New year, same problems - getting my finances under control, car trouble, need better speakers, getting a girlfriend, losing wieght... same old, same old. But I guess it could be worse! And it seems that US will have to back down about that demand to have american security onboard all flights in or out of US, guess they weren't gods over the world after all. And little credit to Britney for giving us a few laughs over the new year weekend, I just wish it had been a little bit more original than that. Just wondering what that guy is thinking - if I were ever to marry a rich babe like that, drunk or sober, I wouldn't agree to a divorce that easily, haven't he seen Eddie Murphy's "I want half!"-scene from Raw!? And I eventually saw the last LotR movie, although I broke with tradition and did it on the second. I haven't read the books so I can only judge the trilogy movie-wise and I gotta say the third one was a huge disappointment. The "Oh my god, we're outnumbered and getting our asses kicked, but what is that over the horizon, is that the cavalry" was really getting old and when green goblins comes to town I just gave it up taking it seriously.
Here's hoping tha last Star Wars movie is able to live up to the expectations, but that's not till 2005.

Now I'm getting really annoyed by spam! You know, those annoying e-mails trying to sell everything from Viagra to the Hilton sex tape. But I'm not annoyed because of the nuisance factor of getting 200 spam mails every day, I've got a pretty good filter so that's no problem. No, I'm annoyed because I can't for the life of me understand how anyone, any sane person, can ever fall for any of these e-mails! I mean, seriously, if you get a letter from some sdgsgsg@sdgsg.net with the topic "Instant Prescript%ion Dru[gs to your Door!" and the e-mail is a picture of a guy in a white coat and a pricelist for stuff like viagra and whatnot, why would ANYONE click it or buy anything!? I don't get it. Obviously there are people out there who fall for it, otherwise these spammers wouldn't keep on sending spam. So who are the people that think they can increase their penis size by buying a patch from an anonymous website?! Would you buy anything from a site like this!? Yeah, you could make these kinds of things illegal, try to develop software for it or whatever, but the real problem are stupid idiotic people who fall for these letters! I just don't understand it... and not understanding them makes me annoyed.

I know the year just got started, but this is the funniest thing I've seen all year!

Oh no, I'm getting that feeling again. And it's not that loving feeling unfortunately, it's the same feeling I was starting to have a year ago. That my life (atleast monday to friday) has become an endless routine of "waking up, going to work, go home, watch some TV, play some computer, go to bed" every day. And last year when I got this feeling I signed up for a "once in a lifetime!" project at work that is kinda laying low right now, but that's starting up again in the middle of February. Until then I guess I gotta keep this routine and deviate from it as much as I can.

So Bush wants to go to Mars, huh? Being a "why aren't we there already" person I should like it. But no, it didn't really work. Kinda hard to take it seriously. Don't know if he was aiming to do another "We should do these things, not because they are easy but because they are hard"-JFK speech that got the original space race going, if it was he failed. JFK wasn't campaining to be re-elected. JFK hadn't invaded two countries. No, I'm not gonna get started on this. Instead I'll direct you to this BushIn30Seconds.com. Watch those clips and judge for yourself...

I'm trying not to get too much into the Israel vs Palestine debate since I don't wanna be labelled an anti-Semite. But guess what? I was recently laballed anti-Semite anyway. It all started last week when Israel's ambassador here in sweden came to an art exhibit and one of the exhibits feature a little boat in a sea of blood. And on the boat was a picture of a female suicebomber that killed some 20 people last year for some idiotic reason. He thought this was glorifying and sanctioning palestinian suicebombers and went berserk. Then he called big daddy and all of a sudden Ariel Sharon was on TV saying all swedes are anti-Semite. Riiiiiiight. I just got two words for that - Raoul Wallenberg. Sure, it was 60 years ago and some might say let bygones be bygones, but Israel is the last country in the world who should say that. And sure, you may say that one person doesn't speak for the entire country, but considering that this all started with one piece of art by one artist that was misinterpreted by one person, that arguments falls flat. And besides, Raoul Wallenberg, as oppose to Oscar Schindler, was sanctioned and helped by the Swedish government. He couldn't buy a diplomatic passport or set up a diplomatically protected sanctuary on his own. Feels kinda sad that the good reputation of swedes as an open and tolerant people got tarnished over this little incident. It's not our fault the ambassador got ticked off over an art exhibit that was suppose to show the bloody and meaningless consequences of conflicts like that.

That's what I think!

Sorry about not updating, I've been totally immersed in the game of Bf1942 over the past weeks, finally finding a game I can start playing on a little bit more serious level. I haven't been playing anything on this level since the good old Starcraft and Unreal Tournament days. The amusing thing about the gaming community is how incredibly (I can never spell that right!) isolated we seem to be. If a member of SK walked around here in Stockholm 99.5 % of the people won't know or care about it, the other 0.5% would either go down on their knees and pray or throw a HE at him (which is politically correct since they just dismissed their ladies). Which is kinda sad considering how HUGE sweden is in the gaming world. We're the best gaming country in europe, and world champions in some games. I think someone should mention that when discussing if it's a good idea to subsidize "broadband to the people" or the home-PC projects since both of those two are mainly responsible for putting us up there in the top.

Is it just me, or is the video to "Boogie Pimp"'s "Don't You Want Somebody To Love" the best video of all year? It's got everything - good track, humor, techno beat, failing parachute, mega-hot chick and crying babies. Hilarious stuff! But ofcourse, after the "Christina Weekend" on MTV last weekend you kinda crave good music and good videos. ANd speaking of music vids, Britney's latest ("Toxic") was a bit of a dud. Stylish, hip, hi tech, computer animated, naked Britney and not very good music either. One of these days she's gonna make an artistic video and catch everyone by surprise. Btw, here's a question I've been wondering for a while - just how much creative input does the artists have in their videos? Take someone like Jewel, her first videos were deep, artistic and thought-provoking, then we had that "Veronica's Secret" commercial-like video she did, then the sarcastic and ironic "Intuition" video but her latest ("Stand") is too deep for me to understand. Just how much does she have to say about them? The video to "Intuition" was totally in sync with the song, that doesn't happen alot, does it?
(yeap, I'm on helpdesk duty which involves serious thinking and alot of idle time)

Oh no, they started another run of "Big Brother". They really should rename that show to "Who'll Fuck Who" or something because that's what they've reduced the show to. From an interesting psychological experiment of locking people from different walks of life in an isolated environment and see how they get along it's now just about getting a bunch of hot singles into an isolated big bedroom and see how long it takes for their hormones to take over. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. And I don't watch it, an episode was on while I was playing on my computer and as always I've got one ear on the computer the other on the TV and when they got the entire "so who's ready to have sex in this place" conversation started up - ON DAY THREE !!! - I couldn't even listen to it and flipped over to Jeopardy which was 10 times better. And you actually learn something.

I've done it again - attended a LAN event. This time it was me and a friend that got a bunch of people togetherto just play games. Now I've been up for about 21 hours, playing computer games and just wasting another weekend. But it was fun, so not a complete waste. And by the way - 4 days. That's how long it took for their hormones to get the best of them.

That's it - I'm never gonna buy another issue of Aftonbladet! (one of the biggest selling paper here in sweden) They've always been pretty good at twisting, spinning, exaggerating and basically doing alot of superficial idiotic things to sell more issues. But I've always been able to filter out the crap and get to the actual news. But today they crossed the line. They went so far over it, the line is a dot to them! As I was strolling around in NK in Stockholm, admiring the view (you guys know what I mean), thinking about stuff I saw the first page of Aftonbladet. The biggest news of the day that they were running. And guess what it was? ... That two of the contestants in this years Big Brother... they... oh, can I even say it.. oh... they had... they had sex... like "oh my god". OH MY GOD, has it gone that far, have we made this world so uneventful that there is NOTHING more important to report than the fact that two people had sex? Just how many million people did have sex yesterday? Do I care about that? This is so lame, they sat a new record for lamest front page every, it even beats the time when they called Christer Petterson (they guy accused of killing Olof Palme) to talk to him about the guy who's now accused of killing Anna Lindh. Seriously, if I worked there, even as the coffee-machine-refiller, I'd be embarrassed. Don't they like have an obligation to report something worth the ink it's printed on?!

Doesn't the americans have a twisted sense for what should be shown on TV and what might be harmful for kids to see? They've never had a problem showing people killing people, violence in any form, no prob. But Janet Jackson's boob pops out and OH MY GOD, that's terrible. A boob. Geez, never mind the fact that the sport everyone turned in to watch is pretty god damn violent! And don't tell me it's not, they wouldn't need all that protective gear if it wasn't violent... But 20 guys beating each other up over a ball isn't harmful for a kid, but a boob is. Like hello, one of the first thing any normal baby does is get a boob smashed in his/her face, why should seeing one more be harmful!? They are pretty weird....

And speaking of of setting new records, the Jackass crew set an all time "furthest anyone will go for a laugh" record - a guy convinced his parents to go to Las Vegas and renew their vows, Elvis style, and also imported a russian mail-order bride that one of the guys married the same day they met for the first time. That episode was just hilarious. It might have triggered the "oh what an awful state the world is in when you can mail-order a wife"-vibe in me, but it was all done in a funny way and the babe seemed happy about the situation...

Another weekend, another bunch of movies consumed. With all the hype about Lost in Translation, as well as being a Coppola and a Murray fan, I just had to see it. And it turned out to be the most boring movie I had ever seen. Visually it was really great, some shots were just amazingly filmed and Sofia should get all credit for that, but it was just sooooo slow. And in the end, I never really got it. Call me shallow or whatever, but I just didn't get it. And then I saw Elephant. I don't really know how to describe what that movie is suppose to be about, but it turned out to be even MORE boring than Lost in Translation. This one had no humor in it what so ever. I guess I didn't get that movie either. But I finished with a movie I did get - Runaway Jury. Big Cusack fan, I was expecting alot and it delivered and then some. Not that many twists that I was expecting but I still didn't see the end coming. And a pretty good reminder of how flawed the american justice system is. But then again, so is the swedish sometimes. Then I finally saw "Matchstick Men", when both Ridley Scott and Robert Zemicks involved it had to be good. And it pretty good, only one twist and a depressing one at that, but a nice ending made up for that. And another big surprise was "Pieces of April" which I wouldn't have seen had it not been for Katy Holmes, but it was pretty damn good! I'd recommend it to a friend! All in all, a pretty good weekend!

I was hyped yesterday to see the NHL all star game. I've tried to see that annual thing since I like hockey and there are always swedes playing, but this year I really couldn't do it... it was suppose to start at 9 but for 30 minutes of bringing out the stars and stripes and showing off and still no hockey they bring out Kurt Russell, who just happens to play the lead in the upcoming movie about the so called miracle (the movie is actually titled "Miracle"!) when the US college hockey team won the olympic gold, to talk about the glory of... I really don't know cause I got fed up with the bullshit and switched over to the Osbournes. I was ok with american patriotism before, but after september 11th they've just gone overboard. But with a law like the Patriot Act, I guess you don't have a choice.

Do you know I suck at confrontation? Doesn't matter if it's normal lovers quarrel, negotiating my salary or telling a waitress she messed up somehow, I suck at it. Don't know if it's because of my upbringing, if it's my reluctance to have people disliking me, lack of confidence or whatever, but it's a fact. But it has led to some good things. Not many people do dislike me, as far as I know. I've had to try different dishes from what I'm used to when a waiter/waitress serves up the wrong thing. But I'm below average when it comes to my salary :(

Another weekend, anoter bunch of movies. I finally saw "Run Lola", a german movie that's been cult-labelled. And after seeing it I gotta agree with that assesment. Damn good flick. But like "Groundhog Day" and some Star Trek episodes, a little bit weird. I personally liked the little small things that changed between the different versions and how they affected things in a big way. Kinda like "if I hadn't ordered that chicken sandwhich I wouldn't have gotten sick and I would have been able to go to Jordan as I was suppose to and make tons of money". Those things. Also saw "The Last Samuraj". Didn't expect much but it was pretty damn good and interesting flic. And beautiful too! Not that historically correct though, but they never make that claim either. Then there was "Paycheck". I expected a very good story and not that much action in that movie, but it was pretty much the other way around. Story was ok, although no big brainer and the action was pretty good. But what would you expect from John Woo.

Is it just me or has the weather this year been very schitzo, especially here in Sweden. Going from warm-cold, winter-spring all the time. I've been thinking about changing the tyres on my car but everytime it's started snowing or something.

I saw a little clip on CNN from some european Jewish convention and heard this big speach about anti-semitism and how it's a growing problem in Europe and it's a big monster that must be defeated. Maybe it's just because of the fact that I'm not jewish or maybe it's because Sweden is a very tolerant country, but this was news to me! I'd like to think of myself as a pretty up-to-date kinda guy, the kind that watches the news daily, doesn't mind having CNN or Sky News on for hours, checks out news websites daily. And I've never heard that this was a big problem. Atleast no bigger problem than your average short sighted racism and anti-"everything that's not us" mentality. But apparently it is.

Don't you just love "Evanescense" latest song, "My Immortal"? I'm loving it, and the video is freaking awesome as well! Thinking about adding it to my "songs to play at my funeral"-list.

I used to think swedish women were the most beautiful in the world. Well, after spending some time here in Finland I think I'm ready to extend that to "scandinavian women" 'cause they are pretty beautiful here too! And you know me, I like to be proven incorrect and have my believes questioned a little now and then.

Did you hear Colin Powell's speach at Princeton? I particularly liked how he used what happened to Iraq as an example to what would happen to any other countries (Iran, North Korea and Libya that is) that tried to acquire WMD and how this event has made some countries reconsider. Wait.. did Iraq really have any WMD... nope, bad intelligence. And I don't only mean Bush's intelligence, or lack there of. Then he also mentioned how allies of the US needn't worry about going into an arms race with anyone or trying to buil any WMD since US would protect them. So I guess Blair can just start dismantling their nukes? And "they" are still downplaying the importance of the fact that they were totally wrong about Iraq having any WMD when one year ago it was the reason to invade another country and overrule the UN, go against their oldest ally and getting the world opinion against them. But I guess it wasn't that important.

As I said, I've spent a few days in Finland (which is so close to Sweden it doesn't even count as being abroad!). Anyway, I can really recommend this place called "Storyville". If you just wanna hang around in a nice quiet bar and play some BJ, it's perfect. But if you wanna hang around in an overcrowded bar with live blues & jazz music you just go downstairs and you've got that too. Really nice place and atmosphere, and the band on the night we were there was damn good as well. And it's the only bar I've been able to order a "jägermesiter in red bull" without argument!

Think what you want about the gay marriage thing happening over in San Fransisco, but this mayor is my new favorite politician. I was hoping that Arnie might make a good politician, most of all because he's suppose to be financially independant (not even Bush can say that) and coming from Hollywood one would hope he had a more open liberal mind. But I guess I was wrong.

And today the ever so enlightened, wise and open minded president of the land of the free decided to make same sex marriages unconstitutional. Why? Well, it seems the marital bond between a man and a woman is sacred and a basis for society to function. Meaning that if you'd allow people of the same sex to marry each other everyone else will feel their marriage means less and that would pose a threat to society.

Two words : Britney Spears. She wasn't even married for 100 hours, but what she did should pose more of a threat to "normal" marriages meaning less than two people who actually love eachother. But their short "getting married while drunk"-marriage seems to be worth more than the thousands of gay people who's gotten married in San Fransisco over the past week. I'm not married, so I can't really say what that bond would be like. And I'm not gay, so I don't know what that bond is like. So I can't really say which one Shouldn't the 50% (or whatever the number is nowadays!) divorce rate pose more of a threat? I'm pretty sure gay's would divorce as well, but I guess we won't find out. And besides, saying "gay people can't get married because it would make my marriage feel less important to me" is to me like saying "women can't vote since that would make me feel less important", which they were saying hundred years ago. And that changed, so hopefully this will as well.
And I wish I could say Sweden was better, but we're not. Here, gay's can become a so called "registered couple", which is as close to marriage you can get and offers some of the same benefits and assuarances, without actually being married.

Have you heard all the fuzz about Gibson's latest movie, "The Suffering"? If you haven't - it's a long movie about the last days of Jesus Christ as told by four gospels in the new testament. And I've been laughing quite hard at the reaction from both the christian and jewish camps! I haven't seen the movie, and neither have most of them, so I can't really say if it's good or not, but I have read the Bible so I know a little about the story behind it. But that's not what I'm laughing about. The christians are all jolly about this movie since it will englighten millions of people and everyone will start streaming back to the good old Churches looking for salvation and forgiveness. The jews are all worried about how the jews are portrayed as bad guys in the movie. And I'm not one to take religion that very seriously so I hope all christians and jews will forgive this ; havn't they been saying the same thing for the past thousand years? Christians have gone all over the planet looking to christianify (I love making up words!) people, even with guns and cannons. And the jews have gone "feel sorry for us, it's us against the world" for as far as I've known it. But with Schindler's List (which btw is one of my all time favorite movies) coming to DVD next week they'll get some payback, 'cause those people I really felt sorry for.

Personally I'll just quote the Guru Kevin Smith:
"Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar."
  - The Metatron in "Dogma".

... or how about "Stigmata":
"Jesus said...the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood...and I am there, lift a stone...and you will find me."

I could go on all day...

It almost slipped my mind. But only almost. Yesterday was pretty hectic so I didn't have much time to stop and think. But when I finally went to bed at 11 and did my "think about the day" I realised what day it was. 2 years... 2 years ago that I lost my best friend. 2 years ago that I was taught the real meaning of "you don't know what you've got until you lose it". 2 years ago that my world was turned upside down. 2 years... it feels like an eternity.

Well this has been fun. Once more, a weekend only dedicated to entertaining me, myself and I. Not really doing anything, no obligations to anyone or being anywhere. I like that a little know and then. And so I got to catch up on movie-watching ; "Schindler's List" again. Damn that's an awesome movie. One of those movies I can see over and over and still end up crying. I wonder if it's a part of modern schooling to see that movie? It should be. "Scary Movie 3" ; hilarious movie, way better than I thought. The first one was hilarious, but second one was a little too much. But this one redeemed it. But they still do play alot on internal movie-jokes, and having Denise Richards as Sheen's wife - nice! And then there was "Underworld". I've never been a fan of either the warewolf or vampire genre, and this was all about that. But I enjoyed it alot anyway, pretty good action flic. And Kate as Selena is probably the sexiest thing on film since Elisabeth as the Devil in "Bedazzled". And she did it all without smiling - once. Then there was "Duplex". Nothing special really, "neighbor from hell" concept without any real surprises. No, I take that back. It was an unexpected use of music! But still pretty disappointing.

Did you see the "re-elect Bush" video they've got going over there? I particulary like the part when they say Bush is a stabilizing force in a rapidly changing society. Riiiiight... "oh my god, gay people who want to do something we all take for granted and get married, let's make that unconstitutional!", call that stability? And they also play on the "September 11th"-factor to "emphasize how Bush rose to the occasion and dealt with the biggest crisis in american history". If sinking the economy and invading two countries is "rising to the occasion", I'm a little bit scared. It kinda reminds me about this animation.

Please don't re-elect him.

Oh crap, here comes my asthma again! I can't remember the last time I had a problem with my asthma, but it was really long ago. But it's back. Fortunately I've still got the meds to combat it, but it's another sign that my health is being fedexed to hell. But I am pretty thankful that I've got this little genetic screw-up because that's what I used to not do the military service here in Sweden!

I recently got "The Running Man" special edition DVD. "So what, that's an old movie", right? It is, but the reason it's been re-released are the two documentaries on the DVD. Two really, REALLY, good documentaries too. The first one is about the society in "The Running Man" (with the Big Brother Is Watching You-theme) and the Patriot Act. And it's not as far fetched as it may sound, and they make alot of good points about how not thoughtrough that Act was. For example, they point out that if the Patriot Act had been in place 150 years ago, the movement for liberating the slaves in USA would never have been allowed, the Women Suffrage would have been illegal and Marthin Luther King would've been thrown in jail for being unpatriotic. I think we can also add the entire american revolution to that list since it would have been illegal if the Patriot Act would have existed back then!
The other documentary was about how reality shows are becoming more and more extreme and just how far they can push it. And if there can actually be a show like "The Running Man" in the near future. So I highly recommend you buying the DVD to see the documentaries, well worth the $15 I paid for it!

I'm so sick of being sick! It's been going on for so long that I actually don't remember the last time I woke up and said "I feeeeeeeeeel good!" Over the past 5 months my health has gone from bad to bad (I'm just hoping it doesn't go to "worse"!). No huge problems to complain about, but there's always something wrong. Right now I've got deminished lung capacity which makes walking up stairs feel like a marathon, headaches that comes and goes and a slight fever. Nothing to go to the hospital or anything for (yet!), but I just want to wake up and feel good for once.

I don't know if movies are getting weirder or if I'm getting shallower (if that's even a word?!), but lately I've hard trouble ... "getting" some movies that have gotten great reviews for being creative, different, deep, artistic and whatnot. Like "Lost in Translation", I so didn't get that movie. And as a globetrotter the only parts I enjoyed were those usual problems when you're in a new country for a week or two. But most recently it was "Adaptation" which has gotten great reviews everywhere. I saw it and I so didn't get it. I mean, I get that it's a screenwriter who wrote a movie about himself trying to write a screenplay that included himself and a story about orchids. And Nicholas Cage was damn good in it, no complaints about Mery Streep either, and I like Chris Cooper too. But it was just soooo boring. You kinda wondered where it'd end up, and it sure as hell didn't end up anyway I could imagine it. And then I see "Rundown" (no-brains testosterone movie featuring The Rock), and I loved it! Is there something wrong with me for preferring a no-brainer action flic like that before a movie that's so deep I don't get it, if there was something to get?

Now I'm almost fit for fight again. Still got a little problem lung-capacity wise so I haven't done much excercising in the past few days, don't wanna spoil it now that I actually feel pretty good. And you really do appreciate feeling well after being sick or "not completely healthy" for as long as I have. Fortunately, we've got a corporate medical plan kicking in soon so I'll go in for a complete check up. And how will that end I wonder? "You're cholesterol is through the roof, what's your diet like!?" ... "uh, diet?... a liter coca cola per day, atleast one big bag of chrisps per week, a couple of burgers, some pizzas, the usual...". And I kinda wish I was kidding.

Now I'm a bit closer to defining a good april fools joke. I did two yesterday. One that was slightly believable but I didn't put that much energy into it and it worked pretty fine. But on NP.com we went all the way with a faked CNN page about Natalie Portman getting engaged to her boyfriend. And we really did go all the way but threw some humor into it (just look at the "Related story"). And this one was believable right up to the point when you just stop to think about it. And that's when you'd noticed those small things like the address to the site being "cnn.dnsalias.org" and everything being a link to the same page. And that one worked - flawlessly! So now I know. And now I'm off on another Finland-cruise.

I'm a superficial asshole! Here's the story ; We were on another one of these cruises right. There are, as I see it, four reasons to be on a cruise like this. The drinking, the gambling, the tax free and the hooking up. Everyone in their upper teens-twenties are there to hook up, if only for one night. It's an hilarious meat-market to watch. So anyway, I'm standing at the bar in the disco (yeah, yeah!) waiting for my turn to order when my friend starts talking to this woman (who's not his wife!), and I can't hear what they're talking about. And then she turns over to me and starts talking how he's trying to sell me off "'cause I need a girl". Can't really argue with him there. And after that opener, we start talking about... stuff, normal prelude talk. Then I order my drinks and leave her right there. Yeah, I KNOW! Now she seemed like a really nice person, and she was funny and most of all, she took the initiative. I'd usually go for that. So why didn't I? I've been beating myself in the head trying to figure it out, and the only thing I can think of is that I didn't find her physically attractive. Personality wise - yes. But not physically. Ain't that something? I didn't think I'd react that way in that given situation, but I guess I proved it. And I'm not really one to talk about not being physically attractive because I've looked myself in the mirror, I've seen the triple digits on the scale. So how can I justify this? I wasn't that drunk 'cause I hadn't started with the strong stuff yet. My spontaneous thought was "why should I settle for something less than a hottie". Which brings me full circle to "I'm a superficial asshole". I just hope I didn't offend her, I don't really remember how I ended the conversation, I do remember not buying her a drink after just having discussed the financially difficult life of a college student. Usually they don't even have to hint at that for me to pick up the tab. I guess my judgement may have been impaired by the consumption of alcholic beverages after all. Or perhaps I just suck at this "one night stand" thing?

One more weekend over and done with and one more Formula 1 victory for the guys in red. That makes me happy. Driving home from work on a cool, calm saturday afternoon with the sun shining in my face and the top window back, wind in my hair, stereo pumping, that makes me happy. And I also saw a couple of movies. I did another attempt at watching and appreciating "Lost in Translation", I've gotten some heat for saying "what was the point". So when I finally got a good "this is the point" description, I watched it again. "What was the point?". I mean, yeah, they are both completely unhappy with their lives. They are both surrounded by people who don't get them. They find each other and hit it off in a totally platonic way. And yeah, it's beautifully filmed. And yeah, it's got some humor. And guess what? It sounds like my life. Seriously!
Got Matrix 3 on DVD and although most people were disappointed with the second and third one, I just appreciate them for what they are. Action flics with good effects and wallbouncing sound. Not the revolutionary movie that number one was, you can't really live up to that again. And they have Monica Bellucci in them. And I also saw "The Cooler". William Macy and Maria Bello, both favorites for an old ER fan, doing great jobs of a pretty good script, but a bit violent at times. But totally worth the 2 hours it took to see.

I saw "The Butterfly Effect" last night. And loved it! I wasn't expecting much, and I'm no fan of Ashton Kutcher, but I was happily surprised. The butterfly effect is basically the chaos theory of one butterfly in africa spreading it's wings and starts a chain of events that could create a typhoon in asia. And this movie is about a guy going back to his childhood to create a perfect future for himself but everytime it has some side-effect that he didn't see coming. And I like stories like that. The "change one little detail"-thinking that kinda proves just how little in life we are actually in control of. Real life example ; When I was in Buenos Aires with a friend we were bored one saturday evening and we just went out to a random bar and after some drinks he, being the opposite of me, went up to some girls just to ask them what else there is to do in town. And now one of those girls is moving up here to Sweden to live happily ever after with him. How many random events lead to them meeting and getting something going? Just change one thing, the taxi driver could have taken a right and we would have ended up somewhere else and they'd never meet. Unless it was really meant to be ofcourse. Think about that for an hour of two, what major event in your life would never have happened with one tiny itsy bitsy teeny detail was changed? Bet you can come up with a few, withouth really giving it much thought I came up with two.

One of my nicer qualities is that I'm pretty nice to people working at whatever store/restaurant or whatever I'm at. I go out of my way not to be one of those troublesome customers. If a waitress brings me the wrong food, that's ok, no biggy - it's just food. If the customer service is so overloaded they can barely think straight, that's ok, I'll call back later. I'm a very Mr Nice. But now I have to ask - just how damn stupid do you have to be to work at a customer service joint? Seriously, is it like "people who can't get any real jobs" that they place there or what? I've always wondered that because I'm surprised at just how stupid they are sometimes. Like the most hilarious "is guatemala a real country?"-girlS (plural!) I got when calling the three biggest mobile phone operators in sweden to check for coverage in Guatemala. But now Turkish Airlines really hit the jackpot of stupidity - when I was recently in Turkey they lost my luggage. And I'm all like "ok, that happens, no biggy I'll just have to wear these clothes an extra day". And no clothes day after that, no problem, I'll just go out and buy the necessities and send them the bill. And now, four weeks later, I got a letter from Turkish Airlines telling me that... well, I wish I knew BECAUSE IT'S ALL IN TURKISH!. Seriously, I made it clear that I was swedish, I was there temporarily and it should be handled by their swedish office, but oh no. I just hope someone at their swedish office can understand it. It's not a lot of money we're talking about, like $60, but now it's just the principal of "how stupid can you get!?".

Politics is getting boring now. Repetetive stuff like the Israel vs Palestine just isn't interesting to follow anymore. And Bush still never admits to making a single mistake but keeps on making new ones. And in brittain there's the talk about referendum about the EU constitution, same talk as in sweden. Why can't something new and interesting happen? It's getting boring. Is the old saying "no news is good news" really that true? Why can't there be some reports¨ or interviews that are just fun? Whenever I turn on CNN nowadays, all I get is Bush this, attacks in Iraq that and so on...

I thought I was pretty hip, up to date and hi tech. But I had no idea what "toothing" was until I read this CNN story. I shouldn't be surprised at the different ways people use technology, some totally against the original intent. It kinda reminds me about the prostitutions story I've read about in "The Sims Online". People are weird. But so am I so I shouldn't be complaining.

This is just a test to see when my new webserver is online. I've been using Simplenet since I first started this joint, but I'm kinda tired by their lack of evolution so I'm moving the site to a new location. If you can read this, it means the new server is up and running. Hurray for me.

They did it again. Both Expressen and Aftonbladet (two of the biggest newspapers in sweden) were, once again, running stories on their first page about... "The Farm"... a bullshit docusoap tv show here in sweden that, as far as I know, noone watches. Is there really nothing more important than that? No big exposé about politicians or power abuse somewhere? No good story about people doing heroic things? They are in so sad a state that I'm worried for them and us.

I got a bitter-sweet problem that I don't know how to deal with. Long story though, so here goes!
About 5 years ago one of the weekly highlights was to tune into a radio show called "Städdagen" on Radio Stockholm. It was a hilarious program hosted by a guy and his assistant who did all the dirty work. And they started an internet chat through their website as they were broadcasting. And I joined in ofcourse. And the more I chatted with his assistant the more I liked her. Then one day they started the show by saying how miserable she was feeling that day. So I made a call to fed-ex over a flower to brighten her day. Which it did. And that became a tradition that lasted a few months. Wonder if she thought that was sweet or if the stalker-alarm went off? Anyway, then I finally met them In Real Life and I liked her even more. True to my tradition she was a little spitfire, but when I saw that she had a CARTMAN on her desk I just had to ask her out. But nope, as usual, all good ones are taken. Then her career moved her over the pond to Finland so I lost contact with her. And had it stopped there it would only have been a "bitter" problem. The sweetness of the story comes from the fact that ever so often she popps up either on TV or on the radio! Like yesterday when I finally got to bed at 1 am and turned on the radio as I always do, and there she was. And everytime that happens I remember that year and her with a smile on my face. Although I'm totally over that little crush, I've even had girlfriends since then. But it still makes me feel good. Is this even a problem? Maybe not... well, it's 4 am so I'm not surprised if I don't make any sense at all.

By the way, one of the reasons I moved the website was to get a working guestbook. So head over there and sign it. Please.

We just got here to Rome and usually on the first day at a new place we just take it easy and settle in and go for a bite to eat an some close restaurant and take it easy. But not this time, we went down to the Colosseum right away and walked around in town for hours. Man it's an old but very beautiful city. Wish it was warmer though, but I've been promised better weather by the lady on the TV...

I've done so many trips and installations that I know all the routines and stuff that this time I've done everything I possible can to do everything as quickly as I possibly can and that has really paid off! I'm sitting out on the porch at the embassy just bathing in the sun without a care in the world. In Rome. Can't believe it, I'm finally here! Or I can actually not believe it took me this long to get here!

"It's another day, for you and me in paradise!". One more of those "this is life" moment. After spending all day walking around in beautiful sunny Rome and eating a home cooked italian meal and just kicking back on the porch with a whiskey in my hand and one of my best friends on the other side of the table! Oh, didn't I mention that? When it was decided I was gonna do the Rome-installation, my half-italian friend Ricki decided that would be an excellent time for them to go down there and visit his family. So he and his wife Mona came down here on thursday and I've been spending all sunday with them getting a tour of the city... this is life...

Strikes are apparently frequent things here in Italy. Last week the national airline "Alitalia" was on strike and today it's the taxi's. And that's not big of a deal, but the "Alitalia" thing has us worried since we're suppose to fly home with them on thursday! And by all warning signs I'm getting they seem to be in a bit of a trouble. So today I had to book 3 tickets on an alternate airline to make sure we'll all get home. Isn't it nice how I finally have the credit to just book 3 flight tickets just like that? :)

One little thing that keeps on surprising me is the "red vs blue" contests. It doesn't matter if it's in politics, sports or computers, "red vs blue" is everywhere. In politics it's socialism vs capitalism. That's is mirrored in computer tech with Novell vs Microsoft, Microsoft being legendary capitalists. It's also commonly used in the graphics war between Ati and Nvidia - Nvidia being the capitalists (although technically, Nvidia is "green"). And in Formula 1 we have Bridgestone vs Michelin. Although Bridgestone seems to be more of capitalistic than Michelin. These are the things that occupies my mind...

Wanna see an awesome picture? Check this one. You don't see what's so special? Take a close look at the sunglasses in the original. I emphasize original, cause it hasn't been altered in any way what so ever yet. So, guess where I was at the time?!

What happened today has been coming for a long time. Almost three years to be exact. I was caught speeding. Fortunately it wasn't by much so I only got a ticket for $90, but it's still pretty sour the way it happened. I had to go home to get my laptop and I was driving on Huddingevägen, 2 lanes and no traffic and limited to 70 kph. And I come along a blue and white that's doing about 70. So I pass him. And they accelerate to 80 and they're not catching me. And they wait for about 6-7 minutes until they catch up with me at the next traffic light, take me aside and say "we drove 80 and you drove away from us. We couldn't clock you but you were doing over the limit for sure!"... "yeap, I was, so?"... seriously, why argue? I've never hesistated passing cops and they've never stopped me before. But these two guys just had to give me a ticket. So my perfect clean sheet, the kind that can only be faked that you hear about in movies, is now tainted by a speeding ticket.

This weekend had all the ingredients to be absolutely awesome! Star Trek Voyager DVD box #1, two new Enterprise episodes, a Stockholm Trekkers day which usually means I get to see friends I haven't seen in a while, the hockey championship finals, a Formula 1 race and beautiful weather. So what happened? I forgot how many times I've seen the first season of Voyager so I already knew all the episodes by heart, I haven't had time to see the new Enterprise episodes, one of my best friends came down with the flu and couldn't make it to the Stockholm Trekkers day, I got a speeding ticket, we "lost" the hockey final to Canada (again!), the F1 race was pretty boring since noone can come close to the Ferrari's - and to put in the biggest blow - my grandmother passed away. Now I'm gonna go to bed, forget all about this weekend and try to deal with that last part.

But atleast the weather kicked ass!

My grandmother dying didn't come as a shock to anyone I guess, she's been ill for a long time and already last wednesday we were pretty sure she wasn't gonna make it over the weekend. So my family started making arrangements to go over to Scotland for the funeral. But I couldn't. For a lot of reasons like my economy couldn't handle it and I've been travelling so much in the past 12 months I'm so tired of it and I also have a ton of stuff to do this week that I couldn't reschedule (my wisdom tooth has got to go) and so on. But the main reason I didn't want to go is that a hate funerals more than anything else in the world and this time, as oppose to the last funeral I went to, I was never close to my grandmother. I don't even remember the last time I saw her. But that's my fault and loss. So the only reason I had for going was to be there for my mother. But I'm trusting my two sisters will handle that, they are far more capable of that than I am. And as I'm writing this I realise how egotistical it sounds, but it's how I feel right now.

I love messing with other companies Helpdesk! I've got a couple of years of Helpdesk-service in my CV and I'm a pretty good techie if I may say so. So calling other Helpdesk can sometimes be fun because as a rule I know more about the problem than they do. So the only time I call them is when there's a problem I can't fix myself. Like this week when my internet connection started acting up and I had to call Bostream, my ISP, and talk to a Linda. Maybe I should've introduced me as the certified administrator that I am, but I thought that would either scare her or make her go "yeah, right, as if you know our stuff!", but I didn't. I started out pretending to be an average user but after a while she started giving me these really terrible advices (like disconnecting my firewall/router and allow my computer to go straight out onto the Net - unprotected!). Then I felt I had to kick it up a notch and tried telling her the problem was in their router located 3 km from me at this specific IP that was being bombarded with TCP packets. But she wouldn't buy it and still told me to go home, try the things she told me and then call back. Being one that can't say no to women I did exactly that and ofcourse it didn't work. So I called back, talked to a Jacob and told him exactly what I told her - their router was being bombarded with TCP packets. He checked it up right away with a monitoring tool and "oh my god, look at that, i'll send a techie to that router right away". And they are still working on it though, but I thought the entire episode was pretty funny how she could sit there and insist on me trying things on my computer when I told her again and again that the problem was with their equipment. Although that's not the worst helpdesk I've heard of, my friend called Telia Helpdesk and talked to this woman who claimed he was incompetent and didn't know shit when he was saying he was running Windows 2003 because there was no such version as Windows 2003. In her troubleshooting papers that is.

It's finally over! Big Brother that is. I haven't been watching it at all, not the swedish one anyway. I did see the italian version and even though I didn't get shit it seemed much better than the "let's get everyne drunk and laid"-approach they have in the swedish one. And I actually thought now that that's over with we might read some real news in the papers. I was very wrong because their first pages was all covered with... Britney Spears! She was in Sweden for a whole day and they followed her footsteps - even interviwewed the waitress at the Sandy's she stopped by and, get this - the actually got a copy of the credit card slip (with the credit card number blurred) signed by Britney herself. Wow, now that's what I call news.

I work at your everyday computer firm, and as you know the last couple of years have been pretty tough for the biz and still is. So in an attempt to make us more profitable the powers that be have decided to re-structure us and change the way we work to make it better, leaner and meaner. And I'm all for that! As long as people don't lose their jobs I'm all for "better, leaner and meaner". And today we travelled down southwest to Gothenberg for the kick-off of the new and better Pulsen Integration/System. And after that, when even the bosses couldn't make the new systems work you kinda got a bad feeling about it. And after all changes with all the hype, buzz-words and the usual abstract talking when you look at how it actually effects the day to day operations... well, it might all work out. With the new ordering systems for us consultants it all kinda depends on everyone else doing their jobs before I can do mine. Nothing against "everyone", but I kinda liked it the all way. And when I have to submit 5 unique reports on my activites for just one day as oppose to 1 in the old system you kinda understand all doctors out their crying that they spend way to little time actually being a doctor and too much time dealing with administrative duties. Is that the price we pay for "leaner"? Maybe, but we'll see how it works over the next few months.

Have you heard about Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11"? Michael Moore did the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" a few years back, trying to get to the bottom of "why are americans so triggerhappy". His conclusion then is that americans are being bombarded by fear from everywhere in a way you can't see in any other country. And now he takes it a couple of steps further by examining the Bush family & administration, how it got to power, what it's done during that time, 9/11 (ofcourse), the two wars and the nonstop lying ofcourse. And guess what happenes when it's all done and ready to premiere in the states? Disney decides to shelve the movie, atleast until after the presidential election. And their excuse? Nothing noble as neutrality or anything like that. No, they are afraid of what's going to happen with Disneyland in Florida if they realease this movie and upsets the Bush family, 'cause there's a Bush in power in Florida as well! Talk about proving the point Moore is trying to make! Fortunately it's getting so much attention that they probably will have to release it or sell it to someone who have some balls. It's getting awesome reviews here in Europe anyway, it was shown during the Cannes film festival. And the international release is still a go. It's just the american's that don't get to see it. Isn't that kinda screwed up? A movie made by an american about the american leadership done for americans with americans, but they don't get to see it? I like Michael Moore. He might not be the brightest most neutral person in the world, but he's got humor, he doesn't take alot of suff seriously and sure as hell isn't pretentious if you look at his wardrobe!

So we arrive here at the hotel Dorin in Holland and checking in, everything is going as usual. When all of a sudden, the clerk hands me a gold card and says "this will get you free drinks in the bar".?? We're all like "how many, like one a day", but no, really - free drinks, all you can drink. As the bartender said - It's your headache! A think like that would never, never EVER be allowed here in Sweden. For some reason, our politicians thinks that we can't handle alcohol in a sensible manner and if we could buy it anywhere we'd all be drunks, so the government has monopoly on importing and the sale of alcohol. That's just the way it is. So for a hotell or bar or anything to say "free drinks" would be really outrageous in Sweden. So how much did we take advantage of this? That's between the three of us!

Busy little bee, but that's almost over and I may actually be able to post some of the cool stuff here.

Have you seen Evanescence video to "Everybody's Fool"? Powerful stuff. Not only a good singer, she can act too. But most of all - great music! Btw, what's happened to that group, totally split up?

Oh no, it's that time again. That time of the year that you're reminded of just how fast time flies. Which I guess is a good thing since that usually means you're having fun. Which I totally am. But I don't want another birthday. Thank god I'm out of the country...AGAIN!

Unfortunately this is the last trip I'll ever do for this government project. I've done my 15 or so embassies, and we were 7 techies so that about covers them all. :(

You know how "they" say that your health takes a dramatic turn for the worse when you hit 30? I've heard that it just get's worse and you have a much easier time getting sick? I guess I'm a little bit ahead of schedule. Cause one year ago I had never been on sick leave (not once!) and had never been to the hospital since my little operation when I was a kid. I was going on almost 20 years without going to the hospital (and no, visiting someone else doesn't matter). But then BAM, 3 times in 2 weeks in november and now once more unto the breach! Got off the Arlanda-parking buss and my foot just gave away. I guess there was some rock or there that just made my foot go all wrong, but that doesn't matter cause the result was the same - busted ankle. So now I've been to the hospital for x-rays (rather that than limping for the rest of my life) and been on sick leave twice - in the past 6 months alone. And I turned 29 yesterday so it must be that. Or bad luck.

I hate to be one of those mainstream people that'll say "I've always liked them even before they became famous!" but I guess I gotta - Nightwish. Recently downloaded the musicvideo to "Nemo" - that's some heavy shit right there man! They're a finish band that's kinda like "Evanescence" only twice as good singer (sorry Amy!) and much more to the heavy metal genre. As I said - heavy shit!

Saw "Day after Tomorrow" today (thanks sis!). Liked it. Alot. I've always liked catastrophe movies. And I always like US of A getting their asses kicked in movies. And I've always liked Dennis Quaid ever since "Innerspace". And I've always liked Sela Ward. But there was just one minor teeeeeeny little detail that got me upset - again they portray the US president as a nice, decent and righteous dude.
[Stop readin now if you don't wanna be spoiled about the movie!] The role of the asshole is the VICE president who later in the movie becomes the president and all of a sudden he becomes a good guy. So vice presidents can be assholes but not presidents? Why? When we all know that it's George-boy we're talking about and bashing, why not go all the way? Little disappointed over that.

You'd think that when I'm on sick leave I'd have some time to update this site with more updates and stuff... yeah, you'd think! But I've had stuff to keep me busy all the way which makes me kinda worried what it'll be like when I actually go back to work next wednesday. But then I won't have weeks of Star Trek to catch up on or a Dead Zone DVD box to watch. Or this good weather!

If you live in sweden, go to Livsviktigt.se and sign-up. I have.

Today I did something I haven't done in over a year. Donated blood. I haven't been allowed to do that since I've been to "malaria infected countries" which results in a 6 month ban from giving blood. And obviously they have read my entry about me not being able to donate blood at Huddinge hospital, because now I can. Unfortunately, their computer systems aren't connected to the ones at the donor place I used to go to so I had to fill out all the forms and take new blood tests to ensure that my blood is clean. They didn't trust me when I said I had my blood tested twice in may (blood donation & pre-vaccination), august (pre-vaccination), twice in november (once for malaria and once in nigeria), december (trying to diagnose salmonella), january (pre-vaccination), may (annual physical) and once just two weeks before when I busted my ankle (still don't know what one has to do with the other!). I had to take one more blood test to be sure. So I've REALLY made up for never having my blood tested before that and now I'm so positive and reassured I've got no bad things in my veins.

As I mentioned in yesterdays update I did my annual physical in may and last friday me and the doc went through the results. I was expecting her to say stuff like "you REALLY need to cut down on the fat, lose some wight and start excercising". Which she kinda did. She said "you really need to cut down on the bad fat like fast food, chips and candy and get more good fat like olive oil. And it wouldn't hurt to lose a few pounds". As if I didn't know that last part! In christmas of 2002 when I hit 110 kilos I got an excercise bike from my parents. And yes, it was on my short "all I want for christmas"-list. And I actually used it alot and was down to 104 when I started travelling and stuff and didn't have time for it. So now I'm up to 112 kilos. And since I'm not gonna be travelling anytime soon I can't use that as an excuse.
Too bad I busted my ankle :)

I'm so not 20 anymore! Picture this - I limp back to the hospital to return the crotches and decided to donate blood. After that you get iron supplement pills. The day after I go out having a couple of beers (more like a dozen) with some friends and wake up today TOTALLED. With lack of blood and the mess in the stomach that iron supplement causes, added with alcohol and OUCH today is not a good day to do anything at all.

As usual I'm not nationalistic or patriotic in any way, but when big championship comes along that changes. All yellow and blue! And today was the big day for swedish soccer in the Euro2004. Versus Italy. Noone expected it to be much of a match, but hell it turned out to be the best one yet. And Zlatans equalizer... guess I can't say "he's not that good, he's just hyped up by the media" because that was a helluva goal. Or to quote Irene Cara - "oh what a feeling!".

Alot happening on the natalieportman.com side of my life (changin servers) but not alot else happening. Enjoying the summer and being in sweden and actually getting my life back together. This site may go down and up over the next few days because I'm changing stuff but that should only be temporary. Don't worry - I'm a professional... "a professional what?"..

Dude, have the past two week been the laziest of my life? I would think so! Especially the weekends - last weekend I was so bored I actually had to go an extra mile to find something to do. Don't know when was the last time that happened. And this weekend has been "movie-catchup" weekend. "Troy", "Girl Next Door", "Timeline", "Hellboy", "Punisher", "Godsend" and "Elf". Puh... most of them were disappointing ("Timeline" was soooo bad, and I usually like time travel stories), some just what I expected ("Troy" made up and bended Homer's work about as much as I'd expect) and some were even better than I thought ("Girl Next Door" was funnier and more serious than I though). And another Ferrari victory. A pretty successful weekend all in all. Looking forward to this working week when my future area of expertice will be decided.

I really should stop watching this many movies, it can't be healthy. Today it was "Shrek 2" and "13 Going on 30"... "Shrek 2" proved the statement made in "Scream 2" - sequals suck. Ok, it didn't suck, but it wasn't as fun or original as ... the original. Biggest laugh was in the end when pussycat does the flashdance move, hilarious!! "13 Going on 30" was a little bit silly, felt like someone saw "Big" and then "Freaky Friday" during an "Alias"-marathon and brainstormed this one up in 5 minutes. Highlight was the retro scenes with the "Thriller"-dance. But the best rip-off of that dance was "Final Fantasy"...

Have I seen too many movies if the only way I can rate movies is by referring to other movies?

Isn't music amazing? I don't know any other medium that can give you that kind of emotional responses or bring back memories like music can. I mean, who can hear a song like "Total Eclips of the Heart" without being effected in somehow, and who can help but to sing along to "Tubthumping". Or help getting goose bumps when Moby's "Everloving" kicks off? And there are songs that you just immediately connect to specific events. I heard Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" the other day which brought me back to summer of -92 and me kicking back at the finishing line at the annual school run. I never ran since I had asthma so I was just sitting there enjoying the summer which pissed off everyone of my classmates. That why I love music.

Have I seen too many movies if the only way I can rate movies is by referring to other movies?

Saw an interesting docu-movie today about the rise and rise of Adolf Hitler. Covered the years from when he was sent to jail right up the the start of WWII. I like to consider myself a history buff, especially WWII, but I didn't really know that much about this part of Hitler's life. First of all, one has to assume there are some made up stuff in a movie to increase the dramatic part of it, but this one was pretty seriously made. And there were some frightening stuff in there and afterwards it was pretty weird to think of the old saying "history has a tendancy to repeat itself". To be brief about it ; the guy went from being in jail to being the leader of a superpower using loopholes in their constitution and used the arson against the german government building to push through some radic laws temporarily superceding human and civil rights which made him in charge of basically everything and then went to war. In short! Let's think a little bit bigger. Do we have someone in charge of a superpower right now, with a criminal past, that used constitutional loopholes to gain power and then used an attack against them to push through some laws superceding human and civil rights and then went to war?... hehehe, frightening stuff... Big difference is ofcourse Adolf was a smart asshole. Bush is just an asshole. Another huge difference is that Bush has to face a re-election. Adolf was smart enough to get out of that.

Today I saw ANOTHER docu-movie, this time on the story about MPRC, led by Tipper Gore, to ban "unethical" music lyrics and make the music industry responsible for what they are putting out there. And Frank Zappa, Dee Snider and John Denver came to its defence that they are just overreacting. The music bizz won but had to start putting "Parental Advisory" labels on the most extreme albums. Like all of Eminem's. And along with that I also saw the "Bleeping Osbourne" weekend when MTV had so nicely replaced the the "fucks" and "bitches" with "beeps" and "mooos". And they even went to the extreme length of censuring every on-screen cigarette. I'm all for pbulishers and TV stations taking their responsibility, but really, is it the music, lyrics and words we should be censuring? Isn't it the image? What's more damaging, Ozzy saying "fuck" or Britney dancing around wearing 3 threads? Twisted Sister's song weren't violent or anything extreme, but their image sure was...

I've finally updated this place with information about what I've really been doing for the past 14 months. If you'll go back through this years updates as well as last years you'll see I've inserted comments about when I've been were and added some comments I haven't been able to write earlier. And I've also updated My Trips with a complete listing of where I've been and all info you might wanna know. Enjoy! I know I did. The reason I haven't been able to post this earlier was security concerns. And mostly for me. Who knows what certain security agencies would do to get their hands on a guy with admin access to that network. But that's all over with now. My accound is disabled and all passwords have been changed so even if I could remember them it wouldn't help anyone. So I'm thinking it's safe to publish this now.

I wish I could say I've been too busy to update this place. But the fact is I'm just lazy... no, actually, quite the opposite, I've been possessed by some workout deamon. When the scale 114 during my latest physical I thought it was time to do something about it. So I started working our and after two weeks I actually bought a scale to see if there was any result... 117 kilos. That's what two weeks on sickleave with a busted ankle will do to you. Or did to me anyway. But right now I'm passing down to 114 again and I'm not planning to stop. Until I'm bored ...

Took me a while but I finally did it - updated my picture archive with pictures from my world tour. Enjoy! There are few missing, but I'll add them when I get a hold of them!

Now I have a perfectly good reason for not posting anything in a while I've been totally busy with work and playing Doom 3. Seriously, that game is dangerous for your health. Don't play it if you have a weak heart. And my computer is begging me for an upgrade, god knows how I'm suppose to afford that. But looking forward to another great weekend. I'm playing housesitter for four days, so it's just me, huge house, a cat and the weather which I'm hoping is gonna be all sunshine!

Now I'm just totally forgetting about updating this place. Can't blame it on anything now, I haven't been that busy I've just forgotten to update... Oh well... I actually went to the movies a week back and saw "I, Robot". I was expecting a "no brains, muscle driven action packed but wanna be deep"-movies. And it almost delivered. It was a little bit deeper than I thought it was gonna be, but the logic didn't quite hold up. They had incorporated another rule by Asimov into the plot that was never explained, and the laws are built on the premise that a robot can't change or overrule them when they chose to, no matter how intelligent they are. That's why they are suppose to be "hardwired", as oppose to software that can be changed.

Now I actually have an excuse for not doing shit here on the site! For the past week I've done stuff perparing for the Swecon 2004 - the first swedish Star Trek convention with the first official Star Trek visit. Tim Russ, the guy who plays Tuvok on "Voyager" is in town for the convention which, to Star Trek in Sweden, is HUGE! And what do I do? Except for miscellanous stuff that I always do for Stockholm Trekkers I have been given the title "The Offical Driver of Swecon 2004". So yeap, I picked the guy, his girlfriend and her parents up at the airport and I'm driving him to and from the hotel, which is actually fun and a good chance to just chat about non-Star Trek stuff. And today I had to do something that was actually something alot of people think I can pull off easily - bodyguard duty. When we were going from the hotel, 4 hours after he'd been on an national radio show promoting it, he had some fans down in the lobby at the hotel so I had to muscle up a bit. Never thought I'd be the bastard that pushes people away that just wants an autograph but the dude made it really clear he didn't want to be bothered when he wasn't at the convention so if any of those people are reading this - sorry!

Phew, that was one hectic weekend! Even though I wasn't THAT involved with all the happenings during the SweCon it still felt like it! When we dropped off Tim Russ & Co. at the airport we just breathed a sigh of relief - it was finally over! And ofcourse I have some pictures thanks to my good buddy Ricki! Head over to My Pictures and scroll down to SweCon 2004" I should be able to scan the signed pic with me and Tim Russ by tomorrow. Meanwhile, take a look at some new pictures I just added from my trip to Rome! And these pictures are taken by Ricki that was also "accidentally" in Rome at the time.

Ok, so the olympics are over and done with. And all I have to say is... was that it? I remember a couple of years ago when stockholm was in the running for the summer olympics 2004 and it was this huge deal and tons of money was spent on promoting it. And we didn't get it. Athens did, obviously. And it cost them millions of millions to arrange it, and even more millions for tv companies to buy the rights to bradcast and millions and millions... for what? 2 weeks of sports? I don't get whats so important about the olympics? It just seems so overhyped, but that's just me...

Finally got a hold of "Fahrenheit 9/11". Scary & funny stuff. Funny to see how Bush is trying oh so hard at press conferences and interviews but ending up saying stuff like "fool me once, shame on...[silent pause and a look of confusion only Bush can do]... you...". Scary to see that the president of "the land of the free" can do stuff like that. It was all abit too much and sometimes very longshots trying to connect the Bush's to saudi oil interests and all of that, but then it got really personal when interviewing soldiers in Iraq, and it got really heavy when interviewing the mother of a soldier who'll never come home after fighting, what I'm sure history will call, the worst planned and executed war ever. Anyway, you should all go and see it and then wait in anticipating for the US of A to do the biggest mistake ever by re-electing this idiot. I really can't see how it can be this close? I mean how many people do you hear being very very pro-Bush, saying that he's been a great president, he hasn't screwed up, the war was just and so on? I don't hear any people saying that but that might be because I'm way over here in Sweden...

When I went to bed last night I thought to myself "now that we've got so little to do at work, shouldn't I donate some blood?". I actually felt bad for not donating blood in a while. See, I'm the only one in my immediate family that is currently in such good health I actually can donate blood so it's really more of an obligation I think. Not to mention it's a good calorie burn! Then I realised they have this 3-months rule, and last time was ... June 15th. So another week I guess. Woke up the very next morning and found a "it's that time again!"-letter from the bloodbank. Terrible coincidence that I couldn't ignore so first thing today I went up there. And even though my self esteem got a little boost, your ego takes a little beating when filling out the form you have to fill out every time. They have this little yes/no-box saying "in the past three months, have you had a new sexual partner?". And no matter how much I wanna put down a yes, I really don't think these are the kinda forms you wanna lie on...

So, September 11th again huh? It's impossible to think of this day as anything positive now after the brutal killing of Anna Lindh last year. Feel sorry for anyone that has this as their birthday, that's gotta be tough.

Finally I'm all done! I've worked on a new image gallery since it got a little too big to have it in a list, and with all trips to everywhere and all events and stuff I thought it best to make it a little bit more easy to find stuff. So here we are! It's pretty extensive and you can even search for keywords (type in "kristoffer" in the search field to get all pics with me in them). If anyone finds a picture of themselves they don't want shown to the public, you are more than welcome to drop me a note.

Today I woke up to a swedish moviemaker and critic on the radio that really got me angry. He was so pretencious it goes behind words. He was the kind that would go to a hungarian film festival just because it's a hungarian film festival! I don't mind hungarian films, but you understand what I mean? He explained how he likes to get out of the theater inspired or emotionally effected by the movie he saw, but added, "sure, sometimes I can go and watch an american movie"! I'd agree that alot of the movies that come out of Hollywood are crap, but out of all the movies some are good, few great and once in a while amazing movies will pop up. I hate the kind of movie critic that has the default opinion that an american movie = crap, and Hungarian movies = not crap because they aren't american! I'm atleast so open minded I can watch Hungarian movie and might even like it but this guys whole attitude just annoyed me. He also got a bunch of questions, like if he did a movie with sponsors and they wanted the products to be displayed in the movie, and the guy just said "NO!"... I used to be blue-eyed naiv like that but eventually had to realise the monetary forces where too strong to ignore.

Saw "Supersize Me" during the weekend. Scary stuff. Kinda don't wanna eat McDonalds after that, especially not after seeing the guy trying to eat his first supersize meal. But overall I think it was a very good movie that should make alot of people realise that we have a problem. And it's spelled "lazyness"... also saw "Bourne Supremacy" which was suprisingly good. I don't expect much out of sequels, but this one was just as good as the first one, maybe even better. Ask me again after I've seen it three times :)

I'm really getting annoyed at that "Facts of Life" song that seems to be really popular on the radio. I dunno why... maybe because it's pointless ... or maybe it's because it goes on about weird facts that my brain has a dedicated storage space for that exceeds the storage space one would like to have for usefull stuff... I prefered the sunscreen-song, that was hilarious and actually made sense!

So I did it again. In my totally idiotic and makes-no-sense quest to come home a little bit faster I cut a corner a little bit too close and hit the sidewalk. Immediate puncture right there. Fortunately I had a spare and I drove by a tire shop on my way home that fixed the busted on right away. So $90 and 2 hours later I got home. So much for trying to come home faster. Why do we do that?! But like the other times - no one got hurt :)

Today I had a huge accident! The kind that makes you think about ever driving again. Go-karts that is. We had an event today with tons of customers and we were driving go-karts. I wasn't doing too well so I decided to step on it a little bit more. Came up to pass a guy but he wouldn't let me pass, even with blue flags. So in the corner area I bump into him, bounce into the 1 foot high track markers and I come flying off the track and landing on the side way out of bounce. Fortunately the guys running the place were professional enough so they handled everything and didn't allow me to drive anymore which costs us the second place. Except for my ankle acting up again, my knees are hurting like hell and my knuckles aren't in the best shape I'm fine. Could have been alot worse. The worst part is that I let the team down. We qualified second and held that until I was up and I totally screwed it up and we finished second to last. Damn sorry for that guys!!!

So I did it again. In my totally idiotic and makes-no-sense quest to come home a little bit faster I cut a corner a little bit too close and hit the sidewalk. Immediate puncture right there. Fortunately I had a spare and I drove by a tire shop on my way home that fixed the busted on right away. So $90 and 2 hours later I got home. So much for trying to come home faster. Why do we do that?! But like the other times - no one got hurt :)

Today I had a huge accident! The kind that makes you think about ever driving again. Go-karts that is. We had an event today with tons of customers and we were driving go-karts. I wasn't doing too well so I decided to step on it a little bit more. Came up to pass a guy but he wouldn't let me pass, even with blue flags. So in the corner area I bump into him, bounce into the 1 foot high track markers and I come flying off the track and landing on the side way out of bounce. Fortunately the guys running the place were professional enough so they handled everything and didn't allow me to drive anymore which costs us the second place. Except for my ankle acting up again, my knees are hurting like hell and my knuckles aren't in the best shape I'm fine. Could have been alot worse. The worst part is that I let the team down. We qualified second and held that until I was up and I totally screwed it up and we finished second to last. Damn sorry for that guys!!!

You all remember Bush wonderful attitude towards the environment, right? That he called off the Kyoto agreement and doesn't bother about "naturual reserve" signs when drilling for oil? And the lovely "it would cost us too much to care for the environment" attitude (not an exact quote, but the point was the same)? So, who in the US southern states believes that mother nature isn't striking back with all typhoons and cyclones and stuff that have hit them over the past 3 weeks? It's a record number of weather related disasters over there, and now we got Mt. Helen warming up for a party. And perfect timing too with the election coming up. I love the irony...

Go and see "Control Room". Now please. It's a documentary showing the difficult task the media and the liaison officers had during the war in Iraq. It mostly focuses on Al Jazeera who were showing the other side of the war and being hated by Rumsfeld and at the same time hearing the iraqi information minister call them "the american propaganda machine". Surprisingly, the liaison officer in CentCom (Rushing) liked them alot and they showed alot of their conversations and alot of interviews showing what a difficult time this guy had trying to be objective in that bloody mess. Really powerful stuff. Go see it! It's not really an anti-america or anti-Bush movie. Just a documentary showing propoganda up close.

Interesting day I had today. Rewind a week when I went over my budget for Christmas and come to the frightening conclusion I HAVE NO budget for Christmas! For some reason I can't phantom I have no savings or anything and my finances are down the drain. But fortunately I have a very supportive family so I'll make it somehow. Reminds me of the 111th Rule of Aquisition - "Treat people in your debt like family...exploit them.". ANYWAY, I joked that my car breaking down would be like the worst thing that could happen. And on saturday it started making noises. Nothing big, just... inconvinient. But today when I was driving home it got worse and by the time I got home I drove it right into the shop. Again! Probably the rear brakes. So by now I was pretty upset over the bad timing, but what can you do. So I get home and realise that they changed my rear brakes two years ago so there should be some warranty on that job. Then I spend about 3 hours going through old papers and drawers full of old "should save just in case"-things. And this is when the day turned around from annoying to a great nostalgic event. Going through old stuff and finding things like our airline tickets from our trip to Greece, old photos and even our high school photoalbums! Damn that was fun! I didn't find what I was looking for ofcourse, but hey, I'm a computer engineer not a filing clerk! (I actually found my old engineering diploma!)

Do you remember Powell's "Top 10 Reasons Why Invading Iraq is a Good Idea" speech he did at the UN Security Council two years ago or something? Wouldn't it be totally cool of someone with enough balls and power at the UN to do a "Top 10 Reasons Why Invading USA is a Good Idea"? 'Cause when going through it all 2 years after the fact it's still bothers me. I'm gonna start my own little top 10 list now. But now that the entire war is done (more or less), the only valid reason they had was that Saddam was a bad guy. And really, how many countries in the world would sign up on a "Bush is a bad guy"-list? Enough to invade them I'm sure! I think it's time for someone to step in, before the election, and give those americans a wake up call because it looks like it is gonna be close. And 4 more years with that guy and I'll have no more respect for them. He was appointed once, never elected that we can blame on a clerical error or something lame, but if he's actually elected... oh, dude....

Reason 1 : Iraq has WMD's. Now we all know they didn't. They had them 10 years ago but the only thing they found, according to Bush's "State of the Union" speech quoting the Kay report, was "WMD related program activities" which is so vague that it may include chemistry lessons in grade school! Btw, Kay resigned just after Bush gave that speech because that's not at all what it said. Now, the USA has the biggest WMD arsenal in the world and as Bush himself said in a speech on August 5th - "[Our enemies] never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.". Aside from it coming out totally wrong, it still says that USA still continues to develop WMD's. And as soon as any other country in the world, like the current North Korea thing, try they are shut down by USA who seems to think they are the only country in the world who should have them.

Reason 2 : Iraq has proven it's willing to use WMD's, on it's own people no less! Indeed they did, but USA is the only country in the world that's ever used The Bomb for any reason other than scientific and that was against two civilian targets. Kinda hard to forget. And when Iraq did gas their "own people", it was on the kurds up north and as I understand it, they don't really consider the kurds iraqi citizens? They're kinda of low on the social scale down there so I'm sure they didn't really consider them "own people". Not that it makes it any less horrible from our point of view. But USA also kill their own citizens systematically. Only they do it in the name of "justice". During Bush's time as governor, a position that would allow him to pardon people on death row, more people were executed in Texas than in any other state. And as president he also has the power to pardon people and even to abolish death penalty completly. But what tha hell, it's only criminals and murderers so it's not really "their own people" either is it? Just check with Amnesty how many people have been found innocent after they've been sentenced to death, or even worse - executed. As long as that figure is greater than 0 I'm afraid to set foot on their soil knowing I could be framed for a murder and executed for it (even though that's unlikely since they would have trouble executing a foreign citizen quietly).

On a happier note - gotta love Agassi's comments.

Reason 3 : Iraq has fought a war with two countries. They fought a war in the 80s with Iran, a war that may or may not constitute self defense. A war that USA, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, supported. His vice president btw was Bush Senior, and the guy they sent over to do the dealings with Saddam was Donald Rumsfeld. Guess we should be thankful he's the one in charge of destroying that country. Then they invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait. More oil for them, but the USA wouldn't have it and knocked them back. And now USA have invaded Afghanistan, a war that may or may not constitute self defense after 9/11. And then they invaded Iraq. And dare I say "more oil for them"? So to summon up : Iraq invaded 2 countries, USA invaded 2 countries - FOR NOW.

Reason 4 : Saddam and the Iraqi government are constantly defying the UN and pushing it as far as they can, but without breaking any clear set rules. They'd go along with a UN resolution, like the inspectors, for a while, then stop. And that'd go on for a while, but did they break any resolutions? Meanwhile we got the US who are constantly defying the UN. Every time there is a resolution up for condemning Israel when doing something with their military against the civilian palestinian population, like rolling in their tanks saying "we occupy this place now, you - move!", the US is very quick to put in their veto. Not to mention that they defied the UN by invading Iraq in the first place. And also breaking the Kyoto agreement because they felt that the pursuit of a clean environment was too expensive for them. So yeah, Iraq was bad at following the UN, but the Bush administration just doesn't care about the world opinion or UN.

Reason 5 : Saddam is a dictotor that need to be replaced by an government elected by the people. This reason has replaced all talks about WMD's so I guess it's gotta be important. But like the WMD's argument, doesn't really work considering... was Bush elected by the people? Nope! More people voted for Gore and then we had the Florida screwup. The american election system of having electorates instead of actually letting the people decide let that happen. But what would you expect from a system that dates back to the Roman empire. And if you'd look up the definition of "dictator" it'll say "An absolute ruler". Which Bush seems to be when he can't only invade a soverieng nation at his own will, lie about and not be held responsible for it but actually might be reelected! And btw, how's that "government elected by the people" going in Iraq? Got any elections coming up anytime soon?

Still in shock... can't type...

Now I've fallen into that boring routine of getting up, going to work, doing some work (and sometimes NOT doing any work), getting home, watching some TV, playing some games and going to bed. It could be alot worse I guess but still, I don't like getting too much into routines like this. Got any suggestions how to change it?...

Reason 6 : The Iraqi government was corrupt us as hell and Saddam appointed relatives in his government. Well that's certainly true. But then again, in USA we've got the Bush clan with father former president Bush and brother Jeb the governor of Florida, so the family ties are all there. As far as corruption goes, we've all seen Fahrenheit 9/11 with all the Haliburton stuff as well as the Carlyle group making millions on the War on Terror and dad Bush just happens to be a member of the bord. And then ofcourse Cheney's wife, Lynne, who's a member of the board of directors at Lockheed-Martin who's also making millions since they are in the war business. It seems all top players there have some connection to either oil companies or companies that profit from the war. GREATLY.

First day of snow for this winter, but as opposed to last year (and the one before that) most people were prepared. I changed my tires last night so I was prepared too :) Wanna see the most useless web thing ever? Click here and relive your childhood!

Reason 7 : Iraq has close ties to Al Quada and is a training ground for terrorist. No they weren't but they are NOW! And Bush himself said a while back that there are no evidence to support that statement about Al Quada so let's just give up on that. Speaking of training grounds for terrorist, the american militia... hmmmm....

Did you see the MTV European Music Awards yesterday? I almost missed it since we have Battlefield matches on thursdays but my sis called me and screamed "switch to mtv!" and when I did I saw the huge crowd of people on Fori Imperiali that they had closed off (again!) and the stage that looked really, REALLY tiny in front of a very well lit Colosseum! It felt funny cause ... well... I was literally right there! :)

Reason 8 : Iraq played it's part in 9/11 by supporting Al Quada and the hi jackers. Well that's been proven over and over again that that was never the case, but it sure worked on those patrotical americans didn't it? Actually Saudi Arabia and USA itself had a lot more to do with that than Iraq - Saudi Arabia because alot of the hi jackers were from Saudi Arabia, the flew to the US from Saudi Arabia and Usama Bin Laddens money comes from his filthly rich family in Saudi Arabia. And the hi jackers got their pilot training in... USA, the same country that taught Bin Ladden how to fight great evil powers in the first place. Excellent job!

You know I'm a little bit undecided about remakes and covers of movies and songs. Some are good, few even better than the original but most aren't even good. And here are two examples we could very well do without : an american version of "Taxi" and a new version of Band Aid's christmas song from the 80's! The american version of Taxi I can understand and it's more of a comedy than the original. But I bet 99% of americans haven't even seen the original I guess they won't even know what they missed. And about a new version of Band Aid's christmas song... that's just bad all around. If Robbie really cared he would donate a few millions. And if Coldplay cared about the survival of anyone the wouldn't do music that makes you wanna slit your wrist. Still, as sir Bob Geldoff (founder of the original, in case you don't remember!) said - "it's a great Christmas present! It's cheap and noone who gets it can express their disappointment"...

Reason 9 : Going with the old saying "the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons" (Feodor Dostoyevsky), the american propaganda machine said over and over again how terribly the iraqi government treated their prisoners. Regular executions, torture and so on. Maybe so, but now we also know how the americans treat the prisoners in Iraq. And I loved that memo that, if you read between the lines, said it was ok to bend the "quaint" rules set in the Geneva convention!

I might as well finish the top 10 today...

Reason 10 : "After all, this is the guy that once tried to kill my dad". Yeah, Bush Jr. actually used that line as a reason why going in there and taking him down was a good idea, because Saddam had once tried to kill Bush Sr. As far as I know, that never happened. Maybe Saddam once wrote or said "I wish he was dead", but as far as I know he never actually tried to kill him. Not after all the favors Bush Sr. did to Saddam in the 80's as Reagan's vice president! What did happen however is that Bush sent in a bunch of special forces to kill Saddam's two sons, which they did! And not only that, they took credit for it aswell! "tried to kill my dad" versus "killing two sons"...

Guess what VH1 did lasgt night? They had Live/Band Aid specials! What are the odds :) But here's a thought about that song and the lyrics - "let them know it's christmas time". The song was about poor Africa and the starving children down there right? So I've been to africa - thrice - but as far as I know this is true for most african countries as well... THEY'RE MUSLIMS! Isn't that like a slap in the face? I'm pretty sure they didn't care that much but somehow it just doesn't fit...

I'm getting that retro feeling now! Maybe it's the onset of the christmas spirit or something, I dunno. Anyway, a while back we had the "thanx for a job well done!" party at the state department to wrap up this project of travelling all around the world. And one funny thing they had done was to get pictures from everyone and assembled them into one long slideshow that just kept on going and going. It was really fun to see since I "only" did 1/6 of the trips. And then there were some pics of me that I hadn't seen before. But going through the entire thing I just get this "damn that was some good times!". Problem is I can't say that without hearing Ricki and everyone else going "and you thought it was a bad idea!?" in the back of my head...

So anyway, here are some new additions to my digital gallery:
The Swedish Embassy in Sofia.
Me and Annika in downtown Buenos Aires.
Me, (little bit of Ellinor) and Annika planning the weekend activities.
House warming party for one of the guys in Buenos Aires.
Dinner at the ambassadors residense in Congo.
This is how happy I was when it was time to go home from Congo.
A common sight indeed. In Copenhagen this time.

This is just my luck! As I was driving in to work this morning I noticed the temperature of the engine was going a big high and right when I parked it the needle reached the red area. Not good. "not another trip to the mechanics!" was my firt thought. So I filled it up with some coolant and as I started driving home I watched it closely. And the good news was it was just that simple, refill the coolant. The bad news is I was watching the needle too closely and bumped into the guy in front of - and he had one of thos hooks on so now I got a big nice dent in the front, and I mean big. Maybe big enough for me to fail the inspection I got coming out next week - that is just my luck! And no damage to the other guy's car...

Have you heard about this new internet phenomenon called "blogging"? It's when opinionated people start a diary somewhere to express their opinions about everything from movies to politics on a semi-daily basis and... oh wait, I've been doing that for 5 years so yeah, I can see how that's a new phenomenon! ... Went to the insurance company to file a claim about my mishaps behind the wheel. Let's see if that guy that changed lane without looking will live up to his mistake or if he and his wife will cook up some bogus story of what "really" happened.

According to the swedish consumption authority (or whatever) it was decided that this years Christmas present was one of those slim TV:s you hang on the wall. Cool, right? ... just how much are people spending on Christmas presents these days? I've been told that I sometimes spend more than I should on Christmas gifts, but I would never even think about buying something for $3.000, no matter how much I loved that person! That just doesn't make sense! Sounds like they were a bit scared over the GNP...

And speaking of terrible Christmas gifts, you've heard that Britney released her "Greatest hits" album recently, just in time for Christmas shopping. Did I just get the entire point wrong, or I thought "Greatest hits" was something a has-been artist put together when they needed more money? Not a 23 (or however old she is now) yeard old with a careet that's still going strong did?

Last friday was the annual christmas party at work. And they are usually pretty wild. I dunno, what do you think? Before you go all judgemental on me, check what's in front of me. 3 beerglasses and 2 shotglasses and that's just what could fit in the frame. Yeah, pretty wild and another blackjack success story. And as usual woke up on saturday saying "I'll never drink again" 'cause lets face it, I'm not 20 anymore...

The last episode of Friends was on swedish TV last week... talk about the end of an era. 10 years that show's been going, it's had it ups and downs but it was quite sad to see it end. Although it's gonna be in reruns forever and I've seen every episode so many times I can pretty much recall any scene in my head. And one of these day's I'm gonna fill that part of my head with something useful...

Also saw "Ocean's 12" the other day. Man that was a disappointment. I liked the first one. Liked the sting and ensemble cast, but this one was not even close. So chalk up another one in the "reasons sequels shouldn't eve be done" right there with Scream 3 and Naked Gun 3...

Hope everyone had a great christmas, if you even celebrate it? Mine was pretty ok. Don't know why it was only "pretty ok", but it was. Probably my fault. But we finally ordered those F1 tickets for my 30th birthday! We're going to Silverstone on July 10th which is one month after I turn 30, but this way Amy and her Paul will make it which makes all the difference!

Btw, pictures are up from the christmas weekend at my folks place.

This latest "wrath of the Earth"-disaster was quite something, wasn't it? And after seeing some videos of it the spontaneous thought is that it wasn't a huge wave alá "Deep Impact" that did it. But if there is one positive thing about this tragedy it is that the internet is for once regarded as something positive. The media that are so quick to mention that bombmakers had downloaded stuff from the internet or whatever are equally quick to point out the positives in a tragedy like this. From blogging to using it as a small messaging system just to say "I'm ok!".
And one day we'll learn not to build major cities so close to the water. Even if it's from a practical standpoint a good idea, things like this as well as the doomsday prophecy of global warming should have some kinda of impact on where we chose to build cities. But the mistakes have already been made I guess, good luck trying to move them...

I recently saw a BBC documentary I recommend everyone to see if you get the chance - "The Power of Nightmares". A documentary about how governments have stopped promosing the utopian society and replaced it with the promise that the future won't be worse than yesterday. It's about the philisophies about using nightmares and the "good vs evil" mentality that certain people are very keen to push on us. And it tells both sides of the stories, as well as how the Al Quada organisation didn't really excist until the american justice system created it themselves and then just went with it. It takes up alot of stuff most of us have no idea about. Just see it. If you can.

I guess I'm suppose to wish everyone a happy new year. But under the circumstances I think it'll be a damn tough start to 2005 now that the death toll estimates is up to 6 figures. I guess that makes it difficult for 2005 to be any worse.