Thursday, April 17, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Snow on St. Paddy's...
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
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
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Things are a-happening
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Balance
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!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Insight. Or is it?
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...
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...
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Gosh darn it
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Great trip
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).
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).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
