Soul Sucker

I'm not very active recently with this blogging, but I must ask you to understand the situation I'm in... I really suck at Economics. Yeah, I'm recently stuck in a vicious circle of exams. Trapped in a purgatory of doing it over, and over, and over again with no end in sight. Well, until they don't let me do them until next year of course, but thats besides the point. Or if I found a job first but how big chance for that is there? And there is not much else to write about anyway... except maybe the Korean crisis, but frankly, if they don't bomb North Korea soon there will still be this spiral of threats and demands so it's kinda boring. It's just the same thing over and over again.

In Swedish politics things don't look that interesting either, if you ignore the total collapse of the Social Democrats with no party leader and the cannibalistic tendencies when it comes to ensure that either the left or the right wing of the party takes power. There is also some sort of friction in the Christ Democratic party with there imminent threat of being thrown out of the parliament. But it's still kinda boring compared to the election month. What is this? I don't enjoy it as much as I should do.

And there is no idea writing about Golden Sun: Dark Dawn since, well, it soon hits the store and I want to experience it myself without being spoiled. And I don't have any films to watch either and there is no party going on. Damn, this really sucks. 

Elected

Oh yeah, another exam has been handed in, but now I was stopped by the exam-guard who recognized me from TV yesterday. Yes, the whole election fraud was up in the public channels local news. Here, have a look if you are interested, but it's in Swedish for you who don't understand the languish:

There is also a written page so you can google translate if you want to know what's the deal. Unfortunately they didn't offer me a job at SVT as a political commentator... sad really.

You might wonder what the story is about since I haven´t mention it before. It was during the election we had one person urging people to vote for a certain candidate inside the polling station which is against the law indicating that the polling station is a neutral area from politics. So we took it to those handling the election and they contacted the party for the man who was the one that should get the votes. And that was that we thought. No more of that kind during the pre-election, but then came election day and the candidate shows up. Saying hello and then leaving. Apparently this happened according to him, we commit election fraud. The thing is that he appeared while I was opening the outer envelope containing the the envelops with the ballot paper to check if it was in order, no more ballots than elections the voter had the right to vote in and only one ballot for each election, otherwise we have to send it to those handling the election to valuate if it counts or not. This is supposed to be done before 20:00 when the election is over (also to make sure that if people regret their preliminary votes, that can do it over). All according to protocol.

Of course, it could have been just a misunderstanding. Mostly since, frankly, he doesn't seem to know about routines of our work. Especially since he wish to revise the law to make it possible for people who voted at the election day to vote again later on the day (as he put it for the reason that many immigrants have a hard time distinguish the Social Democrats from the Sweden Democrats). There is one huge flaw with that... how are we gonna separate every ballot from each other when we put them in the urn? It's impossible, in that case we need to mark every single ballot with whom you are. That is a crime against the voting freedom in the Swedish constitutional laws and a danger for the whole democratic society. Other than these technicalities there is a flaw in his logic. If we assume that we committed election fraud, why didn't he tell us, ask us or even notified us that day? Why did it take 24 hours? Why didn't he stay to observe if we did anything else? We were completely alone when we counted the votes, but apparently we were trusted enough with that. Too many questions left unanswered.

It didn't help that he was elected in to the local and regional level on personal votes. It shall be interesting to follow this, especially since the decision if we gonna have a re-election in Värmland or not is supposed to be announced today. At least it's nice with some political scientist things amid all the economic stuff. 

Smooth Dancer

The return of the Pol Mags and another ride in the nightlife of Karlstad. The night couldn't begin better with my iPod thumping out songs like Down in the Dark, Wild Side and Alexander the Great on the way over. Great fun to meet old friends I haven't seen for a while as well a chance to forget the stressful surroundings at the moment. 8 people gathered, 7 of them Pol Mags and one Economist and who didn't go out with us. So 7 people we were, the lucky number. Riders of high intellectual skills and promises of a new elite taking shape so we end up in the nightclub with 23 as the lowest age (except the usual "exceptions")... and we somehow end up at a stag and hen party... I think at least, no one of us know. We end up at a table and watches the decay around us. WTF?

There is a bride running around the place, some guy without pants, another with the sleeves of his shirt gone and one of our neighbors getting a lap-dance by a fully dressed..."girl" while another "girl" walked around a group of suited men. And this is around 11 P.M., thank god that a lot of other people showed up and took the dance floor so that this disappeared in the crowed or all together disappeared away from the site. This was just a big WTF moment.

At least we all came to the realization that... we are old. Nightclubs doesn't feel that interesting anymore or it at least sounded like that on the others, I never really appreciated them. Still don't, it's just obnoxious loud music which 95 % of the time I never heard before and scuffling around with sweaty pushing people. Really, what is the point? The closest answer I have would be that it's the hunting ground for a casual relationship that then could evolve into a serious one... it's just that I suck at it and actually believe that there is no way I would find the right person at the dance floor. Mostly due to me being a very bad dancer when it comes to these kind of dance floor.

At least it was fun to see the old gang and be out with them again. Wonder when next time will be?

When The War Comes

It's war baby in what formerly was the garden of Eden. Heads will roll and a new dawn will rise on the Swedish political landscape. Or at least we can hope that it will, a good government need a good opposition so that politics strive for the best for the people. And the Social Democrats really need to fix themselves up, the other parties in opposition are not credible in any way and if S doesn't work properly, than the Moderates will take to many liberties without any threat against them, not even from the Alliance itself. Yeah, politics is about to turn ugly.

So what has kept me from my usual updating? Well, two exams, one "essay" writing and a presentation is the first part of the answer, and then the fact I had to study for the other shot at the first exam next week, while waiting for the result for the last one. I'm a bit more confident in that one since I actually could answer some of the questions. If I somehow fix this, it must be the first time one person does it without knowing a single one of the formulas for the course. At least the new courses are more interesting (since I actually understand some of the things they talk about) but GOD, must they write so much on the whiteboard? At least it's soon weekend and a reunion of the class of '10, the last of the Pol Mags.

Born To Lose

Finally, I'm finished with both exams and the other papers that needed to be handed in... for now at least. I need to redo the first exam in about 2 weeks, and the one I did today is a very close call if I will need to redo that one as well. With my most optimistic view I get 11,5 points out of 25 possible, and 12,5 is pass. It doesn't look good, but since I actually sat down and handed in those damn extra homework I have some points to push me above the line. I of course don't know how many points I have to spare so it will be a very tense wait.

At least I can take the week of listening to the wonderful music of Black Sabbath in their 2 most underrated albums, Eternal Idol and Seventh Star Deluxe edition, featuring the vocal talents of Ray Gillen. On an actual mastered quality version. The Seventh Star album contains some live-tracks from a show at the Hammersmith Odeon which I actually got the full concert (almost) on CD, although the quality of it is arguable not that good. For some reason the voice in particular are much darker. At least that was fixed, but I'm a bit saddened they didn't fix the whole concert. The Eternal Idol on the other hand contains the demo tracks with Ray on vocals instead of the regular with Tony Martin. Awesome songs in the original release, godlike with the original singer.