Walpurgis

Tomorrow it's Walpurgisnacht. One of the biggest holidays in Sweden (and another reason for "socializing" together with some special beverages) and is a nice break from sitting in the library and writing on my essay. Oh...and for you non-Americans who tries to watch the links on Field of Lies entry to The Daily Show...forget it. Apparently the US is closing of its digital as well as its real borders for the flu. Swedes doesn't seem to care that much so far, we are more or less fed up with the news for blowing it to such proportion. Instead, more important news is a museum that will be closed for 7 years during renovation and Obamas 100 days as...wait, why do we care about that when our economy is going free fall and we are really close to see a pandemic hit humanity again. The Americans even banned us from The Daily Show. Good thing we can stop think about that for one day tomorrow for one or two reasons.

Give Me More Time

Today it happened for the first time this year. It has been a 8-19:30 day. God, it's so depressing. It's kinda nice outside and I'm stuck writing my essey with books written by and about Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Rawls nearly stuffed down my throat. And before the 10 week started I thought that this be so easy and so quickly and suddenly it's only 5 weeks left. What happened with the time? And this week time in the library is a no no as Labor Day comes up ahead (to the Americans, why do you have to be so different from the rest of the world, daylight saving day is one week later, you don't use the metric system and you have Labor Day in September, why?) and the library closes. And then their is other red days during May. This is not good.

Field of Lies

Saw this show Are you smarter than a 5th grader and was more or less abhorred by how those competing are happy to show their incompetence and being outsmarted by those smug 5th graders. Then again, who am I to talk anyway. I like to gloat when I win in Trivial Pursuit which is not so well taken by my family. This doesn't mean I'm smarter then them, we have had that game since 2000 and I memorized many of the question or that if they ask you to choose between if it's Sweden or Norway in some absurd question. It's mostly Norway for some reason.

This brings me to the the very interesting "documentary" about Swedish Socialism from The Daily Show: The Stockholm Syndrome part 1 and part 2. A must see for every one. And then the comments. It's a pity some Swedes don't get the humor and some blatantly use statistic without looking them up (Swedes again, get you to question how good the school really are in teaching source criticism). Some are citing that Sweden is the most violently country according to Interpol. If I remember correctly when it arrived in the news a couple a years ago it was the murder rate that had been blown out of proportion. The reason was that Interpol registrated even the suspicion of murder as murder and when the police confirmed it wasn't, Interpol didn't change it.

Makes you see the beauty in the proverb "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain.

Chains of Misery

You can feel the despair growing every day. It's so thick you can cut it with a knife. From early morning to late night we sit there, reading and writing. Outside the sun breaks thru the clouds and gives us signs that spring has arrived. But we can't leave. Chained to the desk and chairs we study for the test or essay in the library in chains made out of our own making.

Well, it's not that bad. Of all time spent in the library it's not much that comes out due to a lot of socializing. Then again, some seem to have a lot worse then me. I don't get the worrying feeling until the end and then it gets out of control (somewhat). And I'm gonna do this again next year! Sometimes I wonder if I'm really sane.

Sign of the Cross (2)

Last time I wrote about my first religious beliefs and sadly enough it isn't over. So blood and gore caught me and strangly enough it also drove me away. This happened in 2nd grade, so I was somewhere between 7-8 years old, in 6th we began studying history and it all changed. We discussed the inquissition and the crusades. What made me look away in horror was the church way to easily bow to the greed of mankind in the story of the knights templars. The French king just treatened the pope to follow his lead. Then my faith in the church went away. Other times the church meddled in the affairs of lords who tried to unify their ountry into a central organisation and their only reason for that was profit. Hate grew inside of me this moccury toward their so called beliefs and morals. I dispised the church and everything it stood for.

Then how does it come that I still pay the Swedish church it's taxes every year? Mostly because laziness, but also the fact that as long as it goes to preserve many of the beautiful architecture wonders that is the churches. And as the man himself said, "turn the other cheek" for at least the moment. This concludes my odyssea in my religious life and we shall never see those pits of hell again, I promise.

Sign of the Cross

Easter is over and after a weekend of watching Jesus Christ Superstar and The Brothers Lionheart (by some seen as an allegory for the book of Revelation) we all know the suffering of Jesus and at the same time the cries that we need to fully separate the church from the State and problems with catholicism (or especially the pope and his comments). The separation of the church from the state is according to me a good thing. Luther himself said that the priest shouldn't interfere in the politics of the lords and vice versa. Something we have forgotten today and force the politicians will upon the church, we even ellect politicians to the parish. They have nothing there to do.

This is also a very strange thing to do from my side to take the side of the church as I clearly dislike the church due to their historical and modern problems. It has gone up and down true my life about my religious beliefs. When I finally was able to read one of the first thing I read was (I'm sad to say this) the family bible (it had pictures in it). A fun book indeed with intresting pictures. I especially liked the long writings about the wars against the phillistines, Samson and other blood dripping stories with well-detailed pictures in a FAMILY bible (I fear the bible for adults). That's the old testament, the new testament was a lot more boring with Jesus and the words of love and so on and then it suddenly stopps using picture after Jesus have come back and met his Apostles. They omitt the most intresting part in the new testament: The book of Revelations, there you could fill the most intresting interpretations of the apocalyps, but no.

No wonder the church is losing so many members when they censur the best parts in the bible.

Sympathy for the Devil

Was in Linköping last weekend to meet some old friends from high school. Haven't seen them in one and a half year so that was very fun. Remembering the old times, and I realized I've changed a lot since then. I got the impression that during high school, I appeared as vainglorious, arrogant and a know-it-all as well as really stubborn. At least I think I changed or at most toned some of those traits down.

When we still are on the subject, sometimes when you see old friends you fall back to the ways you behaved back then. Same thime here. Met one of my friends new friends and began talking politics, yes I know, I study it to much. Let's call it a work-related injury. And falling in to my old behavoiur flavored with the cyninism and realism I picked up at the university this idealistic person I met was a desirable target. This idealistic flower that began to blom in her first year at the university met the cold, hard logic that tried to extinguished all hope for the world we live in (probably to much bad news on TV, yeah I know, I'm horrible). She took it kinda alright (I guess it's beccause I acted more like an devils advocate, I like that role)

P.S. What I wrote on April 1st was completly true, all those things happend.

The Temple of the King

I doubt anyone would believe what I'm writing here due to it being April 1, but that's your loss. First of all, the biggest event today was 13:15 when His Royal Highness King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Her Royal Highness Queen Silvia visited Karlstad University. I stood between 1 and 2 meters away from them. Unfortunately I had forgot my camera, but thanks to the marvelous technological evolution my cellphone was able to stand in and here is the result:

As you see, it is also a beautiful day as well. Spring is back and hopefully here to stay.

The second good thing was when I came back home and checked my mail and apparently I got a two week job working with the European Parliament election. Income secured this year without a summer job. And this is not the end of the good fortune.

Thirdly my Income declaration came yesterday (although I forgot to check it) and there is some money to collect. I love my life. Money, Job and a Royal aura, nothing can make me feel bad. Except that I miss chocolate. Haven't eaten it for a month. I miss it so much. It's sweet taste that makes my mouth explode in thousands of senses and make my dopamine levels go high wire. Mmmm...Marabou.