Seasons of Change

Continuing from yesterdays post about my graduation, I noticed I didn't say that much about it. My bad, but there isn't much to say except that it was at the University's auditorium. The five first rows was filled with graduating students taking magister degrees, bachelor's degree, socionoms and others I can't remember (or actually care about frankly). The rest was friends and family. The student union leader hold most of the ceremony and there were two members of the faculty there, each of them giving a speech. A couple of beautiful songs in between the different groups getting their apples. Yes, glass apples, everyone got one. Everything went on as usual, except when one of the socionom groups went forward and one kid started crying and screaming with all power he could muster in his lungs. Probably 10 years old or so. Kinda disruptive. And I usually have this belief that children shouldn't be allowed into the public room. So you can probably guess how I felt. Of course, I think my neighbor couldn't decide what was worst, the kid or me, twisting and turning in agony of the constant screaming. The interesting thing is that the following song contained the lyrics "and I can't stand screaming children". It's hard to not laugh at that coincidence.

So after everyone got their apple it was out, get a slice of cake and a cup of coffee, talk with some of the others, then it was of. A bit sad that there was no other of my other friends, but that couldn't be helped. At least I recognized  4-5 others so I wasn't completely alone, but it was still not the same. Funny enough I'm still lingering at the university, trying to get a job. Lords know where thou. A very depressing thought to be the last, but then I've always been the one to quickly settle down. Of course there isn't very deep roots since they've already left so what is keeping me? Still, I have at least a couple of months before the sword materializes above me and I will be forced upon direction whether I like it or not. At least spring has finally come to relieve us from the cold.

Fruit of Melancholy

Been a bit busy the latest couple of days. With what you ask? I graduated this saturday and I now have a glass apple standing in my bookshelf. After 5 years of studies it feels like a let down somehow. Anyway, that just occupied one day of the whole week. The rest have been a trip into ancient memories of a childhood long gone. First an adventure scaling the world tree in order to save the elves from a meteor spreading its poison across the world. Yes, it was an old NES game, Faxanadu which we never finished since none of us understood what we were supposed to do, a bit hard when you didn't spoke English. Usually I just made up a story as I played. Of course, you could always force your way thru, but for some reason that never happened (it might have been that I easily got frightened by the really weird monsters roaming the game). So after 10 years since last time it was the right moment to strike back. And I did, but my own story elements would have been much better.

But the high point of this weekend (and beginning of the week as well) was the King's Quest-series, 1 - 6. If Faxanadu was hard to understand if you didn't knew english that well, King's Quest was almost impossible. Maybe not the first and second one (with exception for the damned cryptic Rumpelstiltskin puzzle), but the third and onward really needed you to understand the English languish. Of course, you always had the thick instruction manual to help you, not only help, but also make it possible to finish some of the game due too Sierras use of an interesting copy-protection. Easy enough right? No, it wasn't that easy, for some reason our instruction book was in French. Yeah, unfortunately I took German in school. But this meant I couldn't play either the third or forth game since you used the book to make spells in third and being allowed to start the fourth game.

It probably wouldn't have helped either if I could have read it, to frightening with all the instant death sequences. The fourth game wasn't even working for some reason either. So the only games I had a chance to finish (I thought at least) was the fifth and sixth game. The fifth game I did at least come half-way, the problem was the desert. I don't know way, but I didn't dare venture into it. That would have been the easiest one to get, just make a damn map and go for it, but NO, I didn't dare, instead I went into the damn witch forest several times and got killed of. The sixth game then? I played it almost flawlessly and got all things and talked to everyone, but then I got stuck at how to climb the damn Cliffs of Logics where you needed, you guessed it, the instruction book to finish. WTF!

What's the deal you might ask with a 24/7 internet at ones disposable? Not then, so when I finally got my hands on the games I could easily break thru these problems. But guess my frustration when I, for example finally got the fourth game to finally run on my computer and I'm met by the message "at page X, phrase Y write word Z". I obviously didn't ask my parents to bring the book since, it was in French, and that I didn't think I would use it. Thank God for the Internet!

Falling

Pride comes before the fall

I like that proverb for some reason, it so easily describes mankind's inherent fault in seeing themselves above others and starting to fly and then fall back to the ground as they didn't see the obvious problem with it. Apparently it's also biblical, who knew. Also it has something to do that I constantly fall prone toward this one. I often take pride in that I see myself as an intellectual and huge capacity to feed myself new knowledge. A pity that my results doesn't show that. Yes, we got back the first sociology exam and what do you know... a G. Don't get me wrong, it's nice not to have to redo it again (like the macroeconomics that is due to April), but after all that studying and actual understanding for what I read it's a bit hard not get the corresponding grade since I completely suck at writing exam (it seems according to my track-record)... and maybe my cocky attitude in that I "know everything". What do you mean I'm bragging to much about nothing?

The funny thing though is that most people seemed to have done decently well and it wouldn't surprise me that I actually lies at the bottom tier of the class, except that those I've spoken too probably think I have a much better number. Especially compared to someone who (got a VG by the way) that ask me how it went, and I frankly said it didn't go as planned but with a smile and she just said I had to high expectations. I wouldn't call getting VG to high, not after studying for 5 years and still fail on writing long enough answers on the exam (I got 24 points by the way, of 39 and 21 is the lowest G, 30-31 VG). She probably think I got a lot better, but not full score... actually, that feels like a good start for this course since we are discussing the deceiving human who put on a masquerade in order to hide or give the impression of a certain ability. And I seem to pull of the "all-knowing and wise" character so that might... *scroll up to the top*... yeah, I probably should shut my mouth before I jump from even higher ground. 

The Bigger They Are (The Harder they Fall)

Feel a bit obliged to comment on the current situation in North Africa/The Middle-East. Not that I have much to say since it took almost everyone by surprise. All in all a good thing and pretty much the only way to assure a decent democracy is if the people themselves cast their shackles and demand emancipation. I might appear cold-hearted, but the rest of the world should involve itself as little as possible, at least EU and USA. Why? To make sure that the people themselves don't feel that we altered their path of development and gives believers of the old regime an excuse to way they lost. We saw it in Germany after the First World War when the nazis used the beliefs that they had been stabbed in their back by their own government. A government none of them believed in. We see it in Iraq and Afghanistan where the stubborn belief of the Western world of "shake-and-bake democracies" still aren't working after almost 10 years. Democracy can only be taken, never given (and once again I see myself in the role of a realist instead of the idealist I wish I would be).

That was my more pessimistic view, hopefully they will raise from the ashes and enter a more peaceful and stable world. It also seems to have effects beyond the Middle-East. According to one article in SvD this could be a major set-back for the North Koreans since these fallen dictators was the ones keeping their export industries floating. With the current situation of a sick and dying leader and an economic crash, we might get rid of the worst dictatorship in the world. Not that there is any good dictatorship (or is it? Could have a long discussion on that matter in a philosophical way), but there is different levels of hell, if you know what I mean.

Youth Gone Insane

Saw the best comment of the year so far, as well as the proof that the forthcoming youth generations are something to fear. It was on a news coverage about the brutal treatment of pigs that the news team interviewed a pair of teenage girls. One of them had the great comment that "good people bought the expensive meat (aka ecological)"and also pointed out that she was one of the good ones. Now, my reaction might have something to do that I don't buy the ecological products since, frankly, it doesn't always taste that good and I find the higher price a bit much to stomach in the long-run with a very limited income (which I don't actually have since it's mostly loans). But alas, I don't care about that since her sentiment actually has a much darker tone than I think she thought. Because, do you know who never buys the ecological stuff? The poor. Do you know why? They can't afford it. Actually, that is social problem for modern society. The poor doesn't get the nutritious food or the sustainable one for all our well-being. And now they're evil as well, talk about though luck.

I might be a liberal (although with the prefix social) and classified as a heartless elitist that looks down on everyone, but hell, I wouldn't call them evil. You know what I think? Her parents are some of those green, moralistic bastards who want to release the minks to save nature and animals... that then ends up eating other animals and disrupting that ecological system. Or if that isn't the case I'm really scared, because that is the future of the Swedish people. God help us all!

Battle Station

The war is on. It's blond bomb-shells flying across the sky, voices of mass-destruction and pictures that shatters the mind of any sane person watching it. Yes, it's once again time for Melodifestival... and god it's awful. Lame puns, bland songs and people acting like they were made of concrete. Other years there was at least some fun middle-act that at least had some decent music, but not this year. The whole thing is a life-less cadaver that nothing can give the pulse back.

Enough about that stupidity and let us discuss something even more stupid. Or it will at least be more stupid the more I write about it. Sociology, albeit fun, can sometimes crash into discussion regarding certain character traits, or with some generalizations, traits for a whole group. Being mostly a female dominated class you can guess who's the evil part of society. Lucky enough for the male part of the class, the girls aren't that vocal, but what help is that when it's obvious our fault. Now, I don't bother that much, mostly due to that I and the other can defend ourselves with logical reasoning. And that none is very conflict seeking (although I start to suspect one or two of the guys). The only time it became a full-on conflict was when the subject of violent video-games came up. And that's the only time I've seen such deep rift between the men and women in an academic situation. And that wasn't that hard to understand because they (the women) didn't "get" why we, as a group compared to women, preferred violent games (I hoped they meant in various degrees).

And everyone from the guys (cornered in the back of the classroom) spoke up against that generalization (as well as the hinting that it was pointless). It more or less boiled down to our defense position being that in order to be alive and human, you need to feel, and the only way to get that adrenaline rush in a legal circumstance, we play video-games (or watch movies, or read books). Now who is the group protecting our right to be emotional, eh. Say what you want, this is at least an academic discussion, what is troublesome is when you get into similar discussion in swedish newspapers (especially in Aftonbladet). Recent debate is mens objectifying views on women in media and popular culture (written by a female leftist no less in her 60's making me wonder what she really knows about modern culture). And then you read the comments. This my friends is the reason why it's a miracle why democracy is the preferred form of government. The one thing that make this worse is that when I watch music videos, listen to them, read books and watch TV, I knows that it's fiction, but reading the comments I know that they are actual opinions of people. Somehow fictional stupidity can never be worse than the real deal.

Before The Fall

Wow, less than a week since the last update. I'm back on track it seems. Maybe it have to do about failing in the Economics once more so I can moan about still have a fricking macro exam after me. WHY OH GOD did it have to be so hard. In the long run it will probably boring to read (and write), but hey, agony seems to be one of the selling points on the internet. Then again, I don't seem to care that much either.

Now to something completely different, hows things in the sociology course? I never have taken such an easy course. It's just memorizing most things since I have a fair grip on most of the subjects in the course and this is just 2 weeks before the exam. My ego is going to be bigger than the moon if this continues. Than there is the possibility that Murphy's law kick in. Or that I find everything so easy now, take the exam to easy and don't clarify my thought enough and putting me down a couple of points from the desired (but not necessary) VG. After all, I probably have to score highest on the test after my "subtle" hinting of my "advanced knowledge", nothing else than a full score is perfect. Otherwise... DEATH!!!

Or maybe not. Besides that it's also fun to analyze the group dynamics in the class. Sitting at the back, asking questions and constant whispering ideas and thought with the neighbor probably given me a "bad boy attitude" (whatever that is like with a nerdy political scientist). Me and the other felt a bit of clashing between us and part of the other guys in the class with the more... outspoken women in the row in front of us. That seems to have gone away now after a quick team-up which ended in laughter instead of discussing the questions at hand. And that someone else seems to be more obnoxious than us. Some guy no one has seen since the first lesson just shows up and makes comments and asks questions that has nothing to do with the course (or at least from our point of view). With a common object to distance us from we have all come closer together as a group. It's actually very interesting to analyze that from a sociology perspective, read up on that and try it.