, but it was ok. The only time I woke up was when the bus left the high way to pick up and drop off passengers, which happened three times in the cities Helsingborg, Jönköping and Linköping.

We woke up just as we started coming into Stockholm. There's about one million people living there, and it's spread out a fair bit. What struck me was all the new-looing malls and shopping cnetres everywhere. Car dealerships and H&M:s and everything you can think of, many times over before we got to the central station in Stockholm (train and bus that is). I wonder what's gonna happen with all that if the economy keeps acting like it has been.

Anyway, after arriving in the middle of Stockholm, bright and early in the morning (about 6:30 a.m.), I opted to pay for the cab to our hotel since we don't really know the area and were not jumping up and down at the thought of walking for half an hour with our bags (yes, we did of course have quite a bit of lugage even though the trip was only two days long). Plus, it was my friend's (Hanna for those of you who know her) 25th birthday. I had secretly changed out reservations from the half-crappy hostel we were supposed to live in, to a nicer hotel with a balcony and real bathroom and a nice breakfast buffe. So when the taxi arrived at the hotel Hanna started saying that this can't be the right place, and my plan to tell her about the surprise was a bit cut off. For some reason, I hadn't thought she'd say much, since I was the one in charge of all the arrangements anyway, haha. But she was very happy and thanked me much.

Since we couldn't check in that early (apparently, check in nowadays in Sweden is at 2 p.m. at the earliest!), we just left our bags and freshened up a bit, and then strolled down towards the central parts of the city again. It was still quite early, but there was still people out. Sometimes I think Swedes have some perverse thing with getting up early. But it served us well since we needed to get some breakfast. I actually had coffee, which is not common for me, I usually don't like it at all. But I thought I was gonna need it. It felt like when you've been on a plane over the Atlantic for eight hours and you have to stay up a while longer to avoid jet lag - only this time we had about 18 hours to go until bedtime.

After spotting at least one celebrity (they are fairly concentrated to Stockholm) and doing some shopping (the birthday girl did more than me, I'm kinda broke this month, waiting for my first pay check from the university that will arrive in the end of the month). I realized I'm not the biggest fan of snooty shop-people, who seem to be a lot more common in this city than in Malmö. I don't know if I'm being paranoid, or maybe they reacted to my accent, which is a southern one, and even if it isn't ridiculed as much as the southern US-accent, it still gets a fair bit of grief for not being pretty enought. We ate som lunch, but I had trouble sustaining my apetite, since my nerves were reminding me that I was going to get to see my favourite band soon. It's weird, I get kind of teenagy when it comes to Coldplay. More about that later.

After buying some bubbly and other alcoholic beverages we went back to the hotel and checked in. By then my feet were getting sore from all the walking, and I realized it had been stupid to not bring two pairs of shoes. Thank god I did that. We got to chill for a while, showered, made ourselves pretty and then left again, this time on the subway. Arriving at the Globe Arena, which is about 15 minutes on the tube from where we were, we realized that our planning to be there early to get a good spot was not all that thought through. A lot of people had thought the same thing, only arrived even earlier. The supporting act (Albert Hammond Jr. from the U.S. and the band The Strokes) was to begin at 7.30 p.m. and it was now about 5 p.m., and there was already a huge line in front of the doors. So we stood there, a bit cold, eating some chips and drinking some soda mixed with some of the above mentioned beverage, but not really getting the result we had planned on. It was kind of cold and people in line didn't seem to be in a party mood. And, they all seemed younger than us. Almost anyway.

There was the usual British (why always British) guys selling bootlegs, t-shirts and ear-plugs (which we actually got some, but late ron realized we really didn't need. It didn't feel as disturbingly loud as it sometimes does at these things). When they started letting us in, we took a few more quick sipps of our drink and put it with all the other trash that had accumulated by then (McDonalds-rappers and bits of food, cups, newspapers etc.). Getting into the arena, we realized that we still had a good chance to get fairly close to the stage, which we we're doubting when we saw the long line outside. And after what felt like hours and hours of waiting, we finally got to see the best band in the world. Two glorious hours, which contained beautiful music, screaming fans (including me of course), sweating, more screaming, confetti in the form of butterflies all over the part of the audience that was right in front of stage (including me) and much much more. I again felt kind of old standing there. Even if I could see people that were my age or older, almost everyone seemed to be about 18 or so, or younger. I wonder if I'm liking a band whose fans see them more as the Backstreet Boys or something. Not that I listened to them when I was 18. But still, it feels strange. One of the explanations is that at the concert, you can either get seats (all around the arena, up high) or standing ticket, which means you pay a bit more and don't get to sit down, but you get to see the band a bit more up close and dance and scream without feeling like you're disturbing the people around you. It seemed as if most of the adults where choosing to get to sit down in real seats, even if a lot of them stood a lot. But I like being down there in the sweat and the screaming. Just in the case of Coldplay and maybe a few other music acts. Not with every concert I go to.

So, after Chris Martin (singer) seemed chocked by the loud singing from the auidence on the very popular song "Fix You" from 2005, and more confetti, and extra acts and all of this other great amazing stuff that I'm beginning to forget already, we bought our t-shirts, got our coats, went on the tube again, ate some McDonalds (again my apetite wasn't really there, this time for different but related reasons), we arrived back at our hotel at 1 a.m. It was a long time since I slept that well, being sooo tired by then.

And one great hotel breakfast, shower and one last tube trip back to the central station later, Hanna and me were back on the bus, this time at 11 a.m. It was full, and we were bored almost the entire time, even though we got to see some parts of Sweden I haven't seen before and I got to read trashy paparazzi-picture-filled magazines and read a nice review of the concert in that days paper. Trying to stay happy, happy for the wonderful experience that was the night before, I - whilst listening almost exlusively to different Coldplay albums in my mp3-player - started to become more and more sad. It's stupid, but just as the las time when Hanna and I saw them perform in Copenhagen three years ago, I get this anti-climactic feeling, where it's like - "Ok, so this was so fantastic, but now you don't get to experience it again for at least a couple of years". And it's so short. We spent all this time travelling, spending all this money on the trip and the hotel (althought that was a fun gift I guess), for a bit less than two hours of bliss. And it's not like I regret it at all. I loved it. But I'm still kind of sad.

Sorry for a very long rant, and the half-depressing ending. I must say, I love the fact that there are about 20 clips on YouTube already, with videos from that night. And not all of them such when it comes to quality. It makes it all a bit easier, to be able to watch it again. And again.

So, how old am I exactly? 16? or 25?

Backstage at Lund university

2008-09-11T13:37:00.003+02:00

So, here I am, on the "other side" of the university. I've been in Lund for almost six years total, and being on the working rather than the studying side of it is different. It's fun, it's interesting, it's making me panic some times (it usually goes "I'm not smart enought for this, what are they thinking?" They being the people who hired me). But it's like seeing everything behind the scenes for the first times. What do the teatchers and professors actually do all day? What do they say about the students? Are they hard workers? Etc.

What's great is that it doesn't seem to be your run of the mill academics here. We're a small departement, one of the smallest in the university actually (and there are a few), so we're kind of in an underdog position, which seems to make people nicer and more down to earth generally. They're not all know-it-alls who only want to make tenure and rise to the top, even if some of them have done those things, of course.

If I could get rid of the panic-thing, I'd be very satisfied with the job so far. And I guess I just have to dive right into it and believe in the fact that I'll learn everything I need to know along the way. Right?

Other than having a new job that takes up most of my time and thinking power, I'll try to report on other stuff going on here too. Me and my BFF from first grade, Hanna, are going to our nations capitol Stockholm next week, to see our favorite band Coldplay. It's no where near as far away as the northern town where Mats is going, but since we're cheap/poor we've decided to take the bus, which makes the trip nine hous long. By train I think it's about five hours. The plan is to take the bus on Wednesday the 17th, at ten p.m. Then we're supposed to sleep, or try to sleep, on the bus. First I was kind of bummed that I wouldn't get to see very much of our beautiful countryside since we'll be travelling in the dark, but then I realized that it's mostly just pine woods anyway, which all looks the same and gets a bit boring after a while.

We'll arrive in the very center of the city at 6.30 a.m., and then, since the hostel doesn't allow check-in until 3 p.m. (what's that all about? It seems to be like that all over the hostels and hotels in Sweden nowadays), we're gonna have to do some sightseen or shopping of whatever until we can go and rest for a few seconds, grab a shower and then head out to where the consert is, which is a bit outside of the real city center. The Globe arena is where they're playing, and I've actually only been outside of it before, so it'll be cool to see the inside too. I guess one could call it a duller, less cool and smaller version of the Madison Square Garden, although the architechture is kinda cool, and kind of the opposite of the American arena. Anyway, the thing is, we really have to leave the hostel quite early to get a decent spot in line for the concert. Since most European arenas and venues, including the Swedish ones, don't have seating in the same way as the American ones, you have to get there early and wait in line to get a good spot in front of the stage. Last time me and Hanna saw Coldplay, in Copenhagen (the Danish capitol which is a bit closer, actuelly a train-ride of about 30 minutes away), we got a real good spot in line. Just a few people in front of us. Problem was, we drank some beers and some wine and really had too pee about two hours before they we're letting people into the arena. There was no place around there to go. No restaurants or anything. Not even a good bush. So we stood quietly (which is very uncommon for us) in line, suffering, while all the other fans we're happy and anticipating greatness. We had to run straight to the bathroom after finally being let into the arena, and thus we missed our spots and had to stand 20 yards from the stage instead of 5 as we had planned. The worst thing about that is the fact that the people who stand that par back (which is still very close of course) are usually not as enthusiastic as you are, making you feel stuping for screaming a lot or dancing or whatever. Squares, that's what they are. This time the concert sold out so fast, they set one more date in Stockholm, the night before, and that's good, since there's a bigger chance that we'll be with a big, more appreciative crowd in stead. And hopefully there is some kind of pizza place or whatever outside, so we can pee.

I'll report back after, and you can hear all about the peein-possibilities of the area around the Globe arena in Stockholm.

Until then, lots'a'luve!

PS: Excuse my bad spelling and language, I'm intellectually beat nowadays.

Reboot

2008-09-09T21:45:00.002+02:00

School is back on, and all is well.

I'm a week and a half into the semester, and I'm adjusting to the whole daily regimen that comes with univeristy pseudo studies. "Pseudo studies", there's a good term for the last 30 months here. And it still applies in a way, only now it has a more positive meaning. Gone are the days of studying just enough to pass tests, learning stuff that stopped being interesting last semester. Gone are the days of using academic language and long words in order to get top marks on a paper for which I hardly opened the books. Well, not entirely gone, I guess, but the level of motivation is higher than before, and the information is actually useful, despite the fact that it gets pretty theoretical at times.

We haven't really gotten to the actual writing yet, the teachers are sticking to theoretical parts for next few months, and right now we're slogging through the various legal and ethical aspects of journalism. And I have to say, it's really interesting. Alot of my classmates seem to dislike the legal stuff, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, etc, but for me it's just dandy. When it comes to law, my experience is mainly in international law, human rights law and humanitarian law. And it couldn't be more different. In international law, alot of what is written down is done with only a loose basis of common law, and no precedent or established juris prudence, which basically means that no one knows how the law should be put into practice, or how to apply it when it actually does. And when circumstances change, for example the downfall of nation-to-nation warfare, everything pretty much falls apart, because the Geneva Conventions, for example, were written 60 years ago.

Not the case with national laws. Now we have precedent, jurisprudence, and clear definitions, and thus everything works as it's supposed to. Mostly. Anyway, it doesn't make you lose all hope in humanity, which makes all the difference when trying to learn it. And there are generally less headaches involved as well.

Anywho, things are going good so far. This is going to be an interesting semester. Not only in school, I also have a couple of trips planned. Granted, both are to the same place, but they're still two separate events. My buddy Christian is in the process of moving to Arvidsjaur, which lies a bit to the north of here. 10 miles south of the Arctic Circle, to be exakt. Now, this is the place where the German car companies take their new cars for cold weather testing, which says something about the climate. The average temperature for the entire year is 0 degrees Centigrade, which is the freezing point. So one could argue that it's freezing all year round, but that's not true. It's freezing for nine months out of the year. And I'm going up there in mid November. And yes, it'll be freezing. And I'll be there over New Year's as well. It'll be colder than... well, anything I've ever experienced before. But it'll be fun. We're taking the train, which'll be an adventure in itself, all 20 hours of it.

That's what I had for now. Out.

Summer in the little city

2008-07-29T21:07:00.002+02:00

So we actually have some proper summer weather here now. It's in the freakin' 25-35 range right now (80's and 90's for those of you who don't use the logical system). And apparently people are dropping like flies in the heat, at least that's what I read in the paper. I'm not ready to check out just yet, though my room would probably be classed as a sauna if inspected by the authorities right now. I'm on the north side of the building, which means that my room stays pretty cool during the day, but at around 6PM or so, the heat that's been blasting the rest of the building all day finds it's way down to me. And steams me. Like crawfish. It's gotten to the point where I'm thinking that my computer would be better off if I stuck it under the shower...

Anywho, it cools down in here at around 2-3AM, which suits my rythm quite well at the moment. More than halfway through summer right now, with little more than a month left until school starts. I'm giddy as a schoolgirl (can't a schoolboy be giddy?) and at the same time terrified, but I don't mind. I've been told that I have some pretty hard work ahead of me, and that I'll probably be spending 7-9 hours a day in school, five days a week, which will be slightly different from my previous schedueles, where I'd mostly have a total of FOUR hours of lectures, plus a TWO-hour seminar per week. But hell, that's probably what will get things done, since I've never had a problem with doing work whilst in school. It's the read-four-300-page-books-at-home-each-month routine that I have trouble with.

Still, this nothingness of summer is getting to me. I've had nothing to do for the past two months, apart from an exam at the beginning of June, and our trip to France and Ireland. And I must say, there are times when I get bored. In a couple of weeks I'll be getting back to moving and shaking, as I have some old exams to retake (not too worried, they're easy ones from the evening class I took last year that I just didn't have time for then), and I'm actually looking forward to it. Go figure. And then, in just over a month, I'll be heading up to yet another university department, to begin studying journalism.

Yayers for me!

(Oh, btw, there are a couple more songs uploaded on Tapet's myspace page now, and I'm actually in them this time! Find them at http://www.myspace.com/datapet)

Happy happy happy days

2008-06-19T19:00:00.000+02:00

So there is big news with the Swedes nowadays! Mats got into the journalism-program after submitting an application and being interviewed. There's some stiff competition, so that's good.
And I have gotten a new job! I was actually considering quitting my job since it was damaging my heart and soul (ok, that's somewhat over dramati). I just don't like it at all anymore. Just as I was trying to device I got an email from one of my teachers at the department of media and communications at my university. It was a request, asking if I wanted to work at the departement for six months helping out on two different research projects. I didn't even apply, and they thought of me, so that feels real good. So in September I'll start working as a reseach assistant, which is a job I think I can learn from a lot. It's nervous too, of course, and who knows if they think I can do stuff that I've never done before. But I don't care, it's a great opportunity and the pay isn't too shabby either.

So I have now quit the job, I only have one week left, which is a wonderful feeling. Then I'll be seeing some of you in Ireland in the beginning of July, which will be real fun too. Hopefully I haven't killed Mats and the mother on the car ride there. Ok, that's also a bit dramatic.
After that I'm actually free for a month or so. I haven't had a real vacation from work and or studies in a long time, so that feels great.

All in all, everything feels great. I'm very happy with the way things are working out, and it feels a bit weird since it's not a very common feeling. You just don't get offered jobs out of the blue, you know? I'm sorry for gloating a bit.

Love to you all from a happy Joanna.

Interesting twists

2008-05-20T16:10:00.006+02:00

Hi all!

So I passed the exam on the renaissance. Expected, even though I only passed with a margin of a few points. The on to the next exam, this time it was the enlightenment and romantic era. And I was convinced that I failed it, considering that didn't even answer one of the questions (who the heck is Condorcet?!) and made up an answer for another. But lo and behold, yesterday, Monday, one day before I was supposed to retake the exam, I actually looked at the results. I passed. With a higher margin than last time. Go figure. Sure, no points for the question left unanswered, but I maxed the one with the made-up answer. Once again, go figure. I hadn't read anything on John Stuart Mill's thoughts on freedom of expression and simply guessed. And it worked. Academics never cease to amaze me.

On May 3rd I attended and completed the various entrance exams for the journalism program here at the university. A current events test, a summarize-this-article-test, and a personal letter explaining why I want to be a journalist. The procedure is this: one does the entrance exam, and waits for an invitation to be interviewed by faculty members. Out of all the applicants only 60 people get interviewed, and only 30 or so actually get accepted. I felt I did pretty well, but considering that there were about 400 people there with me, I thought my chances for getting in were slim at best. But amazement struck again, and yesterday I got an email from the department saying that they wanted to interview me! So I'm not exactly in yet, but for some reason I feel pretty confident that I'll get in now. I have a pretty varied academic background by now, meaning that I'm somewhat educated in the ways of the world, and I have good language skills, so I think I'm pretty much exactly what they're looking for. Now to make sure they realize that.

Oh yeah, and I swung by Hungary last week as well. Four days in Budapest, the Paris of, well... Hungary. At the end of April, a friend of mine who's a member of RadioAF, the student radio station, called me one morning, said that a group from the radio were going and that they'd had a cancellation, in case I wanted to tag along. So I did. So yeah, four days in Budapest with 35 strangers, plus cheap alcohol, equals lots of new friends. I went to see the Raoul Wallenberg monument (didn't find it though, settled for king Charles XII's rest-stop on his way home from Turkey 300 years ago instead), toured the Buda Castle, and experienced one of the world's largest wine cellars, with over 30 kilometres of walkways and tunnels. Of course a tasting was included in the tour, which turned ridiculous after "tasting" five kinds of wine, which were pretty good. Don't really remember what the other 15 were like, other than that they were ok. The guide and the pouring lady got sloshed as well, so we wouldn't feel awkward getting liqeured up at 2PM. On a side not, I saw Europe's largest wine cask, which was like five metres high, and ten deep, and blessed by a pope. Hungarians apparently take their wine seriously. Kinda hard for us to do though, when a tour with "unlimited tasting" only cost €20.

Below are some photos that I took with my cellphone, as I forgot my camera at home.

Kobánya Kispest, our first impression of Hungary. Beautiful, just beautiful!

Buda Castle, seen from Pest, just outside the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

The Hungarian Parliament. Built from limestone, which is why it requires constant renovation. Good job, guys.

The Budapesterian suburb of Budafúk. And no, I'm not making that name up.

Pest, seen from atop Gellert Hill in Buda. The climb up there almost killed me. Later found out that there were buses which run every 5 minutes.

Oh well, that's me for now. Közönöm!

Picture Update

2008-05-10T13:03:00.004+02:00

Thought I'd put some pictures up here that you may not have seen. They're from April 30th (for those of you who haven't already seen them on Facebook, that is).

I would also like to thank the Americans for the nice card they sent me for my 25th birthday. Pulled at my heart strings just a little.

The controlled chaos that is April 30th in Lund. An estimate of 5 000 people come to the park and hang out. This year we had really great weather too.

Some of my fellow friends who also go to Lund university. Lovely people. They actuelly all happened to be in my class in high school in Trelleborg.

Ok, so this might not be my proudest moment, but it was darn fun. I just felt I needed a little rest. When you start drinking at 11 in the morning you really need to take a break now and then.

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-05-06T21:04:00.001+02:00

"Celebrate good times, come on!"

Mamma mia

2008-04-27T13:25:00.004+02:00

The Economist had a very funny cover the other day, with a big picture of Silvio Berlusconi and the text: "Mamma Mia! Here we go again!". Exactly my feeling. Funny and sad.

I just wanna go home

2008-04-17T21:07:00.000+02:00

I'm bored out of my mind. Why do I work here? Why?!

Snow on St. Paddy's...

2008-03-17T21:15:00.002+01:00

I hate the weather in this town. It's just weird. This morning, when I home to go to the library, it was warm and sunny. Well, when I say "warm", I don't mean warm, but at least it wasn't cold. Anyway, not a cloud in the sky. So, I dressed accordingly, wearing only a t-shirt and my jacket, no scarf and no gloves. And I didn't bring an umbrella either. So, after spending a few hours deep inside the university library, studying, I get up to leave for a seminar which I was still incredibly unprepared for. And lo and behold, when I step outside, it's freaking snowing! And it was windy too, a bonafide snowstorm! So, a five minute walk later I arrive at the cultural sciences department where I'm currently at, looking like a [very wet] snowman. And of course the temperature had dropped quite a bit, which wasn't very nice, considering my spring-ish attire. After the seminar, the snow was still coming down in force, so I decided to take the bus home. But no, I'd left my bus-pass at home (I'd walked into town back when the sun was still shining). And I didn't have any change on me, so I had to walk. And the snow just kept coming. And still is, at 9:30PM. It's a little funny, since we haven't really had any snow at all during the winter. Of course, it's only logical that it comes now. The weather hasn't really ever made sense here in Lund.

Anywho, I passed my last exam, the first sit-down exam I've had in over two years. Now, I didn't pass with much to spare, but you should know that I really didn't study as much as I should have. For some reason, however, I seem to actually remember what my professors say during the lectures, which is totally weird, and never happened in my Peace & Conflict Studies and Human Rights courses. Oh, I should probably mention what I'm taking this semester, the course is called "History of Science, Learning & Ideas", and is basically the history of philosophy, with some science and learning thrown in. For my last exam we were dogging through ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle Ages. And I tell you, memorizing almost 2000 years of philosophers, theologians, and scientists, is pretty hard. You try to explain the difference between the Greek philosophers Anaximandros, Anaximenes, and Anaxagoras, and we'll talk. Of course, I could do it, but I wouldn't want to bore you. Anywho, now we've moved on to the renaissance, with fewer names, easier names, and easier to organize, as the different people acutally have fundamentally different ideas, instead of changing ONE minor detail of their predecessor's theory (as was the case with alot of the medieval philosophers and theologians).

Let's see, what else is going on? Right, I'm heading to Malmö next week, for a concert. The artist is Stephen Lynch, an American singer/comedian who sings very funny songs. Titles range from "Altar Boy" to... well, that's the only title which is funny to me, the contents of the songs are very funny indeed. Check him out if he ever comes your way.

And there should be a new song or two on Tapet's MySpace page. Check that out too.

Cheers
Mats

Things are a-happening

2008-02-13T15:44:00.005+01:00

I'm currently quite busy with school at the moment, just wanted to mention that I'm officially in a band now. Not that the band is very official or anything, but it exists, and we even have some songs, written by my friends Aino and Jonathan, who make up the other 2/3 of the band (as of now).

I'll occasionaly help out with writing lyrics together with Aino, since I don't really know anything about playing an actual instrument. Well, that's not entirely true, I do play a mean tambourine. And my official job is lead (and backing) vocals, together with Aino.

Anywho, the name of the band is Tapet, which is Swedish for "wallpaper", and after figuring out the name we decided that the reason for it would be that our music should function as wallpaper for the empty musical walls in peoples' heads. At least we don't lack ambition, and even as an afterthought, it makes sense.

We even got ourselves a MySpace page on which to feature our music, as it will probably take a while before we can get a record deal. As we're still in a somewhat developmental stage, we only have one song up at the moment, a demo if you will, one of our first attempts at musical greatness, called "Oh my Lord". I'm not really in this one, at least not in the current version. But it is work in progress, and we'll keep fidgeting with it until it's perfect. There will be more songs online as time goes by. And believe it, we do have some pretty good material. Keep a lookout for a little number called "My best friend"...

The address is: http://www.myspace.com/datapet

The page itself is in Swedish, but the music player is in English, and the music starts playing as soon as the page has loaded. Check it out!

Quote for the day: (something I'd try out, not that I post here everyday or anything)
"Lord, make me chaste, but not just yet" - St. Augustine

Bye.

Balance

2008-02-06T17:04:00.000+01:00

I thought a status update was due. I must say I am a wee bit intimidated by my intensely talented younger brother, who seems to be perfect for feature writing. Anyway, so, right now I’m doing another course for my masters, this time it’s in Swedish and deals with the media and cosmopolitanism. It’s very interesting, although I don’t know if it’s really preparing me for my professional life. Ah, well, if I had a penny for every time I had that thought since starting college.

The last course was even more theoretic, and concerned theories of science. That is complicated stuff that mostly makes you doubt science and our ability to even find knowledge about anything. I haven’t gotten the grades from that one yet, but I think it went OK.

Outside of school life is pretty much the same. I work about 15 hours a week, which is a bit more that I would really like to since I’m really supposed to be reading for school constantly. But my bosses think we lose out on information if we, the part-timers, don’t come for at least 15 hours a week. I don’t know if they’re right, but I can’t really do anything about it. And anyhow, I do get some more dough than I was planning on, which is always good of course.

Me and the beau are still living in the same apartment, which we love. They renovated the kitchen and shower, so now, other than it looks better, we have two toilets (no more banging on bathroom doors!) and a dishwasher. It’s insane how much difference that makes, not having to do the dishes. It’s like this huge weight lifted off our shoulders. fantastic. I don’t know if I’d be able to live without one now, if I had to.

Many of my friends are turning 25 this year, which I guess isn’t really supposed to be a big deal or a special birthday, but everyone seems to treat it that way anyway. More parties to go to, and they’re bigger, too. It’s a lot of fun, I’ll tell ya. If I could only balance this with school and work, and maybe try to get some exercise, read some more and cleaning up a bit more into the mix, my life would be perfect.

Take care!

Insight. Or is it?

2007-12-11T21:40:00.000+01:00

Whoa, it's been a while since I posted anything here, but I've been busy for the last six months.

Okay, I've gotten myself through almost one year of human rights studies now. And to quote a fairly famous band; "And I still haven't found what I'm looking for". I've realized that I'm well suited for academics, or at least the sort of higher education that the social sciences have to offer. It's the "science" part that I'm troubled by. Theories this, methodology that, they try to cram as much "social sciences" as possible into something that doesn't always need it, ie. human rights.

Add to that the fact that my own interest in the subject isn't much more than just that - an interest. A friend of mine offered to try to get me into a volounteer program which would stick me in Zambia for three months, and I gave it some thought. Perhaps personal confrontation with poverty and suffering would ignite that passion that most of my class mates seem to have. But when I pictured myself on-site, what did I see? Myself sitting in a smoky bar having very interesting conversations with other aid-workers, journalists and various other ex-pats. Not very inspiring, from a human rights perspective.

Got an email the other week from Amnesty International, informing me of various internships available to HR-students at the Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm offices, and I figured that might be a good idea, and certainly advantageous for my career. But then, another question arose: What career? I've never had a plan, I don't really have an academic objective, and I've sort of been hoping that studying interesting subjects would somehow clarify that along the way, but three and a half years after beginning my studies here at the university, I'm nowhere near figuring out what I want to do with my life.

So I've been trying figuring out how to write my term-paper for the second semester of human rights studies, which hasn't really gotten off the ground, even though I'd had half a semester to get started. Let's just say I was getting pretty stressed out about it, and the fact that during the second half of December and the first half of January I was swamped with other stuff, including three 9 page papers that are due (totally my own fault, I might add). I've never been so stressed, and even without the term-paper, it would testing the limits of my abilities. So last week it all sort of climaxed, and I lost the ability to sleep. What little sleep I got was full of academic nightmares - which sounds ridiculous, I know, but still isn't very pleasant. So I started wondering why I'd even put myself in that situation, and realized that I do it every time I've had a deadline here at the university. I procrastinate, and end up sitting in front of my computer screen for days at a time, feeling absolutely miserable, racing to finish a paper. And after two years of traditional social science-related studies, I'm no better at it than when I started out.

And I'm not enjoying it very much. So, after consulting with Mother-sensei, I decided that I'm not going to do it anymore. It's just not worth it to put myself through this sort of misery without an idea of what I'm gunning for, or at least an idea of what I want to do. I'm not dropping out of college, don't worry (I actually like it here), but I'm changing direction. Again. Pretty much my last chance to do so, but I can't keep doing this, considering the effort I'd need to put in during my third semester of HR. I can't write a scientific essay. I have no wish whatsoever to spend endless nights digging so deep into a specific subject that can't see the surface of it anymore.

So my mother suggested that I might try something where I actually posess some talent. And here's what we came up with: writing. There's a "literary creation" program here at the university, which seems like a good start. At least I'll find out if I have any semblance of creative source within me, and there's plenty of stuff I could use it for. The end-result would be pretty open-ended, and what career directions that would be closed are mostly stuff I wouldn't want to do anyway.

Something more practical is what I need, and I'm just sick of everything else. I miss the humanities faculty anyway, and I can't help but think that the last two years have just been a waste of time, and more importantly - student loans. On the other hand, if I become a writer (of any sort), the hoards of information I've picked up here and there can certainly be of help. Back in my high school days, journalism seemed pretty interesting, but I realized that news-reporting didn't really interest me. Feature-writing is more my thing.

And imagine, what if I could write stuff that just popped into my head, and not stuff that's been researched, analyzed and cross-referenced up the ying-yang!

So there it is. Last chance to do it right. Here's hoping...

Gosh darn it

2007-12-05T01:04:00.000+01:00

We're terrible at updating this. I hope we don't lose the two readers we have.
Check out the following pitures from our trip to the U.S. in October.

Mats and then Mats, me and John at the wedding. Everybody is very fancy dressed, which I like.

A funny little text on a church in Lincoln ("Happy hour" is a nap). I'm not too sure what they mean. If you have suggestions, please write them in the comments. Then Mats and me got to pose in Malmo, Nebraska. That's fun, visiting a town named after the place you live. Although I'm guessing I'm in the original Malmö. Which is a bit bigger, too. I think the population in this burg was so small it wasn't even specified, something quite unusual in the U.S.

There will be more to come when I have more time for uploading pictures.

Until then, love to all y'all.

Great trip

2007-10-13T12:49:00.000+02:00

So, we had a nice trip over the pond, although it was way too short. I'm having some difficulty getting to a computer these days since out apartment is getting renovated and the stupid DSL-company won't move our subscription to where we are now without charging us a butt load, excuse my French.

We'll post pictures soon, as soon as I get back my Internet access at home.

Until then,

thank you to all of you yankees, I had a blast (and I'm sure Mats did too).

Best Ladies ever

2007-08-28T14:04:00.000+02:00

Check out the matriarchs of the family:

That feels challenging enough

2007-08-15T11:57:00.000+02:00

So I didn't get into the PHD-program. They only had one spot, so it was a long shot. And there's only really one thing that bothers me about this whole thing -- I may never be able to call myself "Dr Doona", haha. Seriously, I'm doing the master instead, and that feels challenging enough.

That program doesn't start until November, so until then I'll be working at my call center. I'm not hating it as much as I was, but it still isn't my life dream or anything. I think it's fine for now. I'll also be able to work there part time after I started going to classes again, and that's good. Get some mo' money is never wrong.

Until next time:
Peace!

Nothing like people who blog, of course

2007-07-10T10:55:00.000+02:00

God, it's like unhappening-city here. I guess that's because Mats and me are working, like normal people, and don't have as much energy left over for stuff like blogging.

But today is one of my two days off this week (working on the weekend pays more), so here goes: I spend my days working, watching TV, partying a bit with my friends while playing PlayStation or watching the series "Heroes". I'm also eating way too much junk, and, it's raining like heck here. Thursday and Friday were flood days here in Skåne, and I've never seen that, not that I can remember. I mean, it wasn't as bad as those pictures I saw from England, but there was a bunch of problems. Two elderly women died since the ambulances couldn't get to them in time. No because of the water - the flooding was only in certain places. No, this was because half of Skånes home owners thought that it would be a good idea to call 112 (our 911) to get information on how you can pump out water from your basement. Who ever was calling on the ladies behalf couldn't get through. I dunno what to say ... I mean, I get that people get a bit panicky when water is filling up in their house and all their stuff is getting ruined. But isn't the point of an emergency number to save lives? Some people are just too full of themselves.

Nothing like people who blog, of course.

Have a good one!

PS: Feel very free to post a comment of two. It's nice to see who's reading (I know there must be at least one or two of you) and what you think about it.

12 days in

2007-06-15T13:50:00.000+02:00

So I've been on the job for 12 days now, and it's getting easier, quicker, and more routine-like. Apart from the questionable hours, it's not bad. I figured that I should share some of the more interesting points. There are less savoury aspects to the job, like rain for example. And drunk people who think that all they need to do to get a free paper on their way home is act obnoxiously to the delivery person. But hey, I just tell them to stick around for a couple of hours until I'm done, and then they'll get whatever's left over. That usually gets them moving, but yesterday a newly graduated student still in his hat actually stayed put, for two frickin' hours! So I gave him a copy of Skånska Dagbladet (translates roughly into Farmer Joe's Redneck Gazette), which was all I had left (I keep the good papers for myself).

Another thing that annoys me is this old fart who has phoned in several times and complained that I don't stick his paper all the way through his mail slot. Pisses me off. I'm trying here, but If you have a slot that is A: too thin for the paper to go through unharmed and B: has a frickin' box attached to it so the papers will hit the box and get stuck, instead of falling into it, well, he only has himself to blame here. I've explained this to the people over at customer services, who take those calls, and they told me that the previous people on my route had the same problem. So I didn't think more of it. Until the dude actually ambushed me this morning! Thunk, the paper gets stuck again and I start to move on. Seconds later, the door flies open, and the guy comes out shouting at me to learn to do my job and shove his paper through properly (I wanted to offer to shove that damn paper somewhere else, but didn't). He said that he complained all the time, but that no-one ever did anything about it. I explained that it is impossible to stick it through properly, because of the box on the back of the door. "Oh no, that's for the paper to fall into, so it doesn't get dirty," he says. "Well, it doesn't work, sorry," I reply. And then he tells me to just fiddle more with it, so it falls down. I do this with other papers who have committment issues, but it does not work here. I usually use my fingers to do this, since the papers are generally almost in there. The other day I used my (plastic) pen to try to wiggle the paper trough, and the inner flap of the geezer's mail slot came down with such force that it snapped my pen in half. So no, I'm classifying this guy's slot as a work hazard. I told him that if he kept on complaining about this, and the mail slot keeps giving me attitude, I'm allowed to just leave the paper on the door step, which shut him up. Bastard. He added another 10 minutes to the time until which I had to stay awake.

My list of subscribers gets updated every day, with additions and cancellations, and these are effective immediatly. If you cancel your subscription, the newspaper's subscriptions department sends the info to my peeps at the head office, who print out a list of changes and sticks it to one of my packets of papers. Immediate effect. One lady had trouble with that, and left a note on her mail slot: "I've cancelled my subscription, but I would still like to get a paper today, since I'm going on vacation tomorrow." Please lady, if I give you a copy of that paper, it means I don't have any extras left, (which, if nothing goes wrong, is my copy). We work quickly, don't cancel the damn paper until you leave.

I also have a message to anyone who lives in a fifth-floor apartment and is the only person in the building who subscribes to a newspaper. Please stop. Have some frickin' compassion. I have one courtyard where there are three five-stories, all with one subscriber each, at the top. Half-way up the third stairwell, I'm ready to collapse. Don't get me wrong, I can do it, it's just that I feel like I'm gonna puke and never walk again when I'm done with those houses.

So tonight's the night. Will Ferrell at 7PM. He's coming here! To Lund! To give a... "lecture", I suppose... I have no idea what he's gonna be talking about, but it will probably be funny.

Peace out and all that.
/Mats

Pics of me and Pelle at the wedding

2007-06-12T19:54:00.001+02:00

God, it's hot!

2007-06-12T00:18:00.000+02:00

I'm not trying to imitate Paris Hilton (she's back in jail - score!), I'm talking about the heat. Sweden is now, I guess with the rest of Europe, in a heat wave. And it doesn't cool down during the night, it's like 24 degrees C at one in the morning.

But I guess I shouldn't complain, I've been waiting for some warmth in our cold northern country. It's nice not having to put on a bunch of clothes just to go outside. And when I go to work at 7:30 in the morning, it's already warm outside.

So, what's happened since the last time I wrote? I've been working and getting into the Internet support part of my job. I help people with their Internet connections, which is a bit more depressing than selling stuff, but it's nice when I get it to work. Amazingly, it's often the customers fault that it's not working. I would have never thought that before starting this job.

We had a party about a week ago, for both my and Pelles birthday. I've put some pictures in at the bottom for you to check out. We had a great time, getting wasted, eating chips and talking about everything from politics and philosophy to Britney Spears and heavy metal.

Also went to a friends wedding on Saturday. It's weird when people your own age start to get married. It was fun, and I got to experience some Swedish wedding traditions I'd never seen before. I've realized I've only been to weddings in the U.S and Ireland before. There are a lot of similarities, but also a lot that differs. The bride and groom walk up the isle together, and the female minister said something like "Let's take it easy" when they kissed at the end, as a joke. Weird joke from a minister, I thought. Very Swedish - not even the minister is too religious.

For the TV buffs out there, I'd like to recommend the return of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip", even though it's been cancelled, they're showing the rest of the season now. It's such a pity it's being cancelled, it's sooo good. also, "Big Love" on HBO is returning, and that's real goo TV for ya's.

Hope you're all having great summers, even if it can get a bit hot. Let's hope Paris learns something in jail and that she comes out reformed (yeah, right - she'll mostly be upset because she couldn't shave her armpits and pluck her eyebrows!). I dunno why I even care (I have been getting way better at NOT reading tabloids online, so I don't really know much about the celebrities anymore, which is good). But anyway, have a good one, and I'll be back soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATS!

2007-06-04T16:09:00.000+02:00

I've been busy! For like, the first time

2007-05-27T00:34:00.000+02:00

OK, so it turns out I was wrong about how much time I'll be spending delivering papers this summer. It's not one straight month, it's two. Starting June 1st, I'll be working every day until August 10th. I don't see how I'm gonna be able to do that, I guess I'll just have to try. I've been out on a couple of test runs with a girl who is showing me the ropes, and it's pretty tough. Pushing cart with 300 obese Sunday papers in it, and then running up and down stairs for two and a half hours isn't nice. I've been coming home at 6AM barely standing up, legs feeling like rubber, and a sore armpit. The armpit-thing might sound weird, but try stuffing 20 folded-up Sunday newspapers under your arm and keeping them there for a while, and come back to me. And this is my "easy" district, once I start in June I'll be serving a district almost twice as large downtown, which means taller buildings, more stairs, and well, more papers.

The money isn't bad for three hours a day (or night, I suppose), it'll be as much as I'm getting out of our poor government at the moment, and since I don't have to pay any rent during the summer I'll have twice as much money to spend on... well, you know, actual stuff.

So right now I'm in the middle of the end-of-semester rush, I'm halfway through writing a paper that should have been done a month ago, and as soon as I'm done with that, I'll be sinking my teeth into the one for this course. This human rights thing is pretty interesting. Not as interesting as it sounds, mind you, but more interesting than I thought it would be... go figure. A smart man called human rights "a secular religion", and there is quite a bit of truth to that. It's okay to question the different rights ("should we have a UN convention on rights of bank tellers"-ish) but once one crosses into the "who says that we as human beings have rights, and why should we listen to him/her/it?" one opens up a big can of ugly idealist worms. Words like "fascist", and "hamster-murderer"come flying from unexpected directions. Still, one's not allowed to say that human rights exist because we agreed that it was a good idea and created them for everyone and all. Oh no, it's been a constant process, formed out of religion and enlightenment. When I say religion, I mean Christianity, of course, because it was us westerners that invented the idea. Sorry, we didn't invent, we just wrote it all down. I gotta play the religion card again, because it all sounds alot like when the Bible was written. "Oh no, father, we didn't make it up, we just, um, chronicled a bunch of stuff that really happened."

Oh, there I go again, using bad examples to underline a mediocre point. I'm too tired to do this...

Goodnight to both my readers, and remember to respect each other's right to freely participate in your respective country's cultural life(which is an actual human right, just check out the UN:s International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights §15a).

Bye

Lately ...

2007-05-22T22:49:00.000+02:00

... I've been working a lot. Or, I've been educated at my job, so it's been more like school. Last week I took a course at the call center on Internet support. I took a test on Monday, so now I don't only get the regular customer service calls, I also get calls from people whose Internet connection is down and stuff like that. So far, it's been OK. My nerves seem to be handling this one better then when I first started, so that good. We have great software to help us get the customers through the different steps to fix the problem, like changing settings and telling us their IP addresses, so that we can find the problem. It's always nice to be able to help people that way. In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to fix anything, but hey, nothings perfect, and certainly not Internet connections. But I do long for the day when everybody is hooked up with a real broadband, without modems and all that, since the connections for the people using that seems to be a lot better. Although, then I wouldn't have a job, maybe, so I guess it works out for me.

On Saturday I was at my first bachelorette party ever. We kidnapped my friend in the morning, and then went for breakfast. After that it was horseback riding (Icelandic horses who have those special ways of moving around), lunch, then a trip to a spa where the bride got a chocolate massage. Then she was photographed by a professional photographer, and then we had dinner at a great restaurant with the best buffe ever. The we were supposed to go out and paint the town red, although I was too beat by that time, after nine days of working and getting up way too early for my taste. So I went home, avoiding sleep deprivation and a club with, what I heard, not great music.

I'm to send in my application for the grad student program soon. There I have to include a proposal for a dissertation topic concerning media, globalization and democracy issues. God, it's hard to find the perfect topic. I don't want it to be unoriginal, but still it has to be interesting enough for me to spend four years on it. So if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to submit them in the comments.

Hope you're all doing well. I'm longing for a vacation in the States or Ireland, but I guess money and time are tight nowadays. Have to think of a real good present for Gran, who turns 90 in June. She's amazing, doesn't seem a day over 80 I think. When I look at grandmothers of my friends I feel so lucky: they're all mostly younger than her, but seem much older.

Peace and love and all that. Stick a comment if you want, it'd be nice to see whom I'm writing for. (And sorry for any stupid spellings or bad writing, as I said, I'm way to tired to be awake right now.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOANNA

2007-05-07T10:20:00.000+02:00

It's 24 this time, which feels a bit older. The two previous birthdays didn't feel like they did much of a difference, but now it's almost 25, and that feels like a bit more progress or something.

Below are pictures from me and my friends celebrating the last of April. I don't know if anyone is sober in any of them ...

Pictures from the local newspaper

2007-05-02T17:26:00.000+02:00

From the students celebrating the last of April in the park:

So, like, things are finally happening

2007-05-02T10:04:00.000+02:00

I got a job! Finally, after 4 months of endless applications, dead-end phonecalls, and scouring the web (and actually considering a few tele-marketing gigs), I got a job to keep me afloat during the summer. So here it is: I'm gonna be delivering newspapers. Now, I realize this seems like a simple paper route, but here in Sweden things are a little different. They don't let anyone do this, since people get cranky if their morning papers are late. And it pays a helluva lot more than minimum wage, because of the uncomfortable hours. And as luck would have it, I'll be doing two "districts", since only one would not pay enough. So every morning for most of the summer, between 3AM and 6AM, I'll be working. I don't mind, except for the fact that I will have to get my drinking done after work, early mornings. One of the perks is that I get to distribute newspapers right here in my own neighbourhood once a week.

Anywho, the students of Lund just celebrated our favourite holiday, "Siste April", as it is known here. Nothing fancy in the name, it just means "last of April". So me, my friends, and thousands upon thousands of fellow students made their way to the municipal park early in the day, found a spot to sit on, and began the drinking. Last year the city had to spend around SEK 350 000 (Roughly $52 000) to clean the place up afterwards, and despite efforts to keep the place clean, I imagine that it will cost even more this year.

After a number of hours in the park, me and my peeps returned to our housing area Vildanden, and continued the party there. We had a large tent. With salvaged furniture.

So April last turned into May first, when people across the world take to the streets to celebrate the workers of said world. The lefty politicians hold speeches and there's marching and band-playing. And here in Lund the university's very own men's choir held their annual concert to welcome spring. I was at home, nursing a particularly bad hangover. The final beer-tally of the previous night landed at 27, twenty seven 12 oz cans of beer. Which one hell of a record for me. All in all, a good day.

UPDATES: Linklist and recommended TV

2007-04-28T14:40:00.000+02:00

We've started up a list of links, seen here to your left. Feel free to give us tips and we'll put it on the list (if we like it, or course). There's also a list over TV-shows we like, since this is one of our not-so-classy, but true, passions.

"So, what's new with you?"

2007-04-26T00:22:00.000+02:00

That's a funny expression. But it kind of describes the whole point of this blog. So, here goes:

I've started working on a more regular basis now at the call center. It's fun sometimes, and sometimes it enormously boring. People asking you the same question over and over again, especially when it comes to the bills. Yesterday the most irritating thing happened: the company that hires the call center I work for put out an ad in one of the big Swedish tabloids. People kept calling in wanting to get this new digital TV deal, two channels for the price of one and a half or whatever. The problem was, it was an old ad. They put the wrong one in the paper, and we had no possibility of giving the people what they had decided to get. The deal was nowhere to be seen in our computer systems. It made a few of them very angry, which I totally get.

My only problem with these people is that when you tell them that the only way they can make an official complaint to the big bosses is through writing (fax, email, post), they get even angrier and demand to speak to someone. What's so hard about writing??? At the same time, when they want information from us, they always need it in writing. Can't they see how hypocritical that is?

Usually I'm on the customers (or consumers) side. Even when I'm working I secretly think bad things about they way the digital TV-company does stuff. But, of course, I want to keep my job. So I say nothing, and then my face goes red when the angry customers ask me "How can you work at a place that conducts business like this?"

School is interesting, as usual. At the moment I'm getting ready for a debate in class. Me and a guy I don't really know or like are going to be against one of the Swedish liberal party's most non-liberal idea: putting new citizens through a test in Swedish. Not a test of knowledge about Swedish culture or history, but the language. You can all ask John, it's not an easy language, and I must say, isn't it better putting money into other stuff, like getting the segregated immigrants into more jobs, where they can then learn Swedish?

It's not like Swedish is spoken in many other countries than Sweden. None, almost. In Finland they speak some. So it's about ten million people, at the most, who speak Swedish in the world. Add a few thousand more, for the German students who, for some reason no one knows, chooses to study Swedish instead of French, Spanish, or Chinese?

The problems with segregation and discrimination has to do with a lot more than learning to speak the language. And I know one thing for sure: a lot of the French and German grammar and words I learned left my mind right after I did the test. You have to spend time in the place where the language is spoken. And the people who want to become citizens of Sweden already do that.

A Swedish holiday is coming up. Maybe it's more "northern" or Scandinavian. Anyways, April 30th all the Swedes try to barbecue and then stand around big bonfires to celebrate that spring is coming. It's usually ironically cold that night, of course. Also, it's the kings birthday, but more and more people seem to be ignoring that, thank god. For students like me, it's a big deal. It's one of those holidays that are actually celebrated with your fellow students (unlike Christmas for instance). This, of course, only means one thing: boozing. I mean, it's the first holiday of the year when you get to do this outside. All food and drink tastes better outside.

Historically, it's celebrated by Swedish students because this was the day when you changed your dark, winter-student-hat, to the nicer, white one (as seen on the picture below). Now, nobody wears these hats unless it's a very official deal, like the Nobel dinner, but it's nice we're celebrating the remnants of something very important. No. At least for once, it's not some thing out of the Bible we're celebrating.

May 1st is also somewhat of a holiday. This is when people get the day off and the banks are closed. This is also the day when the biggest party, the social democrats, and other people of the left wing, demonstrate, hold speeches, and keep the Swedish people remembering what this country is all about. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's almost it anyway. I'd be mad if I wasn't so fond of the lefties.

So, what's new with you?

Hey

2007-04-19T10:37:00.000+02:00

So, I dunno if this is going to be totally unnecessary and stupid, but I've been bitten by the blog-bug, so I thought it could be cool. Call it a sort of updating blog or something. It'll also be a good place to show pictures and stuff.

For now the site is under construction of course, but hopefully me and Mats will be updating it every week or every two weeks. Feel free to leave comments when we've written something!

For now: hope you're all doing well!