Madness Strikes At Midnight

It's done once again, a new home-exam delivered and a seminar discussion together with it. It was a bit more fun, probably due to International Relations more normative outlook. If you have a belief you can always stand by it and take the discussion from there. The discussion got heated some times, especially during the liberalism vs realism discussion. Really fun stuff. Except the writing until midnight last night to get finished and then up early to proofread one more time then print it out. Print it out, notice I forgot to put my name on the papers, go back to the computer, fix the problem and send it to the printer again. Then my card runs out on money, so refill it, try printing out the last 2 pages. Does it work? NO, back to the computer and send those last pages and then print them out. Hope to god that it went well.

Is it over there? No, after the seminar back to the library for readings for the essay. Which I have read one book about, and I shall hand in a PM too tomorrow, of course I have the option to postpone it towards after Easter, but if by some miracle I put together the beginning I can take Easter of and just do my 72 hours Final Fantasy XIII marathon without problems. On the other hand I could sit and do it at the moment instead of watching some boring TV-series and just walking the net, but hey, I'm lazy.

Lights Out

One day left before the home-exam is supposed to be done. One question left, no worries. It's fine. What has happened since last time? I got some waffles. Good. And then it was the "Kravallsittning" at Saturday. All right, a bit short, it had the idea of being well structured but fell a bit flat at execution, mostly due to lack of experience in that area. Of course this is from a person that has been there for 4 years and have an image on what it is supposed to be so the question is: are they doing it just fine or don't they reach my high standard?

Also it was Earth Hour during the "sittning", but we didn't turn the light out... and I don't care. Yeah, you read right. Idealistic Niklas is gone for the moment replaced by the cynical realist Niklas, a bit stressed out by the home-exam and a PM finished until Thursday which I haven't started on or even began reading for. Life is fun. Oh, almost forgot, I got Final Fantasy XIII as well, but I probably will not have time to play it for some time... till retirement with m luck. Nah, not that bad. During the Easter Thursday I will probably stock up on food and candy and just play till 22:00 on Monday next week. That's a total of 96 hours without sleep, with sleep the minimum would be 72 hours not counting the extra hours on Thursday, but those will probably go to food consumption. So that means 72 hours non-stop playing... nonstop chocolate *drool* ahem. Back to the home-exam.

Sands Of Time

Not much is happening actually as I'm more or less condemned to study in the library for the home-exam. The most spectacular thing about that is that I've changed place to a table in the back. Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Anyway, I still miss the last book and time is getting short and tomorrow it's the public sector fair Off. Spring (the off. is short for offentlig which means public). All day so no studying so it means it's time for the weekend push. Of course that one is hampered a bit as we have the final "kravallsittning" at Saturday night which probably means Sunday is out of the question. Hmm, what a dilemma!

Other than that, it's waffle day (yes, I know it's Lady Day in english, but we call it waffle day) and no, I haven't had any waffles, that has to be some other day as I don't have time coming home so late. Even better then waffle day is pay day. Lets see, shall it be Resident Evil 5 Gold or Final Fantasy XIII? Though choices... or maybe I take both? The problem is I don't have time playing them at the moment. Besides the home-exam I have to begin the essay and write something for the day after the home-exam is returned in. And I have only read one book about my subject. Seems like I have to improvise here. Enjoy your waffles!

Blackout

If you have noticed the blog suddenly contains over 200 entries. This was since I found out to import my old blog and fuse it with this so that's why there was no mention of the occasion 200 or why 100 is completely wrong. Technical difficulties you know. Anyway.

As I reported last time the water started leaking in the main water pipe or something like that in Karlstad and the pressure fell and some household lost their water. That has now been fixed so the pressure is up, but the leak hasn't been fixed yet and the water is therefore contaminated. So we still have to boil the water... and it taste awful. They calculate that it will take a minimum of 3 days to fix it and that means Wednesday. 3 days of horrible awful boiled water. At least I can cool it in the refrigerator.

If that wasn't enough the whole Swedish society seems to be falling apart (or at least Karlstad). Around 19:00 today when I've been in the library since 08:00 studying the anarchy in international relations and failed states the power cuts. In the whole University. The power just goes out. It means it was time to go home. After half an hour that is since I tried to stay until 20:00 when they close the ordinary library, but without light I had to read the articles I had in the light of the monitor of my computer, the candle for the high-tech age. Annoying as hell. Still I think I got the home-exam mostly figured out, I say mostly as I don't have the book necessary to finish the last two questions. Not good. And I think I could rewrite some parts of the first question as it isn't read very smoothly. Lots of jumps in the train of thought. Did I mention how much I hate the boiled water?

Black Water

Well... uhm... funny thing actually... he he. Apparently the whole water system in Karlstad and the neighboring municipality was closed down for repairs as they had sprung a leak. So no water, or so they said in the news. I didn't notice until after my breakfast and morning refreshment. So I had water (lucky me), but before you use it you should boil it was the recommendation from the unquestionably public sector. So have I done that? No, to lazy and it also gave me the perfect excuse to go and by some coke. No one would question that. Buying coke? Didn't boil water! Perfect.

Also the SNES conference (no, not the Nintendo console, a political scientist conference) ended yesterday. Of all the topics yesterday I only went to one in the afternoon, the rest of the time I was in the library writing on my home-exam. Except when I went for the free coffee, cinnamon buns, lunch, candy and mocha squares (or something some Swedes "love goodies" or whatever Kärleksmums is in english). A lot of running that is, so it's questionable if it was worth it as I probably made of with more energy then I got (and I make it sound like a bad thing, must be the coffee abstinent I got now).

Dancing On A High Wire

I feel like I'm on a roll. Yesterday it was cinema time with Green Zone. Fairly decent action-thriller or whatever you call it. Reminded me (and apparently some of the other guys I went with) about MW2, especially the first missions. Of course that disrupted my schedule as we also got the next home-exam in International Relations and European Integration studies. So it's once again two weeks of utter stress and madness... not really, this ones feels a bit better, mostly due to the fact that I studied American foreign policy in 2008 and it pretty much had the same theories with a more center view on the US. Only problem is I have to refer everything I say to a source witch mean I have to search thru my old notes and books to find all the good stuff.

Anyway, I thought on doing some work today, but the faculty had messed up with schedule here and placed an international conference on Europe and the global world. I was only supposed to make a short appearance and what happens? You get stuck there and at the afternoon your friends begin calling you to find out were you are (being here 1 hour before the conference start I had to get a table in the library leaving all my stuff there). The positive side is I got free lunch and two "fika" pauses during the day. Free is good.

Returning to my place and my friends they tell me the result on the last home-exam is out and guess what? My first VG (A or B, in this case B as it was precisely on the borderline and it makes it even sweeter) on a Political Scientist sub-course, EVER. It's fricking awesome, especially since this exam was seen as the worst one ever. And now I have to get this one right and I can put onward a second complete VG on my CV (the other one being Economics). I tell you, I'm on a roll now.

Yeah, and during all this excitement I agreed on representing the Washington Semester Program on Hotspot (work fair) in April. In the middle of the essay procedure and job hunting . I hope my luck doesn't run out now and throw me down the gutter. It wouldn't surprise me though, but I would feel so ashamed to miss the current home-exam as I specialized on International Relations. To fail would be the most shaming thing I ever done and would hunt me till the end. I must not fail, I shall have that VG no matter the cost. Nothing is dear enough to keep... except chocolate... and coke... I'm doomed am I not?

Doin' The Omoralisk Schagerfestival '10 (3)

So it's over once again. Melodifestivalen 2010 has drawn to a close and Anna Bergendahl is our representative in Oslo later this year. Now, I haven't followed this competition all out as I been busy a couple of times, thankfully listening to much better music at parties. So I don't have a full grasp over all contestants. It's a nice song, it just doesn't lift my spirit and tells me it is an instant hit. Of course if we win I will probably just shut up. All I can do at the moment is to brag that I saw here live in 2008 when I came back from Washington. That's right, I've seen here live and would gladly show a photo from that occasion, but unfortunately my computer have either erased the pictures or somehow sent them away to some other place on my hard-drive. I don't know. All I got left is some really disfigured shots that are impossible to make any sense of. Convenient isn't?

Otherwise I don't know what to say about the finale. First thing we are shown is Sylvester Stallone, yes THE Sylvester Stallone greeting Dolph Lundgren then a music number with Survivor's Eye of the Tiger playing and everyone is dressed in boxer outfits. It can't get any cheesier then that with one exception. If you recall I've been talking about Dolph searching for the saboteur of the first show. Do you know who did? No one, it was a F***ING illusion, it was all in their MINDS. GOD DAMMIT what a cheap cop out. The middle act was deplorable, a hard rock version of last years winner that totally sucked, mostly due to the fact that it wasn't a good song to begin with. We also got a montage of earlier Norwegian and Swedish songs that was either hit or miss depending on the songs themselves. Best song was still Roger Pontares song from 2000, När vindarna viskar mitt namn. Here is the Swedish outtake of the song:

And for international readers we even have the English version:

There is of course a big difference in lyrics but it still awesome. Unfortunately it only ended up in 7th place in ESC, but of course, with todays standards in Swedish ESC-songs that's pretty high. Of course, when speaking about Melodifestivalen there is one song that's even better and describe the whole thing perfectly, Doin' the Omoralisk Schlagerfestival:

This one don't have any english lyrics so to all international reader, I apologize for the inconvenience.

In Her Majesty's Secret Service

At the moment I'm looking on my bookshelf and seeing my James Bond-collection on VHS which I got when I moved to Karlstad. Of course not the whole collection, it begins with Goldfinger, jumps to some of the Roger Moore movies, both Timothy Dalton movies and all Pierce Brosnan movies (the last one being a DVD but still). Particular fun is the way all movies before Pierce Brosnan had Swedish titles. The translation can nowadays be very funny to note upon. If we begin with Dr No, in swedish it was James Bond med rätt att döda, in english James Bond with a license to Kill. Anyone notice that the title is awfully similar to the second Timothy Dalton movie? Hindsight is a bitch isn't. It gets better. For Your Eyes Only with Roger More, became Ur Dödlig Synvinkel, or translated as View To A Kill, the same name as the last Roger Moore movie. What did we name that one? Levande Måltavla or in english, Living Daylights. That's right, the first Dalton movie. As that title was taken, they made it into Mission Ice cold or something like that. And finally License to Kill, what did we call that one? Tid För Hämnd, or in english Time for Revenge or if there is some catchy phrase for that, you get the idea. After that they decided just to copy the english titles.

So why am I discussing James Bond? Well, as one of the co-hosts of Melodifestivalen is Dolph Lundgren whose first movie experience was in A View to a Kill as a KGB-agent. And also, the first music number of last weeks show was Duran Durans A View to a Kill. Not as good, I missed the plucking of the guitar in the original. And if, for some reason they gonna do another Bond-song, I hope it would be Living Daylights with a-ha. Who cares if they are norwegians, it's one of the best Bond-songs. Speaking of norwegians, they gonna show who "sabotaged" the first show. My bet is one the viewers, worst show ever. Of course I have a habit of saying that every year. Anyway, if we are gonna be serious I hope for the sake of consistency (in a show that has nothing to do with earlier years) that it is Lasse Berghagen, like 2 years ago (or at least I think it was 2 years ago).

There In The Silence

Been a while, but what do you expect when nothing happens? Still, nothing has happened this far either so this is to show that I'm actually alive. Other than that, there is just studies in the library on the schedule. Reading and reading and reading... you get the picture. Some guy Polanyi is taking up my time at the moment. That and there is a bunch of kids running around in the school. High school students getting a look upon the higher education system... and taking up a lot of space and rising the sound levels. Do I sound grumpy? I just want it to be quiet or at least noisy with interesting conversations. Not with uneducated youths who don't understand the beauty of the world... or something like that.

I Want It All

Modern Warfare 2 is really funny. It reminds me so much about the fun I had playing Perfect Dark, which I didn't finish for some reason. Yes, I was scared on the last stage, the home planet of the evil aliens. Everyone had a cloaking device, some were big, some were small and they all screamed with some primal sounds, lurking in the shadows. Boy, I wish that Rare could put it on the Wii virtual console. That would be awesome, together with the other games they and Nintendo had together. If we go back to MW2 I can just say I probably suck compared to almost everyone else.

Anyway, the first class of International Relations today. Brings old memories back, Morgenthau, Waltz... Makes me miss the US. Hopefully this home-exam won't be as unnerving as the last one. I should at least be better on this since I actually took a whole course reading about it, or at least realism and idealism (aka liberalism). Here they also talk about a third way of seeing things, but I forgot what it was. Memory you know.

And now to discus the future. As I mentioned earlier I'm playing a bit MW2 at the moment, mostly because my friends have nagged on me forever about that game, so I finally got. Now it seems that Final Fantasy XIII is coming out next week. That is a +40 hour RPG. They will not like that. Also, I need to get my hand on Resident Evil 5, I really liked the 4th one. Just don't know how I should afford all this. Especially since I put 1000 SEK on pants. Really, that would have solved my problems, except that I wouldn't have any pants at all. Maybe time to get serious about a job so I can afford my very expensive hobbies. It doesn't help that a new Castlevania game is coming up as well as the Golden Sun DS game (that was a long time ago since I had my extremely long ramblings, but they don't give me anything to work with).

Is it just me or do I feel a tendency that I refuse to grow up? Nah, must be my imagination.

Modern Warfare 2

Haven't written on the blog since I finished the home-exam last week. So what transpired after that was a seminar which caused everyone to feel that they missed something. A fun feeling isn't? Anyway, to get away with the bad feelings it was time to spend this months CSN-money. So I bought three pairs of pants, jeans or whatever the correct term is. Clothes for the legs. Over 1000 SEK, god I feel violated. Then some nightly liquor to a party for a maximum of 100 SEK and then Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 for ca 600 SEK. I used more money on clothes than the other things combined, that is not the way it should be.

Yeah, and if that wasn't enough I fell on the ice around the bus stop. Hurt my arm. Bad day indeed. Anyway, after that it was MW2. And god, it gave me flashbacks to Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Dark. Those were great games and this is also pretty fun. When you don't die, and you will die a lot! Especially fun when you start a new course, sitting in a car following a suspect. You stop, suspect fires at some other people, turn around and kill you in the car. Retry, back in car, you duck below the car window, your driver gets shot, you run out some bastard throws a grenade at you, you die. It's a lot of that.

Anyway, the big event of the day is a party. And boy it was fun. Lot of familiar faces. Great time. Until it was time to get moving. Dumb me don't follow the others in a cab, no, stupid me decides to wait at a bus stop. Realizing it's 30 min till it arrives so I walk toward the centrum. Halfway there I stumble upon the ice and hurt my leg. Rest of the way I limps, walking somewhat normally when other people passes by. Luckily I'm so intoxicated I can shut the pain out and the cold does the rest. The only good thing about this would be that I could carry a cane, now that would be cool. Another good thing is that I got a legitimate excuse to stay at home and play some MW2, even better don't you think?