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.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
12 days in
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
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
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
God, it's hot!
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.
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.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
I've been busy! For like, the first time
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
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
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Lately ...
... 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.)
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.)
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