fredag 27 mars 2009

Dead Winter Dead

It's snowing...Again! Winter was retreating up north, the roads was cleared from the white, cold crystals and the sun shined and warmth all our hearts. Until I woke up this morning that is. The wind howling and bringing with thousands of snowflakes bombarding the streets and houses. It didn't get better that I had to go to the Library in this storm conjured by King Boreas himself only to taunt us.

Global Warming seems like a good alternative. Just think about. A lot of countries (one of them Sweden) has a lot to gain from Global Warming. The Baltic Sea has been predicted to become the new Mediterranean, Sweden will be able to produce a lot more agriculture and our forest industry will accelerate. And still, we try to stop Global Warming. Why? One of the repeated messages is that we want to give a better world to our children, but I think that that our children prefer a nice Mediterranean vacation at home together with a booming economy. Job and heat, what more more can you ask for?

måndag 23 mars 2009

The Educated Fool

So the financial crisis are continuing and will probably do so until next year. I'm not worried for myself as I'm finishing my education in either 1 or 2 years. Of course it is unfortunate for those in between, but sometimes I really wonder what some people actually believe. In the TV news this morning they interviewed someone that just finished high school and that it was hard to find a job. I think so without education, what high school did she go to, what did she study? And the entire interview circulated around that the employees searched for people with experience. And they talk to someone without education higher then high school.

Onward to the next crisis problem. Apparently the US senate (I know the article is a bit old, but the Swedih news reported that he as back last week and basically said the same thing again) has invited the General of the Swedish National Debt Office, Bo Lundgren to discuss how he and the Swedish government worked to stop the 1992 Swedsh economic crisis . And we are not alone in thinking this way as some well-established economists says that the US should do the same. Then they mentioned the fact that they need to nationalize and as everyone knows that is a hot potato in the US. I even gave it a thought to nationalize medical companies to stop the avian flu in a hypothetical scenario when I was in the US. All the Americans shoot me down without thought. I still believe that would have worked, but then again, I'm living in a country that lies "down the slippery slope of Nordic Socialism"

fredag 20 mars 2009

Turn up the Night

Alright, the layout of the blog has proceeded to something at least. Don't know if it's gonna stay that for long though. Onward to yesterdays big party. The same party that was postponed from the homecoming weekend one month ago. It was worth waiting for.

Although it got kinda messy with spaghetti being thrown all over the place. At least I didn't get anything over me like last year. The best thing though was that I didn't have responsibility for anything this time. I had to keep track on the money for last year and the year before that so that felt nice.

The only bad thing about yesterday was that we got another home exam due to Friday next week. Guess there is only to study this weekend as today is more or less wasted.

tisdag 17 mars 2009

Digital Bitch

At the moment I'm trying to remember some classes i took in high school how to edit websites which explain the new layout. It will probably change again. I don't feel comfortable just yet, but it is hard to remember something you did 3-4 years ago and never used since. Oh well, it is only to try till you get it...where the hell did the frame go? What's that color and what does this scrap of code do? As you understand this will take some time so please be patient. It will probably evolve day by day (or at least when I got time).
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No, no, no, NO what do they mean "syntax error". Arrgh, damn it, back from scratch.

söndag 15 mars 2009

Mission Impossible

Party yesterday. A really great night. And the one thing that is the most interesting and happens on almost every party I go to is the "Mission Impossible". That is when a couple of people from the pre-party or what ever decides to take it to themselves and be my wingmen. Grateful as I am, it is still fun to see how it really works. Everyone is giving advice, pushing one forward and what not. Of course it never works as intended. The only conclusion they make is that I need a extreme makeover in clothing and attitude.

I don't know if that helps, for apparently I once did a great job, but for some reason failed when I said something. Or so I was told yesterday in the cab down to the club. And they don't tell me what I said and I can't even remember this incident. How am I supposed to learn when I don't know what I did wrong? Then again, I always was better at knowing the theory than actually using them. The one wingman/woman who succeeds will probably be better than Barney Stinson.

lördag 14 mars 2009

Broken Heroes

Bin Laden is still provoking the world, hiding somewhere, sending some obscure bands with encouragement of holy war to retake Jerusalem (yes, still Swedish news). He's been hiding for 7 years without even been spotted by the coalition forces. So is there someone we can compare him with? I would say the closest historical person would be Hannibal Barcas.

I don't claim he is a super tactical genius or a brave commander standing side by side with his troops, but more how the symbolism he represents the Muslims that follows him. A leader that gives a horrible blow to the mighty nation USA, could be something similar to the Battle of Cannae for Hannibal. This gave the Romans a deadly fear for one man. The battle didn't lead to total victory, but it showed the Romans that they could be defeated. They were not untouchable.

Exiled after the battle in northern Africa he traveled the Mediterranean without goal, and as far the story goes took poison before he was caught by the Romans. This will probably be the likely fate of Bin Laden and here the comparison ends. The Americans will never see Bin Laden as the great adversary due to the simple fact that he haven't defeated them in a so called "noble battle". To the Romans, Hannibal was seen as the greatest enemy of all time and they even builded statues of him in different streets and cities in his memory. I hope and doubt that Bin Laden ever will get a statue in the US.

fredag 13 mars 2009

What Can I Say

The last school shootings in Germany this week has sent ripples of disbelief and sadness across the world. Ones again someone snapped and caused grief for families, friends and a whole society. And at this moment we have the moral guardians descending upon us like vultures that have found their prey. Especially in Sweden were we are fortunate to not have any so far. These so called experts on various subjects goes forward and try to explain why this has happened and how we should deal with it. Number 1, and most logical to me is that it's because of bullying (I'm sorry, it's in Swedish). No explanation is needed here really.

2) One is due to the school systems authority. Don't know much about it, except that some German friends have discussed the pressure they feel on failing and that it sometimes means stop in the education ladder.

3) One of those that I really don't approve of is that the shootings was due to the murderers habit to play first-person shooters games. Or more like that we feed young children (mostly boys as stated in the article) images about "glorified violence". That could be justified, but as the NRA would say, guns don't kill people, people kills people (and I really dislike the NRA). First of all that their is very few that snaps and therefore creates non-existing relationship or if you believe in statistic, you could always argue that because so many plays, the chance of snapping is lower. Secondly, if I remember correctly, the school shootings in Finland was caused by someone that played a Sonic game. Violent indeed.

4) The one I find most despicable is that the reason behind because he is a man. Firstly we can dismiss that with the fact that one of the first was carried out by a 16 year old girl (I blame it to the access of weapon). Secondly that the writer is the same person that a couple a years ago was reported on camera to have stated that "men are animals" during her time as president of the organization of female duty groupes groups (ROKS) and other controversies that she supported a theory that Swedish men belonged to a satanic cult that murdered women and children (or so I got the impression). Not that credible then.

So a cunclusion would be due to my social life and school form I'm alright, but due to be a man and playing semi-violent games I would start a war with society. Thank God no one mentioned Heavy Metal again, then I would really be worried. Back to the video game theory, I have been playing this demo of Europa Universalis 3. Playing as Sweden of course (really, who wouldn't play as their ow nation?) I first embarked on a failed attempt to conquer Scandinavia when the damn French and Scottish joined the Danish-Norwegians. Second game a peacfull economy power was my goal until the damn Russians invaded and my alliance with Denmark was a total disaster. Thirdly, nothing happened. Fourthly I was so pissed of that I sank my economy, trained forces of 26 000 soldiers, took back all the land of Sweden and most of Norway. So what does this tell me? That my excessive playing and that I'm a man created for violence will use it to attack Norway and Denmark. I'm not killing anyone, I send other to kill each other. Like that would ever happened.

onsdag 11 mars 2009

The Land of Ice and Snow

Hurray, the snow is finally melting. It's been clinging to the ground for weeks now, creating an ice sheet hidden under the currently fallen snow. Deathtraps for all living things. The sun is shining bright above my head and warms everything around me. No more waking up in what feels like an igloo.

A fun thing (not actually fun, but interesting) is the escalated conflict in Northern Ireland. The conflict is just as horrible as any other (or more so when it has religious tones and no one take their responsibility), but interesting in the fact that our guest speaker spoke of this only days before it happened. That is an up to date topic.

söndag 8 mars 2009

Equality is an Impossible Utopia

So there is trouble in Northern Ireland again. Seems like our speaker spoke the truth. Other then that there is only the winner of Melodifestivalens second chance, and frankly, I don't care. There is no reason to have a second chance as they probably lost out against (one can hope) a better song. No real chance in the final. Just feel like draining the voters for money.

A more interesting topic I begin thinking about is that there can never be a true equality. Don't get me wrong, it is something to struggle for in some degree, but it will never be achieved. Mostly because we are so different from each other. Everyones view of religion is different from each other. The holy books is merely guidelines to some undefined goal. No one has the same physical attributes as their which makes us suitable for different kinds of labors. Not everyone has the intellect to study. True equality requires only one job to work in and the same wages. See impossible.

Only two societies have come close to achieve this and they would probably not have fulfilled it either. And a good thing they didn't either. Homo Sovieticus and Aryans are probably (or probably, they aren't) not the best equality concepts that man envisioned true hitory. For a good hypotetic overlook of this concept one should play the game Tales of Symphonia. The goal for the evil organisation is to create a world for half-elves as they are being discriminated by the other races by purging the others from existance or absorb them as lifeless being (which happens to the half-elves themself as they don't know whats good for them). They have no feelings, no senses.

Is the boss then an evil person? If you play it, you will feel pity with him. The hero on the other hand goes another way and preaches tolerance instead of letting everyone become equal to the extreme and that should be what we really are struggling for. We accept everyone eventhough we are different.

lördag 7 mars 2009

Screaming for Vengeance

I'm kinda upset today. Yesterday me and some friends were to a Rock quiz at the local bar. Everything was fine, we had prepared before with some humorous thought on what songs and question would be on the quiz drinking some beer and having some popcorn. We arrive and the quiz start. We more or less guess what bandit's gonna be when we here the questions. Like "how old was he when he died and how he usually ended his concerts?". Any guesses? Jimi Hendrix (funny enough we even prepared that question before we went over) even before the music started.

If that wasn't enough they even broke the first rule when putting out questions. NEVER HAVE MORE THEN ONE (1) ANSWER. Never has for the breakthrough album cause it will always be different and never ask for the band members from a band that have gone through multiple line-ups if you don't specify the time. The line-up question was about KISS and I think they didn't know for themselves. Mostly because they seemed to take just four unrelated names in the group and stick them together (but obviously I could be wrong).

The last thing that upset me and made me lose confidence in the judge is the shouting out of the answer to one question. "Who was the former singer and how and where did he die?". Answer is Bon Scott but when the judge shouted the answer out it somehow turned into Ben Scott. Ben Scott isn't even a musician. The judge didn't even correct it, what the hell.

Why am I then upset? Maybe a case of bad loser attitude. I really want to check the correction process for I fell that anyone could have done it faster (and OBVIOUSLY our team would have done better than that). The judge seemed to have a very strict correction model and make me draw parallels to a special organization, and once again we seen that Godwin was right. I apologize to anyone that felt that that was to much.

torsdag 5 mars 2009

Where Angels Fear To Thread

Just sent away some of my old schoolwork to my sister for some help. I feel like an angel now. Probably some way to lighten my sinful living and denial of God and ease my passing to the Other Side in 80 years time or so.

Of course I don't believe in Heaven per se, but something must exist out there. Mostly because it feels unnatural of not existing anymore, not feel, taste, hear, see or smell anything. Strictly scientific there can't be anything after forever because our brains stop functioning, but will it just turn black? Stop sensing the world around me? Will it become like a dream when I float through a black sea feeling nothing flying in non-existence?

Due to this I hope that the afterlife consist of an entity that collects the "souls" of all the living and process all experience they have gathered in their lifetime, all their memories and share it with all the souls. A cleansing of the soul. Of course, if God or any other deity exists I hope I come to a heaven where I can eat Chocolate all day without the nauseating feeling after one 200g bar. Mmmm...Marabou. Of course that's is one of the cardinal sins, but still, heaven most be something extraudenary for having those strict rules before entering.

måndag 2 mars 2009

Neverending War

A real lazy day. Woke up 7:00 and just fell back into sleep for 2 hours. A really god choice. I needed to sleep. Goes to school and can't find the damn room we are supposed to be in. So after some time I arrive a couple of minutes late. That's right, LATE. And if that weren't enough, it also was a guest speaker talking about the conflict in Northern Ireland.

More or less a forgotten conflict since on year back as it does political progress (and being pushed away by Obama, Israel-Palestine, India and so on). It also worth noting it is one of the most western countries in Europe and still in a conflict that draws parallels to the Balkans, Israel-Palestine and most of the Middle-East actually (everything we label as east). That is another conflict that it is very tempting to just say "nuke them". Were it appears unsolvable and no hope for reconciliation as they show in this strip (it is in Swedish so I'm sorry).

There is only one solution to these feuds. Something so tragic and so devastating for both sides caused by either a third party or by nature (often military domination doesn't work). Romeo and Juliet are a good example if I remember correctly (didn't the families reconcile after the death?). More historical one is Sweden's loss of Finland to Russia (that's serious, 1/2 of the country just gone). Of course this is more when there is just one person to blame (in this case Gustav IV Adolf) for a really bad strategy against the VERY big Russian Empire and the VERY big French Empire.

More accurate is probably the Danish-Swedish feud. We of course made the last move by stealing Norway from them and leaving them alone against the Germans (twice actually). But everything we did would probably have caused the Russians to react and the Danish where busy with the expanding German Empire. That makes 2 third parties taking away concern about your long-time enemy.

söndag 1 mars 2009

Sunday Bloody Headache

First part of the C-Essay is finished and turned in. Could have been better. Everything could be better, but how fun would the world be if everything was perfect? First of all, no free will cause that would only be disastrous and then a an elective dictatorship to make all decision. One standard is all we need.

Saturday was party time. Damn fun and a very nice surprise. There's a Subway in Karlstad. Not only that, they have put some Swedish touch on it with the choice of Swedish meatballs. That made me so happy, no it is only Starbucks left and there is never a reason to leave Sweden again. This party of course meant I missed Melodifestivalen, but (un)lucky enough there is a rerun at Sundays. Why do I torture myself with this? If you gonna trash something, see it at least so you don't appear as a religious nut case just for the sake.

All right, 2nd song Higher with something about starships. Felt like an ad to the Swedish airforce (whats left of it, feels like its gonna chrash). If you gonna listen to a song named Higher I suggest the group Phenomena. One of the singer is THE Voice of Rock, Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and other great groups. The album is Psycho Fantasy, but I can't unfortunatly not provide a link, but you can always get it somehow (stealing is of course very immoral, but as my good American professor said, all emerging great powers stole from older great powers, which in context means that Sweden and China probably will turn out to be the next set of great powers in the world).

We also have a Dance band in the contest as well. Apperantly that is as Swedish as it gets, but I belive that IF we send it to Moscow, we even lose the support of the other scandinavian countries. See, I have completly legitimate way to say this because I actually saw it. This is my opinion and my alone, and don't try to make me change it even if you tries to bribe me with chocolate. I have at least some morals and ethics.