The question was raised by a friend of mine "what did you get your wife" so here's the answer to that.
I got her one of those Qube games with the "luxury" theme (cause she likes that stuff), a Nespresso-machine (she wanted one for work but she's not really likely to bring it to work since it makes sooooo good coffee!) and pods for 500 crowns - that was alot of coffee! :)
So she was pretty much happier than I was about the presents - and she was even happier when her secret santa had bought a little Nespresso-glasscube for the pods!
MERRY CHRISTMAS INDEED
So did you have a merry Christmas? .. I certainly did! I really love Christmases like this!
First we had a small little present opening at home and I got an electric toothbrush from my lovely wife! The story behind that is that I've always prefered electric ones, it just feels better afterwards. But during our very nice romantic weekend after we got married I lost mine. And I never really put a high priority on it (the Samsung Tab was much more important!!) but now I got one again!
Then we got into the car and drove 3 hours to her brother's place and celebrated Christmas with his family. Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun and lots of presents (with 3 small kids there it was plenty of toys!)! And that's when my wife surprised me again! Not only did she remember me saying "I want that for Christmas!" when I saw the TV trailer for "Uncharted 3" - but she went above and beyond and got me the special edition of it!!
The day after we had some breakfast and that's when the only bad thing that happened all week happened - Helena got some food poisoning with all bad stuff that comes with that. And then we got into the car to drive 3 hours to my parent's place, stopping every 30 minutes when H felt a bit queasy.
But when we finally got there she slept for 2 hours and it was all good. Then it was the same story, lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun and... ok maybe not lots of presents since we had agreed to play the Secret Santa game. I don't know who was my Santa but that person bought me two whisky glasses, really nice so thank you for that! Then it was time to play some games... first it was the social version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and that didn't work out since we improvised the rules because the rules that comes with it only applies when playing 2 people and we were four. But I still think it should have been "last man standing" (which ofcourse was me) but nope. So then we moved on to Scrabble and on the second word we got into an argument about the rules. And when it was really close towards the end we got into an argument what happens when challening someone that puts down tiles that make 3 words at the same time.. but in the end I won again. I have really no clue why I win Scrabble so often (in english)!
Anyway, then we stayed the day and after breakfast (without the food poisoning) we got into the car and drove 1 1/2 hour home to calm down, get organized and start putting batteries in everything our son got... oh the noise!!!
First we had a small little present opening at home and I got an electric toothbrush from my lovely wife! The story behind that is that I've always prefered electric ones, it just feels better afterwards. But during our very nice romantic weekend after we got married I lost mine. And I never really put a high priority on it (the Samsung Tab was much more important!!) but now I got one again!
Then we got into the car and drove 3 hours to her brother's place and celebrated Christmas with his family. Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun and lots of presents (with 3 small kids there it was plenty of toys!)! And that's when my wife surprised me again! Not only did she remember me saying "I want that for Christmas!" when I saw the TV trailer for "Uncharted 3" - but she went above and beyond and got me the special edition of it!!
The day after we had some breakfast and that's when the only bad thing that happened all week happened - Helena got some food poisoning with all bad stuff that comes with that. And then we got into the car to drive 3 hours to my parent's place, stopping every 30 minutes when H felt a bit queasy.
But when we finally got there she slept for 2 hours and it was all good. Then it was the same story, lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun and... ok maybe not lots of presents since we had agreed to play the Secret Santa game. I don't know who was my Santa but that person bought me two whisky glasses, really nice so thank you for that! Then it was time to play some games... first it was the social version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and that didn't work out since we improvised the rules because the rules that comes with it only applies when playing 2 people and we were four. But I still think it should have been "last man standing" (which ofcourse was me) but nope. So then we moved on to Scrabble and on the second word we got into an argument about the rules. And when it was really close towards the end we got into an argument what happens when challening someone that puts down tiles that make 3 words at the same time.. but in the end I won again. I have really no clue why I win Scrabble so often (in english)!
Anyway, then we stayed the day and after breakfast (without the food poisoning) we got into the car and drove 1 1/2 hour home to calm down, get organized and start putting batteries in everything our son got... oh the noise!!!
MOVIES
This weeks movies have been "Little Piece of Heaven" and "Contagion".
"Little Piece of Heaven" is so totally a chick flic that is damn predictable as hell. Decent acting and story and everything but still predictable chick flic. But if you want some nice "cuddle in the soffa during a dark december night with some candlelight and watch a movie" it does work quite nicely.
"Contagion" is the recent "oh my god a new über virus is unleashed on us and we're all going to hell"-movie. Atleast that's what I thought it was. But the movie didn't quite work for me, or Helena for that matter. I don't know if it was too fast paced or trying to convey so much or what but you just never got involved in the plot or the characters. Never really felt for any of the characters at all. I guess from a "yeah that could happen" this movie is the best pandemic movie but for pure entertainment I'll go with "Outbreak" any day of the year. It's got Keven Spacey, military coverups, bad Donald Sutherland and a monkey saves the day! If you make the comparison to the "oh my god a über asteroid is gonna hit earh and blow us all to hell"-movies "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" I guess "Contagion" would be the latter. Which is weird cause I prefered the "yeah that could happen" feel of "Deep Impact" way more than the entertainment factor of "Armageddon"...
But I'd still recommend it to you :)
"Little Piece of Heaven" is so totally a chick flic that is damn predictable as hell. Decent acting and story and everything but still predictable chick flic. But if you want some nice "cuddle in the soffa during a dark december night with some candlelight and watch a movie" it does work quite nicely.
"Contagion" is the recent "oh my god a new über virus is unleashed on us and we're all going to hell"-movie. Atleast that's what I thought it was. But the movie didn't quite work for me, or Helena for that matter. I don't know if it was too fast paced or trying to convey so much or what but you just never got involved in the plot or the characters. Never really felt for any of the characters at all. I guess from a "yeah that could happen" this movie is the best pandemic movie but for pure entertainment I'll go with "Outbreak" any day of the year. It's got Keven Spacey, military coverups, bad Donald Sutherland and a monkey saves the day! If you make the comparison to the "oh my god a über asteroid is gonna hit earh and blow us all to hell"-movies "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" I guess "Contagion" would be the latter. Which is weird cause I prefered the "yeah that could happen" feel of "Deep Impact" way more than the entertainment factor of "Armageddon"...
But I'd still recommend it to you :)
THE JUDGEMENT
Now I've played with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G for a few days and ready for a judgement.
In short ... "pleased".
I'm happy with the size, the wieght, the battery life, the customization, the speed, the apps, alot of it I like. But two of the things I used in my pros and cons list isn't living up to expectations!
First it's the USB connector. I've read a few reviews and I checked up on "prisjakt" for technical specs and nowhere did it say it required a special USB connector. Everywhere I looked just said "USB". But it seems they liked Apple's idea of having special connectors so you have to buy their accessories if you want more adapters and stuff. For my iPhone I had 3 USB cables, one for work, one at home and one in my car. They each cost around $50. And now I have to buy 2 for my Galaxy Tab for $50 each. That just plain sucks! Why do they do it that way? On the Galaxy SII phone you have simple micro-USB connector that is enough to charge and transfer things, but apparently on the Tab it's not enough.
Secondly it's MKV playback. On my Galaxy SII phone there's no problem with MKV playback. But on the Galaxy Tab I I've only found one media player capable of playing MKV files so I know it has the power to play them, I just don't know why I have to have a special media player for it! And it wouldn't have been a problem if I could buy the full version of that media player but alas the writer of that player had his account frozen so I can't buy it and the demo version is only for 3 days. So until I can either find another player capable of playing MKV files or his account is fixed I can't play MKV files without converting them first. And converting them only takes 15 minutes but it was one of the reasons I chose the Galaxy Tab - the only player for the iPad that could play it flawlessly was the VLC player which isn't available anymore (without voiding the guarantee by jailbreaking it).
But I'm still pleased with it. These two things are problems that will be solved in time but also two things that I used as pros for the Galaxy Tab that didn't live up to expectations. But still, just the fact that I can change the user interface on it with a few clicks and that I don't have to hook it up to my computer or installing iTunes or getting a special SIM card for it and yadda yadda, I'm still pleased :)
Also pleased with Mobilgiganten.se that delivered it in 24 hours after I ordered it!
In short ... "pleased".
I'm happy with the size, the wieght, the battery life, the customization, the speed, the apps, alot of it I like. But two of the things I used in my pros and cons list isn't living up to expectations!
First it's the USB connector. I've read a few reviews and I checked up on "prisjakt" for technical specs and nowhere did it say it required a special USB connector. Everywhere I looked just said "USB". But it seems they liked Apple's idea of having special connectors so you have to buy their accessories if you want more adapters and stuff. For my iPhone I had 3 USB cables, one for work, one at home and one in my car. They each cost around $50. And now I have to buy 2 for my Galaxy Tab for $50 each. That just plain sucks! Why do they do it that way? On the Galaxy SII phone you have simple micro-USB connector that is enough to charge and transfer things, but apparently on the Tab it's not enough.
Secondly it's MKV playback. On my Galaxy SII phone there's no problem with MKV playback. But on the Galaxy Tab I I've only found one media player capable of playing MKV files so I know it has the power to play them, I just don't know why I have to have a special media player for it! And it wouldn't have been a problem if I could buy the full version of that media player but alas the writer of that player had his account frozen so I can't buy it and the demo version is only for 3 days. So until I can either find another player capable of playing MKV files or his account is fixed I can't play MKV files without converting them first. And converting them only takes 15 minutes but it was one of the reasons I chose the Galaxy Tab - the only player for the iPad that could play it flawlessly was the VLC player which isn't available anymore (without voiding the guarantee by jailbreaking it).
But I'm still pleased with it. These two things are problems that will be solved in time but also two things that I used as pros for the Galaxy Tab that didn't live up to expectations. But still, just the fact that I can change the user interface on it with a few clicks and that I don't have to hook it up to my computer or installing iTunes or getting a special SIM card for it and yadda yadda, I'm still pleased :)
Also pleased with Mobilgiganten.se that delivered it in 24 hours after I ordered it!
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G vs. Apple iPad 2 16 3G
I've been wanting to buy a tablet for a very very very long time now. And I finally ordered one and hoping I get to play with it today.
I got into a bit of a tussle with my friend Mats who loves his Apple things. He has an iMac, iPhone and iPad and he just loves how they all work perfectly for him without him having to do things. As you may know, I had an iPhone 3GS for 2 years. I was quite happy with it but when I saw what the Samsung Galaxy SII could do there really wasn't any way I could not switch. And I'm perfectly happy with my phone!
From a technical point of view, the things that makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab better is - standard USB connection, better screen resolution and better DPI, better cameras (both of them), smaller (because of the smaller screen), new bluetooth standard, DLNA support, stereo speakers and twice the RAM. I probably won't ever use DLNA, the stereo speakers maybe and taking pictures with it is doubtful too. The only downside is a slightly slower CPU (1000 vs. 1066) but the difference in RAM more then outweighs that!
But putting aside the technical differences, what Apple does well is interfaces and making things that "just work" without having technical skills. Well I do have those technical skills and I don't have an iMac or an iPhone that this tab to interact with, I have a PC and a Samsung (android-based) phone. So it makes perfect sense for me to buy the Samsung (android-based) tab I think. I don't have to "take a chance" and see if the iPad 2 does what I want it to do (like play MKVs without converting them or having to hack it to install VLC), think that I know this one will? And I also like to change my interfaces now and again which, as I understand it, isn't that easy without jailbreaking your iPhone but easily doable on an Android device. Just look at my "World of Wacraft"-screenshots and how often I change my interface there!
But one huge, majorly disappointing thing is still the lack of being able to upgrade the storage. I thought you could upgrade it in the 8.9 (but not the 10.1) and most retailers list memory upgrades as accessory. But they will have that ability in next years lineup which right now only has a 7.7" screen which is too small for me. Or rather the difference from my 4.3" screen on my phone to a 7.7" is too small to justify the cost of upgrade. And speaking of cost, another + on the Samsung side albeit $20-$30...
I got into a bit of a tussle with my friend Mats who loves his Apple things. He has an iMac, iPhone and iPad and he just loves how they all work perfectly for him without him having to do things. As you may know, I had an iPhone 3GS for 2 years. I was quite happy with it but when I saw what the Samsung Galaxy SII could do there really wasn't any way I could not switch. And I'm perfectly happy with my phone!
From a technical point of view, the things that makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab better is - standard USB connection, better screen resolution and better DPI, better cameras (both of them), smaller (because of the smaller screen), new bluetooth standard, DLNA support, stereo speakers and twice the RAM. I probably won't ever use DLNA, the stereo speakers maybe and taking pictures with it is doubtful too. The only downside is a slightly slower CPU (1000 vs. 1066) but the difference in RAM more then outweighs that!
But putting aside the technical differences, what Apple does well is interfaces and making things that "just work" without having technical skills. Well I do have those technical skills and I don't have an iMac or an iPhone that this tab to interact with, I have a PC and a Samsung (android-based) phone. So it makes perfect sense for me to buy the Samsung (android-based) tab I think. I don't have to "take a chance" and see if the iPad 2 does what I want it to do (like play MKVs without converting them or having to hack it to install VLC), think that I know this one will? And I also like to change my interfaces now and again which, as I understand it, isn't that easy without jailbreaking your iPhone but easily doable on an Android device. Just look at my "World of Wacraft"-screenshots and how often I change my interface there!
But one huge, majorly disappointing thing is still the lack of being able to upgrade the storage. I thought you could upgrade it in the 8.9 (but not the 10.1) and most retailers list memory upgrades as accessory. But they will have that ability in next years lineup which right now only has a 7.7" screen which is too small for me. Or rather the difference from my 4.3" screen on my phone to a 7.7" is too small to justify the cost of upgrade. And speaking of cost, another + on the Samsung side albeit $20-$30...
PLAYING JACK BAUER
So did you hear about the Swedish police and DA playing Jack Bauer last week? The story, as reported by our media, is that some woman claims she overheard a man talking Arabic (which wasn't her primary language) on his cell phone talking about blowing up a shopping mall in Gothenburg. She reported it to the Swedish police who realized they didn't have all the time in the world to investigate everything and after getting the logs from the closest cell phone station they narrowed it down to the 4 palistinians. And they were promptly arrested.
That far I can't really blame them. They couldn't risk this women being wrong or risk an actual bomb in the most crowded place in Gothenburg. So I totally understand them borrowing the pages from "24" and shooting from the hips. I can actually applaud them for having the balls to make the call. 'Cause if it had been a real threat and they had hesitated it'd been far worse.
Unfortunately though they weren't just arrested, the police brutally stormed their houses/apartments with little respect to anything else than getting these guys arrested. And everything after this seems to have been one fuck up after another. After checking one piece of evidence after another they should have realized they fucked up and just dropped it and owed up to it. But here we are a year afterwards and all the so called evidence is just wrong and this woman that reported it have turned out to be far from a reliable witness and so far no one is even close to saying "we were wrong". And the problem that really bites me is that until someone owes up to the fact that they made a mistake, they (as in our justice system) won't learn anything from it or change how they work. And that'll lead to this might actually happen again! Cause the only way to improve something is finding the problem and fixing it. If everyone keeps on saying, and god forbid actually believing, that everything they did was correct, then I'm really kinda worried.
But I can't say I envy the guy who has to make the call - arrest four people on vague evidence or risk a bomb going off killing countless civilians. When Jack Bauer makes the call he's the tough guy and it's entertaining. Difference is, when Jack is wrong, which happens from time to time, he doesn't go hiding.
That far I can't really blame them. They couldn't risk this women being wrong or risk an actual bomb in the most crowded place in Gothenburg. So I totally understand them borrowing the pages from "24" and shooting from the hips. I can actually applaud them for having the balls to make the call. 'Cause if it had been a real threat and they had hesitated it'd been far worse.
Unfortunately though they weren't just arrested, the police brutally stormed their houses/apartments with little respect to anything else than getting these guys arrested. And everything after this seems to have been one fuck up after another. After checking one piece of evidence after another they should have realized they fucked up and just dropped it and owed up to it. But here we are a year afterwards and all the so called evidence is just wrong and this woman that reported it have turned out to be far from a reliable witness and so far no one is even close to saying "we were wrong". And the problem that really bites me is that until someone owes up to the fact that they made a mistake, they (as in our justice system) won't learn anything from it or change how they work. And that'll lead to this might actually happen again! Cause the only way to improve something is finding the problem and fixing it. If everyone keeps on saying, and god forbid actually believing, that everything they did was correct, then I'm really kinda worried.
But I can't say I envy the guy who has to make the call - arrest four people on vague evidence or risk a bomb going off killing countless civilians. When Jack Bauer makes the call he's the tough guy and it's entertaining. Difference is, when Jack is wrong, which happens from time to time, he doesn't go hiding.
WELL THAT WORKED OUT WELL
So the "great" result of the summit about global warming last week was... "keep on going as we're going right now while we think about it some more, keep on polluting and praying for a technical breakthrough that'll solve all our problems overnight". And it took Canada a whole 2 days to say "if the biggest baddies of greenhouse emissions isn't in, why should we?" which kinda makes sense. But as long as none of the leaders risk losing the next election because they agreed to some ridiculous demand that might help, then I guess all is fine and dandy.
It's at times like this you want some global rule that no head of state should ever be able to be relected no matter what. 'Cause that seems to be the only way for them to have balls. And speaking of balls, sweden sent Lena Ek to that summit. Might as well have sent Miss Piggy.
It's at times like this you want some global rule that no head of state should ever be able to be relected no matter what. 'Cause that seems to be the only way for them to have balls. And speaking of balls, sweden sent Lena Ek to that summit. Might as well have sent Miss Piggy.
THE ENVIRONMENT AGAIN
Everyone who knows what's going down in Durban right now raise your hands... anybody? ...
Well all the worlds governments ministers in charge of environment are gathering to discuss what we can do about the state of the climate. Last time it was in Copenhagen and the only result of the meeting was all the jetfuel that was burnt up by all the planes there. It's a bit sad when you have a conference to talk about lowering emissions and in comes a big ass jumbojet to deliver one person...
ANYWAY, I'm far from an expert at economics or the environment, but it seems to me pretty stupid. We have countries that doesn't wanna be on the same side as other countries for various reasons. And we have some countries that feels that changing their ways will hurt their economy. And we have politicians that doesn't wanna give in or take a bullet or anything because they wanna be reelected. Meanwhile we have a planet that's drowning. It won't be fun in 30-40 years is the sea level rises a few meters flooding the major cities around the world, it won't even be fun watching those finances and borderes literally washed away.
As for me.. well I'm already taking the train and live in a modern low energy home and leasing a brand new little car that doesn't consume much gas so I think I'm doing my part atleast.
Well all the worlds governments ministers in charge of environment are gathering to discuss what we can do about the state of the climate. Last time it was in Copenhagen and the only result of the meeting was all the jetfuel that was burnt up by all the planes there. It's a bit sad when you have a conference to talk about lowering emissions and in comes a big ass jumbojet to deliver one person...
ANYWAY, I'm far from an expert at economics or the environment, but it seems to me pretty stupid. We have countries that doesn't wanna be on the same side as other countries for various reasons. And we have some countries that feels that changing their ways will hurt their economy. And we have politicians that doesn't wanna give in or take a bullet or anything because they wanna be reelected. Meanwhile we have a planet that's drowning. It won't be fun in 30-40 years is the sea level rises a few meters flooding the major cities around the world, it won't even be fun watching those finances and borderes literally washed away.
As for me.. well I'm already taking the train and live in a modern low energy home and leasing a brand new little car that doesn't consume much gas so I think I'm doing my part atleast.
WEB TIME MACHINE
Thanks to the wonders of the world wide web time machine I have been able to restore the updates for 2000!! I have the updates for 2001 as well as restored the missing ones for 2010. Pretty sweet huh?
And anyone saying they've had a blog for a long time should check it out, the first capture they have of my kristoffer.com was back in 1998 :)
And anyone saying they've had a blog for a long time should check it out, the first capture they have of my kristoffer.com was back in 1998 :)
IN WITH OLD
I'm finally done adding old updates to this blog! I started this blog way before blog was even a word, back in 1997. Unfortunately I don't have those updates (and the internet archives only goes back that far) and let's be honest, before 2002 there wasn't that much interesting happening. But all the updates dating back to January 1st 2002 are now added to this place. How many blogs can say that? :) So now you can read about all my travelling again and my sadness when I lost my best friend and the excitement when I met Helena :)
Also added it to Facebook so hopefully you'll get a notice there when I update this place. Just hope that works as intended.
Also added it to Facebook so hopefully you'll get a notice there when I update this place. Just hope that works as intended.
SNOW OR NO SNOW
So it's December 1st today. And not many signs it is December at all. Still above 0 here, we had a little bit of snow Sunday night that melted fast and then nothing.
So now people start complaining about the lack of snow. And last year it was complaints abot too much. I don't know which side I'm on. A lot of snow is good for a lot of reasons, most of all it's a sign the weather is "normal". And I also want it so my son can experience a white Christmas, seeing that he hardly remembers last Christmas. But then again I remember last year when I was out shoveling snow like a mad man. When it was hard to get the car out and slippery as hell on the roads and the electric bill made everyone turn down the heat a little bit. But still.. snow is snow so bring it on :)
So now people start complaining about the lack of snow. And last year it was complaints abot too much. I don't know which side I'm on. A lot of snow is good for a lot of reasons, most of all it's a sign the weather is "normal". And I also want it so my son can experience a white Christmas, seeing that he hardly remembers last Christmas. But then again I remember last year when I was out shoveling snow like a mad man. When it was hard to get the car out and slippery as hell on the roads and the electric bill made everyone turn down the heat a little bit. But still.. snow is snow so bring it on :)
O'LEARYS APPOLOGY
Just a small quick update regarding our visit to the new O'Learys restaurant the other day.
I mailed the HQ and got a very nice mail back tonight. He apologized very politely and even offered us a free evening off bowling and dinner which was really nice of him. Surprisingly nice. They could just have deleted the mail like most companies would and gotten on with their business but he not only read it but replied. I thought that was nice. Unfortunately me and Helena don't have the luxury of going out much, we pretty much have to plan logistics one or two weeks ahead of time so when we do go out we want it to be something or someplace special. And it was on Sunday so not very likely to happen again anytime soon and when it happens we're not likely to go there again. I think. Then again it is free... but as our old spam protection software said, "there is no such thing as a free lunch"...
I mailed the HQ and got a very nice mail back tonight. He apologized very politely and even offered us a free evening off bowling and dinner which was really nice of him. Surprisingly nice. They could just have deleted the mail like most companies would and gotten on with their business but he not only read it but replied. I thought that was nice. Unfortunately me and Helena don't have the luxury of going out much, we pretty much have to plan logistics one or two weeks ahead of time so when we do go out we want it to be something or someplace special. And it was on Sunday so not very likely to happen again anytime soon and when it happens we're not likely to go there again. I think. Then again it is free... but as our old spam protection software said, "there is no such thing as a free lunch"...
O'LEARYS FAIL
When I left my job at Vinge my nice colleagues there got together and bought me two gifts. The first was a whisky that was really nice. And the second one was a gift certificate for 1.000 Swedish crowns (approximately $140) at O'Learys. They knew I liked going to O'Learys since I've gone there alot ever since my first Formula 1 at O'Learys experience in 1999. The gift certificate was for the newly opened restaurant in the north part of central Stockholm (Norrtull). And as this was the last race of the season, and it started at 5 pm in the afternoon it was a perfect time to use that certificate.
When we got there they made two things clear - alcohol wasn't covered by the gift certificate and there was no refunds. That seemed Ok to me since we were 5 people I thought we'd eat for 1000 swedish crowns. The food was good (above average for O'Learys actually) but that was about it. They forgot our orders left and right, they never even asked us if we wanted desserts (which we definitely did) and at the end me and my brother Jocke was left waiting for our beers but we got tired of waiting for that so when the race was over and the soccer game was done we just wanted to pay and get out of there.
And this is where basic math skills actually outsmarted my drunken math skills. I'd like to think I got some advanced math skills but after 4 beers not so much. The tab ended up at 1250:- swedish crowns. So I had to tell this waitress that we had a gift certificate we handed in when we got here 3 hours ago so go sort that please. Which she did and came back with two tabs. One for 250:- since the certificate was only for 1000:-. And one tab for the alcohol for 500:-. Which meant we paid 750:- for a tab of 1250:- with a gift certificate of 1000:-. If we hadn't wanted to get out of there so badly and if I didn't have 4 beers in my system I would indeed have protested their math skills saying that we really should only pay for the beer since the way they counted we in practice paid for everything but the beer. So they ripped us off of 250:-.
That combined with the lack of service and the fact that I was sober by the time we got home (which wouldn't have happened had we gotten that last orders of beer) makes me say "no more!". But I'm not sure I'll be able to honor that promise since there really is no other good way for me, my sister and brother to meet up and watch F1 while drinking beer and enjoying good food since we live too far apart, otherwise they could just come over to our place all the time for that :)
When we got there they made two things clear - alcohol wasn't covered by the gift certificate and there was no refunds. That seemed Ok to me since we were 5 people I thought we'd eat for 1000 swedish crowns. The food was good (above average for O'Learys actually) but that was about it. They forgot our orders left and right, they never even asked us if we wanted desserts (which we definitely did) and at the end me and my brother Jocke was left waiting for our beers but we got tired of waiting for that so when the race was over and the soccer game was done we just wanted to pay and get out of there.
And this is where basic math skills actually outsmarted my drunken math skills. I'd like to think I got some advanced math skills but after 4 beers not so much. The tab ended up at 1250:- swedish crowns. So I had to tell this waitress that we had a gift certificate we handed in when we got here 3 hours ago so go sort that please. Which she did and came back with two tabs. One for 250:- since the certificate was only for 1000:-. And one tab for the alcohol for 500:-. Which meant we paid 750:- for a tab of 1250:- with a gift certificate of 1000:-. If we hadn't wanted to get out of there so badly and if I didn't have 4 beers in my system I would indeed have protested their math skills saying that we really should only pay for the beer since the way they counted we in practice paid for everything but the beer. So they ripped us off of 250:-.
That combined with the lack of service and the fact that I was sober by the time we got home (which wouldn't have happened had we gotten that last orders of beer) makes me say "no more!". But I'm not sure I'll be able to honor that promise since there really is no other good way for me, my sister and brother to meet up and watch F1 while drinking beer and enjoying good food since we live too far apart, otherwise they could just come over to our place all the time for that :)
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
I'm a huge supporter of freedom of the press. And freedom of speech and all those other beautiful things that democracy brings. Even if they can be used for bad things like oh say starting wars and invading countries left and right. But all in all it does more good than bad. But one thing one has to know and think about is not trusting everything you read and instead ask "what's their angle? what do they have to gain from this?". Everyone knows Michael Moore's documentaries that go into that grey area in between "telling the truth" and "not quite lying".
Well for the past few weeks my new employer Carema have suffered the fate of having the media against them. And reading the headlines and articles in the newspapers/web in the morning while going to work and when I get to work I get "our" version of the truth and although they have the same facts, it's just angled differently. And I don't have access to any classified information, it's all on the web. But most people aren't interested in reading our side of the story since it's much more fun / juicy / interesting to read the medias version than the other side of the story.
It's all pretty frustrating - but still, huge supporter of freedom of the press. I just wish people would care more for finding out the truth than taking the headlines at face value.
Well for the past few weeks my new employer Carema have suffered the fate of having the media against them. And reading the headlines and articles in the newspapers/web in the morning while going to work and when I get to work I get "our" version of the truth and although they have the same facts, it's just angled differently. And I don't have access to any classified information, it's all on the web. But most people aren't interested in reading our side of the story since it's much more fun / juicy / interesting to read the medias version than the other side of the story.
It's all pretty frustrating - but still, huge supporter of freedom of the press. I just wish people would care more for finding out the truth than taking the headlines at face value.
WTB DIABLO 3 BETA ACCOUNT PLX! :)
I'm actually thinking about buying some random Diablo 3 beta account out there but everytime I'm hit with the thought of "really?? pay money that you have a thousand different things to spend it on than a beta for a computer game" and I give up on it. Only to look into it again the day after!
Actually the only thing stopping me is really the risk of being ripped off, like I almost was when I sold my old Warcraft account. Not so much the money but the idea of getting ripped off so easily online when your better judgement is saying "no".
But I still wanna play Diablo more than a kid wants to open his presents on Christmas morning!!!
Actually the only thing stopping me is really the risk of being ripped off, like I almost was when I sold my old Warcraft account. Not so much the money but the idea of getting ripped off so easily online when your better judgement is saying "no".
But I still wanna play Diablo more than a kid wants to open his presents on Christmas morning!!!
STILL THE NOOB
Slowly getting how things are setup here and what's doing what. But it feels I could work here for a year and still I'd be surprised when some server popups up because there are so many everywhere doing things it's impossible to get them all.
The bad thing now is that the media here in Sweden is doing everything they can to paint the company I started working for as "the evil empire" because of things that went down in some elderly care centers and that wouldn't make anyone feel good about just starting working there. Kinda reminds me of the "did the subcontractors building the deathstar know that the empire was evil and did they condone the empire by taking the job there"-discussion from "Clerks" :)
The bad thing now is that the media here in Sweden is doing everything they can to paint the company I started working for as "the evil empire" because of things that went down in some elderly care centers and that wouldn't make anyone feel good about just starting working there. Kinda reminds me of the "did the subcontractors building the deathstar know that the empire was evil and did they condone the empire by taking the job there"-discussion from "Clerks" :)
GETTING USED TO BEING THE NOOB
If you wind the clock back 10 years I was just starting my career as "consultant" and driving around Stockholm doing all kinds of computer magic. Everything from installing a few PCs to travelling the world. But everytime I was either involed in how the computer system was built up and evolved or it was so well documented that I had it all under control. It didn't happen that often that I got to a customer and had no clue what their computer environment looked like.
And when I was eomployed by Vinge full time I had more knowledge of their IT systems than the people who worked there since they had only worked there a year and I'd been there on and off for four years. And after 5 more years I knew the IT systems inside and out even though it changed a lot over a year and I often had to find that out myself!
But now I'm at a big company with hundreds of servers and systems and I have no clue what's what or what server does what and most importantly where to look when something is broken! I'm doing all I can to learn it but it's going slowly. Thing is I have no reference point that I can use to know if I'm learning things fast enough or if I'm looking like a total noob! ... but it's only day two!
And when I was eomployed by Vinge full time I had more knowledge of their IT systems than the people who worked there since they had only worked there a year and I'd been there on and off for four years. And after 5 more years I knew the IT systems inside and out even though it changed a lot over a year and I often had to find that out myself!
But now I'm at a big company with hundreds of servers and systems and I have no clue what's what or what server does what and most importantly where to look when something is broken! I'm doing all I can to learn it but it's going slowly. Thing is I have no reference point that I can use to know if I'm learning things fast enough or if I'm looking like a total noob! ... but it's only day two!
DICE / BATTLEFIELD FAIL
Yeah, it's that time again - time for abig whine post about some small little thing that ruins bigger things.
I've always liked Dice´s products. From their early pinball games to Battlefield, I liked them. Ok most of them. So when BF3 was announced I was ofcourse a little bit excited although the first trailer was very annoying (more annoying sound than exciting visual). Then I saw the gameplay trailers and it looks sweet as hell. And for the past month EA have gone all out on the PR for the launch of BF3, here they are marketing it with the "Made in Stockholm"-slogan. And the launch is just two weeks away from Modern Warfare 3, another hyped shooting game. But when I got home last night I bought it through their own Origin-system ("Steam"-wannabe), downloaded it and got ready to rock.
That's when the excitement died. Was the graphics not good enough? .. nope, it was good. Was the story terrible? Nope, it's good. Was the multiplayer maps sucky or buggy? Nope.
After spending all this time, money, work and ideas creating this behemoth of a title, with the best graphics engine ever, they missed out on a very small tiny detail... making it easy for the user! At first I couldn't launch the game. It doesn't launch at all actually cause it starts my Internet Explorer (which is NOT my default browser!) to a website that I have to log into. And when I'm logged in my browser reports that the active x controlers are causing issues and the certificate isn't valid for this https site and when all of that is done I get to the "launch campaign" and click it.. and then it downloads a game launcher that I can't install in MSIE! When trying through Chrome there's no technical issues.
But technical issues aside - who came up with the idea "to start the sing player campaign, you log into origin, you start the game, browser directs you to a page where you have to log into origin again, and then click 'launch campaign' and install another third party addon and then the game starts"?!? What the f*ck is that about!? I know I know, it's probably their version of DRM to make sure pirates have a harder time to launch it but don't they get it!? Every time you have some kind of DRM system, especially like this, all you do is encourage people to use the pirated stuff!!...
I've always liked Dice´s products. From their early pinball games to Battlefield, I liked them. Ok most of them. So when BF3 was announced I was ofcourse a little bit excited although the first trailer was very annoying (more annoying sound than exciting visual). Then I saw the gameplay trailers and it looks sweet as hell. And for the past month EA have gone all out on the PR for the launch of BF3, here they are marketing it with the "Made in Stockholm"-slogan. And the launch is just two weeks away from Modern Warfare 3, another hyped shooting game. But when I got home last night I bought it through their own Origin-system ("Steam"-wannabe), downloaded it and got ready to rock.
That's when the excitement died. Was the graphics not good enough? .. nope, it was good. Was the story terrible? Nope, it's good. Was the multiplayer maps sucky or buggy? Nope.
After spending all this time, money, work and ideas creating this behemoth of a title, with the best graphics engine ever, they missed out on a very small tiny detail... making it easy for the user! At first I couldn't launch the game. It doesn't launch at all actually cause it starts my Internet Explorer (which is NOT my default browser!) to a website that I have to log into. And when I'm logged in my browser reports that the active x controlers are causing issues and the certificate isn't valid for this https site and when all of that is done I get to the "launch campaign" and click it.. and then it downloads a game launcher that I can't install in MSIE! When trying through Chrome there's no technical issues.
But technical issues aside - who came up with the idea "to start the sing player campaign, you log into origin, you start the game, browser directs you to a page where you have to log into origin again, and then click 'launch campaign' and install another third party addon and then the game starts"?!? What the f*ck is that about!? I know I know, it's probably their version of DRM to make sure pirates have a harder time to launch it but don't they get it!? Every time you have some kind of DRM system, especially like this, all you do is encourage people to use the pirated stuff!!...
LAST WEEK AT VINGE
And so after 6 years (10 if you count the time as a consultant) here åt Vinge I am now starting the last week here before I am off to Carema Care.
It's bitter-sweet kinda as it should be! Vinge has been a great employer. Some really Nice benefits here that I am going to miss but I really have to move on with my career and this feels like a good step. We'll know in about 6 months if it was a terrible step! (that's the trial-period here in Sweden for you and your employer. If during that time one of you thinks it isn't working out you just say thanks but no thanks)
But if for some reason it isn't working I'm fairly sure I'd be welcome back here :)
And during this last week I'll be working 4pm 'till midnight or more if needed. Cause we're reinstalling all the computers here one last time (for Me). So kinda going out with a bang :)
It's bitter-sweet kinda as it should be! Vinge has been a great employer. Some really Nice benefits here that I am going to miss but I really have to move on with my career and this feels like a good step. We'll know in about 6 months if it was a terrible step! (that's the trial-period here in Sweden for you and your employer. If during that time one of you thinks it isn't working out you just say thanks but no thanks)
But if for some reason it isn't working I'm fairly sure I'd be welcome back here :)
And during this last week I'll be working 4pm 'till midnight or more if needed. Cause we're reinstalling all the computers here one last time (for Me). So kinda going out with a bang :)
WHY ARE MEDIA SO NICE TO APPLE?
I read an article yesterday slamming media for not being more critical in their coverage of Apple. And it's true, very rarely do you see, in Sweden anyway, some news that are criticizing Apple for anything. Sure we had that small little debate about Apple and Google geotagging everything (but as opposed to Google, Apple cached everything in a local file meaning if you managed to hack in to someones computer you could backtrace where their i-Device had been).
I can't say much about Mr. Jobs, not because he's recently passed but because I just don't know enough to say anything about it. Most of my knowledge about him comes from "Pirates of Silicon Valley". And I can't say much about Apple as a company since I'm no business analyst.
But what I can say a lot about is their mobile products, iPhone and iPad. What positive I can say, and I said this a week after owning my iPhone I had for over 2 years, is that Apple has a very, very keen sense for interfaces. They make so much stuff easy for the average joe. But in my opinion it ends there with them. To my knowledge everything they've ever put into their iPhones have already been done by someone else. They just make it easier to use and overprice it. For example, I recently switched to Samsung Galaxy SII. It cost me about $600. How much would an equal Apple product cost? .. according to Webhallen it'd be around $1200. That's double the cost. For what? I still can't play my MKVs "out of the box" and all that other stuff. And I still can't update my firmware without iTunes (or has that finally been unlocked now?). The Samsung phone already has everything that Apple introduced as "new!" with the iPhone, they even have the "S" in the model name. And did anyone, anywhere write that? Cause on a tech level it's true but noone (except tech bloggers) seems to put that in print! No, instead Aftonbladets and Expressens webservers went down one night when I was working and for a second I thought we had internet connection issues. But nope, they just got overloaded thanks to their "Apple releasing a new product!!" coverage.
By the way - what happened to all those "win an iphone 5"-competitions I saw banners and links to? :)
No, I think it's down to the fact that people just love an underdog that wins! It's like the Brawn team in Formula 1 a few years ago. Very close to bankrupt, the boss keeps believing and somehow manages to pull the team together and they kick ass and win the championship against the evil competitor that has for a long time owned the throne, Ferrari. And people wrote alot of good stuff about Brawn as a person and the team as a "wonders can happen!"-thing. Not many dared to say "they exploited a loophole in the rules that allowed them to go between 2-3 seconds faster per lap and after everyone had caught up they didn't win a single race". And it's the same here, Apple was very very close to bankruptcy when Jobs came back and started the whole i-Device thing and they've now won over the evil competitor, Microsoft. And little does anyone ever mention "the first thing Jobs did was kill the Newton and now, some 15 years later their iPad is one of their strongest products!".
So my grief isn't with Apple or the entire "iOS v. Android" thing, my grief is with the media not being the least bit critical when reporting on Apple, that annoys me.... Damn no I need cookies to make me feel positive again!
I can't say much about Mr. Jobs, not because he's recently passed but because I just don't know enough to say anything about it. Most of my knowledge about him comes from "Pirates of Silicon Valley". And I can't say much about Apple as a company since I'm no business analyst.
But what I can say a lot about is their mobile products, iPhone and iPad. What positive I can say, and I said this a week after owning my iPhone I had for over 2 years, is that Apple has a very, very keen sense for interfaces. They make so much stuff easy for the average joe. But in my opinion it ends there with them. To my knowledge everything they've ever put into their iPhones have already been done by someone else. They just make it easier to use and overprice it. For example, I recently switched to Samsung Galaxy SII. It cost me about $600. How much would an equal Apple product cost? .. according to Webhallen it'd be around $1200. That's double the cost. For what? I still can't play my MKVs "out of the box" and all that other stuff. And I still can't update my firmware without iTunes (or has that finally been unlocked now?). The Samsung phone already has everything that Apple introduced as "new!" with the iPhone, they even have the "S" in the model name. And did anyone, anywhere write that? Cause on a tech level it's true but noone (except tech bloggers) seems to put that in print! No, instead Aftonbladets and Expressens webservers went down one night when I was working and for a second I thought we had internet connection issues. But nope, they just got overloaded thanks to their "Apple releasing a new product!!" coverage.
By the way - what happened to all those "win an iphone 5"-competitions I saw banners and links to? :)
No, I think it's down to the fact that people just love an underdog that wins! It's like the Brawn team in Formula 1 a few years ago. Very close to bankrupt, the boss keeps believing and somehow manages to pull the team together and they kick ass and win the championship against the evil competitor that has for a long time owned the throne, Ferrari. And people wrote alot of good stuff about Brawn as a person and the team as a "wonders can happen!"-thing. Not many dared to say "they exploited a loophole in the rules that allowed them to go between 2-3 seconds faster per lap and after everyone had caught up they didn't win a single race". And it's the same here, Apple was very very close to bankruptcy when Jobs came back and started the whole i-Device thing and they've now won over the evil competitor, Microsoft. And little does anyone ever mention "the first thing Jobs did was kill the Newton and now, some 15 years later their iPad is one of their strongest products!".
So my grief isn't with Apple or the entire "iOS v. Android" thing, my grief is with the media not being the least bit critical when reporting on Apple, that annoys me.... Damn no I need cookies to make me feel positive again!
HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO GET IT RIGHT!?
Let's talk toys. Specifically media players, or media streamers or whatever you wanna call it. Small boxed that you connect to your TV or projector to play your digitalized movies. I started that project about 3 years trying to find a good solution to it. And I'm still not happy! The closes to "satisfied" that I've come is actually Popcorns A110 which is so low tech and "just the facts"-scaled down you can get. But the fewer "cool features" you have the less things can go wrong!
I've tried having a PC but in the end with their fans and harddrives it just makes too much noise to have it at the TV. So I'ved tried it with the PS3 and that kinda worked but doesn't play all the stuff I have and some stuff bugs out. Lately I've tried two "Xtreamer" products. First I tried their "Pro" which was suppose to be media player and network storage all in one, so I could have 2 2tb harddrives in the same machine where I store the movies, awesome to combine them. But their idea of "network storage" didn't exactly jive with my idea of it so after playing with it over the weekend I exchanged it for their "media player only" product "Sidewinder 2". So far it looks awesome and it plays everything I've thrown at it.... BUT!!! they have a major error in their software. Either that or they have a weird since of "interface"! Because their "Back" button is really an "Up" button. For example, I have shortcuts that points directly to my Movies directory on my server. And I have a shortcut pointing to my TV directory. When I go into the shortcuts menu and click "TV" I come to the TV directory fine. Now when I click "Back" I, and I believe the rest of the world, would expect to get back to the shortcuts menu. But instead I'm take to the parents directory of "TV" which is just wrong and I have to go back to the home screen to go into the shortcut menu to go to the movies catalog again. It's messed up and you'd think a very small thing but it's actually a big deal when browsing around!
This all just means I'm left wondering ... "how hard can it be!? Why don't I get together with Ricki and Jimmi and design one ourselves and just make three copies of it for ourselves and leave everyone else wanting one"...
This is what you'd in sweden call an "i-lands problem", a small insignificant problem that someone in Africa would say "I wish I didn't have bigger problems than that". But it still annoys me!
I've tried having a PC but in the end with their fans and harddrives it just makes too much noise to have it at the TV. So I'ved tried it with the PS3 and that kinda worked but doesn't play all the stuff I have and some stuff bugs out. Lately I've tried two "Xtreamer" products. First I tried their "Pro" which was suppose to be media player and network storage all in one, so I could have 2 2tb harddrives in the same machine where I store the movies, awesome to combine them. But their idea of "network storage" didn't exactly jive with my idea of it so after playing with it over the weekend I exchanged it for their "media player only" product "Sidewinder 2". So far it looks awesome and it plays everything I've thrown at it.... BUT!!! they have a major error in their software. Either that or they have a weird since of "interface"! Because their "Back" button is really an "Up" button. For example, I have shortcuts that points directly to my Movies directory on my server. And I have a shortcut pointing to my TV directory. When I go into the shortcuts menu and click "TV" I come to the TV directory fine. Now when I click "Back" I, and I believe the rest of the world, would expect to get back to the shortcuts menu. But instead I'm take to the parents directory of "TV" which is just wrong and I have to go back to the home screen to go into the shortcut menu to go to the movies catalog again. It's messed up and you'd think a very small thing but it's actually a big deal when browsing around!
This all just means I'm left wondering ... "how hard can it be!? Why don't I get together with Ricki and Jimmi and design one ourselves and just make three copies of it for ourselves and leave everyone else wanting one"...
This is what you'd in sweden call an "i-lands problem", a small insignificant problem that someone in Africa would say "I wish I didn't have bigger problems than that". But it still annoys me!
Online identity
Saw a really good story yesterday on the TV4 News about abusing online identities, in this case for political purposes. It's basically about two young "everyday" women who found out that someone have set up Facebook pages in their names, using their personal details and photos and joining political groups. And the person doing the story, Lena Sundström, got some first hand experience about this when someone set up a fake Twitter account in her name pretending to be her. Ofcourse there's nothing new about fake Twitter/Facebook accounts, that's a rather old story but using it for political purposes was a new angle for me! Especially with Lena Sundström (who's from South Korea but raised in sweden since she was like 6 months) who have done numerous stories about Sverige Demokraterna, a political party in Sweden who wants to send all immigrants back home and it's been interesting to see her meeting people and they having no idea she's an immigrant until they meet her for the interview.
I'm pretty grateful that even though I've had an online presence since -98 when I set up my first website and started a blog nothing like this have happened to me. Maybe that's because I'm too boring, I dunno...
I'm pretty grateful that even though I've had an online presence since -98 when I set up my first website and started a blog nothing like this have happened to me. Maybe that's because I'm too boring, I dunno...
A GOOD DAY TODAY
You may remember a few weeks ago I made a post that we were now "leasing" a car instead of owning it so we wouldn't have to worry about stuff. Well what I forgot to mention was that we did have another car, a Volvo that has server us well. I bought it 2 1/2 years ago for 30k SEK (it really was 40k but I got 10k for handing in my old Mitsubishi) and it was the car on all our photos of when the house was built. It was the car we raced to the hospital in when H was going into labor. But it was also the car that last year cost us 10k SEK in spare parts alone (thanks to H's brother the work was more or less free). And now was the time for it to go through the annual inspection. And the verdict was surprisingly good - green across the board! That's only happened to me ONCE that my car went through on the first try and that was so many years ago I can't even remember it!
And right after we got the all clear I called the car dealership where I bought it and asked if they wanted to buy it. They said "sure, bring it by and we'll have a looksy". We were expecting to get like 10k for it but asked for 15k.. and we actually got 15k! Well needed 15k! First thing we did was buy a sulky for Sam since our old stroller was a bit too cumbersome for the new car. But that too served us very well for these 17 months!
And then we went to Stinsen to blow some money on clothes and stuff and the rest I guess goes to our house account that's bound to take a beating soon.
And right after we got the all clear I called the car dealership where I bought it and asked if they wanted to buy it. They said "sure, bring it by and we'll have a looksy". We were expecting to get like 10k for it but asked for 15k.. and we actually got 15k! Well needed 15k! First thing we did was buy a sulky for Sam since our old stroller was a bit too cumbersome for the new car. But that too served us very well for these 17 months!
And then we went to Stinsen to blow some money on clothes and stuff and the rest I guess goes to our house account that's bound to take a beating soon.
DEUS EX
Been busy the past week. "Deus Ex : Human Revolution" was released last friday and I gave it shot and got stuck right away. And man is it deep!! The gameplay was really good and the story is really good but when I finally got to the end there are four different endings to it and they are all unique views and opinions on the old question of ethics and technology. The story centeres around "augmentation" which is basically either enhancements to a human or replacing an entire limb. The technology can ofcourse be used for good and for evil and in the game you run across them both. And then the speeches in the four different endings, it's like they are arguing against themselves. One ending is very "pro-tech/pro-capitalism", one very "pro-tech but controlled", one very anti-tech and let anarchy rule and the last one "let the people decide for themselves". I loved it! And the replayability of the game is also great, gone through it 3 times now and still discovered different things!
STEFAN LIV R.I.P
Just a small quick little "rest in peace"-note about Stefan Liv (1980-2011). Never knew the guy, but I saw him play a lot of hockey since it DIF played against HV71 alot back when he played in Sweden. And I never missed a game when Sweden was playing so saw him alot there. And even though they guy stopped DIF from winning the trophy at least once he did it in style and he did it with raw talent and skill. There was not much luck with that guy, he was simply the best goalie. And in 2006 he helped the Swedish team not only win the world championship but also the Olympics. And he always seemed like a nice guy in all the interviews.
And then he goes and board the wrong jet and dies.. such a damn tragedy. And after watching alooooot of "Air Crash Investigation" episodes on national Geographic I'm pretty sure that once the cause has been determined it will seem even more pointless.
Just sad when stuff like this happens and it reminds you of what really matters. So what if the train is 10 minutes late, atleast it didn't crash...
And then he goes and board the wrong jet and dies.. such a damn tragedy. And after watching alooooot of "Air Crash Investigation" episodes on national Geographic I'm pretty sure that once the cause has been determined it will seem even more pointless.
Just sad when stuff like this happens and it reminds you of what really matters. So what if the train is 10 minutes late, atleast it didn't crash...
THIS WEEKEND'S PLANS
So this weekend we're going out fishing for crabs! Yeah, I know, I don't even eat crabs, but what tha hell, I've never done it so here goes! Then on saturday we're gonna have a gettogether with alot of our neighbours and eat those poor crabs (or in my case shrimps). And then on sunday we have a relaxing day with Formula 1.
And Sam is spending the rest of today with my parents and tomorrow morning my sister AC takes over until we're picking him up in the afternoon. We'll see how long it takes us to really, really miss him and want him back. But we'll probably have our hands full with crabs by then :)
Have a good one!
And Sam is spending the rest of today with my parents and tomorrow morning my sister AC takes over until we're picking him up in the afternoon. We'll see how long it takes us to really, really miss him and want him back. But we'll probably have our hands full with crabs by then :)
Have a good one!
GETTING A NEW CAR
I'm not content changing jobs, I have to change car too!!
No seriously, what happened was that me and H (neither of which are very handy with cars) are just fed up with worrying about the car, if something's gonna break, and most importantly what it's going to cost us. And the annual road worthiness test is always something you worry about what they are gonna find and what that's going to cost.
So we looked for options.. buying a new car? Sure that was a possibility but after 3 or so years we were back to worrying about something breaking and all those stuff. Sure we could buy a new car and sell it after 3 years and buy a new car again, but our limited experience selling cars isn't anything positive at all.
So thankfully for us Volkswagen had a drive this august for consumer leasing a pretty spacious brand new Polo for only $300 per month for 36 months. "Are you mad, paying $300 per month for three years and you won't even own the car or anything!?" - yeah sure, that may seem like an idiotic thing to do. But the way we see it is we don't pay for the car itself or anything that can be measured physically. We're paying for not having to worry about having car problems for 3 years. For 3 years we have the knowledge that no matter what happens with the car we're not gonna pay for it. Either the insurance, warranty or service-deal will take care of any and all costs... that's the theory anyway. I'm kinda skeptical so we'll wait 'till after the first breakdown to say if it works in the real world.
No seriously, what happened was that me and H (neither of which are very handy with cars) are just fed up with worrying about the car, if something's gonna break, and most importantly what it's going to cost us. And the annual road worthiness test is always something you worry about what they are gonna find and what that's going to cost.
So we looked for options.. buying a new car? Sure that was a possibility but after 3 or so years we were back to worrying about something breaking and all those stuff. Sure we could buy a new car and sell it after 3 years and buy a new car again, but our limited experience selling cars isn't anything positive at all.
So thankfully for us Volkswagen had a drive this august for consumer leasing a pretty spacious brand new Polo for only $300 per month for 36 months. "Are you mad, paying $300 per month for three years and you won't even own the car or anything!?" - yeah sure, that may seem like an idiotic thing to do. But the way we see it is we don't pay for the car itself or anything that can be measured physically. We're paying for not having to worry about having car problems for 3 years. For 3 years we have the knowledge that no matter what happens with the car we're not gonna pay for it. Either the insurance, warranty or service-deal will take care of any and all costs... that's the theory anyway. I'm kinda skeptical so we'll wait 'till after the first breakdown to say if it works in the real world.
GETTING A NEW JOB
You may remember I mentioned a few weeks ago that I there was something big going on. Well now it's done. I have officially quit my job. Not before securing a new one ofcourse!
After I had been on parental leave for 8 months and came to work I started getting more and more frustrated over some issues at work and after coming home day after day being pissed off and bitter about things my wife told me to take the bull by the horn and if it wasn't gonna get better I should try to find another job. And after landing an interview with a bank I informed my boss about my intentions and he kinda felt it coming and wished me luck. I didn't get that first job but I got another interview and they liked me and I liked them and then it took some time for the paperwork because of all vacations but now the paperwork has gone through so from november 1st I'll be working at Carema in Sundbyberg, which is alot close to home too. And it is a promotion of sorts since I'll no longer be on first- or even second-line helpdesk so all is good.
And as I went to bed last night I realised that this is the first time I've ever quit a job! :)
After I had been on parental leave for 8 months and came to work I started getting more and more frustrated over some issues at work and after coming home day after day being pissed off and bitter about things my wife told me to take the bull by the horn and if it wasn't gonna get better I should try to find another job. And after landing an interview with a bank I informed my boss about my intentions and he kinda felt it coming and wished me luck. I didn't get that first job but I got another interview and they liked me and I liked them and then it took some time for the paperwork because of all vacations but now the paperwork has gone through so from november 1st I'll be working at Carema in Sundbyberg, which is alot close to home too. And it is a promotion of sorts since I'll no longer be on first- or even second-line helpdesk so all is good.
And as I went to bed last night I realised that this is the first time I've ever quit a job! :)
KINDERGARTEN AGAIN
This week I've been with Sam to his new kindergarten for 3 days, spending time with him from 9-15. And I gotta say I should've spent this much time with him before! When I was home with him for 8 months I never really REALLY spent time with him compared to now. And the big thing is that when I've been at the kindergarten I haven't had the option of doing anything else than being with him. Not watching TV, not checking my mail, not playing computer games, not cleaning the house, making dinner, mowing the lawn etc, there's always been something else to do. But for these 3 days there's been nothing but him. Which has been great cause it feels like I love the little guy much much more now than I did 3 days ago!
But tomorrow I'm leaving him at 9 and going home. If he's ok being there all day I'll pick him up at 4 and same thing on friday. Which means I'll have 2 days of me-time. But considering how many days of vacation I've taken this year that's not alot. But I'll take it!! :)
But tomorrow I'm leaving him at 9 and going home. If he's ok being there all day I'll pick him up at 4 and same thing on friday. Which means I'll have 2 days of me-time. But considering how many days of vacation I've taken this year that's not alot. But I'll take it!! :)
GAME OF THRONES
I don't get what the deal is with "Game of Thrones"? Everyone is totally raving about it, and I'm at episode 8 and totally bored. The only thing I'm liking is the scenary, but that's it. Ok maybe Sean Bean. But storywise it's so completely un-original as you can get. I don't know if it's just me, but it really feels like we've seen most of the things on this show so many times before. Maybe not on TV because I have to admit it's beautifully made for a TV show's budget, but still...
ANOTHER 2 WEEKS OFF
I got another small vacation coming now! After working for 2 weeks I got 2 weeks off. The first one will be spent trying to keep Sam entertained and stimulated which is getting harder and harder all the time it seems. Can't wait for him to become a slacking teenager lying in the couch watching bad TV... just like his old man!
And after that he's gonna be starting kindergarten. And this time a real kindergarten! Not one made up of some barracks and people picked from here and there, no this is a real established kindergarten that's a few hunder meters from the house. Which will make dropping him off and picking up a bit easier. I'll be with him the first few days at the new kindergarten so he eases into it a bit and by thursday I'm counting on dropping him off at 9 and go home to just slack and slack all day for once! I am after all on vacation!
Unfortunately we're in a bit of a Formula 1 drought because the crews needed a vacation too after two back-to-back races and just when it got interesting as Ferrari are getting their act together :)
And after that he's gonna be starting kindergarten. And this time a real kindergarten! Not one made up of some barracks and people picked from here and there, no this is a real established kindergarten that's a few hunder meters from the house. Which will make dropping him off and picking up a bit easier. I'll be with him the first few days at the new kindergarten so he eases into it a bit and by thursday I'm counting on dropping him off at 9 and go home to just slack and slack all day for once! I am after all on vacation!
Unfortunately we're in a bit of a Formula 1 drought because the crews needed a vacation too after two back-to-back races and just when it got interesting as Ferrari are getting their act together :)
ESKILSTUNA
Last weekend we went to Eskilstuna Zoo along with Helenas brother and his family. Last time I was there was over 20 years ago. And I hardly remember anything about the Zoo itself except the "Fantomen"-cave. But the memory I had of the theme park was that it was big. But I knew my memory had to be wrong since it's too small of a town to have a big theme park like "Gröna Lund" in Stockholm or "Liseberg" in Göteborg.
And after a 1 1/2 hour drive in the heat (our AC in the car isn't fixed yet) and with a screaming Sam we finally arrived. And as expected the theme park was really really small. Big enough for Sam for a few years I guess but not much for me. And the Zoo part? Well we didn't see much interesting stuff, mostly stuff we'd already seen before. And Sam wasn't at all interested in the animals. He has a weird fascinating in pushing things - the pram, chairs, cleaning carts or anything else with wheels. And as usual in places like this the prices are doubled for even a small cola!
But I still think it was totally worth the trip! Firstly it's always good to get away for a day. And we got to meet Helenas brother and family again. And she had fun. So even though I missed the F1 qualifying (thank good for our digital recorder) it wasl totally worth it.
And after a 1 1/2 hour drive in the heat (our AC in the car isn't fixed yet) and with a screaming Sam we finally arrived. And as expected the theme park was really really small. Big enough for Sam for a few years I guess but not much for me. And the Zoo part? Well we didn't see much interesting stuff, mostly stuff we'd already seen before. And Sam wasn't at all interested in the animals. He has a weird fascinating in pushing things - the pram, chairs, cleaning carts or anything else with wheels. And as usual in places like this the prices are doubled for even a small cola!
But I still think it was totally worth the trip! Firstly it's always good to get away for a day. And we got to meet Helenas brother and family again. And she had fun. So even though I missed the F1 qualifying (thank good for our digital recorder) it wasl totally worth it.
NO I'M NOT DEAD
I know I haven'r written anything here for almost 20 days but I've hade my hands full!
I've been on a 3 week vacation, or whatever you can call it since I've taken care of Sam all that time. And this is the first and only week me and H will have together so we're making the best of it.
Also other stuff happening that I can't get into. Yet :)
DOING GOOD
This week has been a good one for us I think. Except my throat being a bit soar we have all been healthy and well, especially Sam. And you can really tell the difference!!
But now he's done with the temporary kindergarten! Now we have about 6 week vacation and then he's off the the real kindergarten that's just around the corner from where we live!
Today we went to my parents. We were supposed to be there last weekend but as I wasn't feeling well we never made it. Anyway, good times, good food, good company and Sam had fun! Tomorrow off to see Transformers 3 at the movies with my sci-fi friends. Here's hoping it's better than the second one!
But now he's done with the temporary kindergarten! Now we have about 6 week vacation and then he's off the the real kindergarten that's just around the corner from where we live!
Today we went to my parents. We were supposed to be there last weekend but as I wasn't feeling well we never made it. Anyway, good times, good food, good company and Sam had fun! Tomorrow off to see Transformers 3 at the movies with my sci-fi friends. Here's hoping it's better than the second one!
WHAT GOES AROUND
Last Friday was midsummer here in Sweden. And we hade planned to go out to old Sorunda for the good old celebrations there They home to my parents for family dinner and maybe stay the night.
But that didn't go to well. Already on wednesday I started feeling like you do when there's something about to break you. And on thursday it did! Not so bad that I couldn't taket care of Sam. But on Friday I was knocked Downtown harder. So H took Sam and went to here brother with his family to celebrate midsummer's eve. As for Me? I was tucked in in front of the TV watching Chuck and then some Starcraft matches. And if I hadn't felt queasy everytime I ate it would have been just like a normal saturday 4 years ago! :)
WEEKEND RECAP
Here's a little recap of what went down last weekend.
We started the weekend off on friday evening with a nice dinner in front of the TV with wine and beer, some cookies and cheese but went to bed early since we knew what a big day we had ahead of us.
On saturday morning my sister AC arrived to take care of Sam for us. We love the little guy but to really relax we needed someone to "off-tank" him (all you Warcrafters now what I mean). We suited up, took some photos and headed into Stockholm. Since we didn't know exactly where we were supposed to be (Stockholm's city hall is a big building!) we went a bit early. After doing some recon we sat down for some coffee and a muffin and a nice lady at a table next to us wanted to take some photos of us with our camera since she thought we looked like the cutest couple ever. And then my dad called my to ask if they could stop by so we had to tell them that "nope, because we're in Stockholm getting married" which they had no clue about. At first he wasn't sure if I was being serious or not but soon realized I was.
After that I took some nice photos of Helena by the water with the wind all over her dress! Then we went in as instructed 15 minutes before the service and it was totally packed! We thought this is where people went that didn't want to have a big wedding but we were wrong - almost everyone had their families with them, all dressed up and wedding dresses and tuxes, made us feel a bit under dressed. And when it was finally our turn it was over in 5 minutes. Just a quick "do you" and "do you" and some text that I don't remember that much about. And fortunately one of the assistants helped us by taking some photos of us, even though she wasn't that camera savvy so half the photos are out of focus.
After the ceremony we got into the car, texted all the people that should know we got married and then drove off into the sunset... or to Norrköping where we had booked a suite with their "Love"-packaged. Got champagne on ice and fruit and chocolate, that was really nice. After winding down and walking around the city for a bit it was time for dinner which was at their local pub. Not really the fanciest place to have a post-wedding dinner but it worked for us. Then enjoyed a drink in the bar and then bed time. Yeah, I know, we actually go to bed early nowadays. But we slept really late on Sunday :)
After we finally got up on Sunday Helena tried out their Jacuzzi while I was just l laming around just enjoying not being stressed or worried or entertaining Sam or anything, it was just us! After we checked out we went to Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant. Then we drove to Huddinge hospital to check up on a friend of Helenas that had a daughter a few weeks ago. She was tiny as hell but she was born way WAY premature so not surprising.
Then home again and take care of Sam so AC could get back to her real work.
So that was our weekend. Except for the mediocre dinner it was awesome!!!
Pictures are here by the way.
We started the weekend off on friday evening with a nice dinner in front of the TV with wine and beer, some cookies and cheese but went to bed early since we knew what a big day we had ahead of us.
On saturday morning my sister AC arrived to take care of Sam for us. We love the little guy but to really relax we needed someone to "off-tank" him (all you Warcrafters now what I mean). We suited up, took some photos and headed into Stockholm. Since we didn't know exactly where we were supposed to be (Stockholm's city hall is a big building!) we went a bit early. After doing some recon we sat down for some coffee and a muffin and a nice lady at a table next to us wanted to take some photos of us with our camera since she thought we looked like the cutest couple ever. And then my dad called my to ask if they could stop by so we had to tell them that "nope, because we're in Stockholm getting married" which they had no clue about. At first he wasn't sure if I was being serious or not but soon realized I was.
After that I took some nice photos of Helena by the water with the wind all over her dress! Then we went in as instructed 15 minutes before the service and it was totally packed! We thought this is where people went that didn't want to have a big wedding but we were wrong - almost everyone had their families with them, all dressed up and wedding dresses and tuxes, made us feel a bit under dressed. And when it was finally our turn it was over in 5 minutes. Just a quick "do you" and "do you" and some text that I don't remember that much about. And fortunately one of the assistants helped us by taking some photos of us, even though she wasn't that camera savvy so half the photos are out of focus.
After the ceremony we got into the car, texted all the people that should know we got married and then drove off into the sunset... or to Norrköping where we had booked a suite with their "Love"-packaged. Got champagne on ice and fruit and chocolate, that was really nice. After winding down and walking around the city for a bit it was time for dinner which was at their local pub. Not really the fanciest place to have a post-wedding dinner but it worked for us. Then enjoyed a drink in the bar and then bed time. Yeah, I know, we actually go to bed early nowadays. But we slept really late on Sunday :)
After we finally got up on Sunday Helena tried out their Jacuzzi while I was just l laming around just enjoying not being stressed or worried or entertaining Sam or anything, it was just us! After we checked out we went to Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant. Then we drove to Huddinge hospital to check up on a friend of Helenas that had a daughter a few weeks ago. She was tiny as hell but she was born way WAY premature so not surprising.
Then home again and take care of Sam so AC could get back to her real work.
So that was our weekend. Except for the mediocre dinner it was awesome!!!
Pictures are here by the way.
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JUST MARRIED
After we'd built the house and we knew we were pregnant and agreed we'd go with it I knew this was the woman I was gonna spend the rest of my life with! Not only did we have a house together and a mortgage to go with it, not only because we were gonna bring a child into this world. Nope, it was really just love! I knew I was gonna love her no matter what because she's just such an amazing person! So for me getting married was a given. We just needed to get some cash flow so we could have a party. But after being home for a while and doing the budget we realized that wasn't gonna happen so we just agreed to do a normal ceremony at city hall in Stockholm because neither one of us is particular religious. For us the most important thing was to just be married with all the benefits and security that brings if something would happen to one of us. And Helena also wanted to have the same last name as her son. They had a 6 month waiting list and pushed it another month to wait for our tax return. We got my sister to take care of our son and made reservation at a hotel in Norrköping so we could swing by Söderköping for our annual visit to the ice cream restaurant.
So here we are after that amazing weekend! If you followed me on facebook you know how much fun we had and how glad and cute we looked all weekend :)
But I do feel bad about not throwing the party but we simply couldn't afford it. I feel particularly bad for Henke and Markus who invited me to their wedding and I couldn't return the favor. But after over a year of one of us staying home with Sam our economy is just recovering.
I'll post something tomorrow about that awesome weekend but for now... I can't believe she said yes!! :)
SAM SICK AGAIN
The kindergarten called H today at work. They said she must come pickup Sam because apparently he has an infection in his eye.
All I can say is "sigh". Because it feels like he'd just recently got over the cold and losing his voice and everything else and now this! When can we just have a normal healthy week for him?!
Oh well supposedly it's normal and lasts no longer than a week so I guess that's good ...
WEEKEND REPORT
The weekend wasn't as kickass as I would've liked. Mostly because of that lame Formula 1 race! They blew the biggest excitement even before it started by starting the race behind the safety car! Having that lineup, with red bulls bad KERS, it would've been awesome! But nope! Then red flag for 2 hours waiting for better weather?? I thought these guys earned millions because it was dangerous not so they could only drive in sunshine! Nah that race was lame! Go go Valencia!! :)
REALLY GREAT WEEKEND AHEAD OF US
To kick things off Helena got a new job at the telecommunicationscompany that she's working for, so that's a great start to the weekend! Exactly what this means is anyones guess but she wanted, she got it so I'm happy :)
Then tomorrow H's brother, his wife and two kids are coming over to.. well celebrate my birthday is the official excuse, but it's been a long time since they saw Sam and H so I'm not taking full credit for it. But good food, good company and good weather!
Then on sunday my sister with her kids are coming up late afternoon to enjoy pizza, the company and most of all the Formula 1 from Canada!
So all in all we've got a helluva good weekend ahead of us!
Then tomorrow H's brother, his wife and two kids are coming over to.. well celebrate my birthday is the official excuse, but it's been a long time since they saw Sam and H so I'm not taking full credit for it. But good food, good company and good weather!
Then on sunday my sister with her kids are coming up late afternoon to enjoy pizza, the company and most of all the Formula 1 from Canada!
So all in all we've got a helluva good weekend ahead of us!
THE HEAT
That was quite a switch from "cold" to "this is perfect" to "cooking" in less than 3 weeks! I've always prefered being too cold to being sweating as hell in bed when trying to go to sleep but when it's closing to 30 degrees in the bedroom you really do think about investing in an AC. Then you're reminded how much they cost, the noise
they make and the hose that has to go somewhere and it's not a good idea anymore!
Fortunately Sam is taking it alot better than I am. He still goes to sleep before 8 and sleeps pretty much all night and wakes up between 6 and 7 ready to rock. But we've noticed that he's way too understimulated at home! Although we try to read to him, play with him or go out walking he still has all that energy that we don't have.
It's times like that that you are thankful for kindergarten!!
they make and the hose that has to go somewhere and it's not a good idea anymore!
Fortunately Sam is taking it alot better than I am. He still goes to sleep before 8 and sleeps pretty much all night and wakes up between 6 and 7 ready to rock. But we've noticed that he's way too understimulated at home! Although we try to read to him, play with him or go out walking he still has all that energy that we don't have.
It's times like that that you are thankful for kindergarten!!
DONE!
Finally done with our greenhouse! I'd like to think I did it in a reasonable time, considering it was a project for those weekends when I've got nothing better to do, and that I've never done anything like it before.
Now I don't really know what my next project for the summer is gonna be. Maybe I should slack the rest of the year.. but H isn't gonna let that slide so I'll probably get some more stuff to do.
It looks comfy doesn't it? Unfortunately it get's really hot in there, kinda as it's suppose to I think..
TREKKING IN THE SUN
Yesterday was one of the most beautiful days of summer of the year here in Stockholm. So what does me and my friends do? Yeap, sitting in the dark watching Star Trek in Skarpnäck ofcourse!
It's one of the few things from my old life as carefree single immature guy that I have left so I have to keep at it! Although back then I used to spend 10 hours there, this time it was barely 5 because me and H haven't spent much time together this week at all, mostly because of work, sickness or something else. But now we have all sunday and monday together! :)
It's one of the few things from my old life as carefree single immature guy that I have left so I have to keep at it! Although back then I used to spend 10 hours there, this time it was barely 5 because me and H haven't spent much time together this week at all, mostly because of work, sickness or something else. But now we have all sunday and monday together! :)
A NIGHT OUT
On friday my sister and brother took me out for a night on the town. 5 years ago this would have included dining, beer, clubbing, drinks, blackjack and a cab home because the last train home is at 1 am.
But things are different now. We still went out for dining and beering then we went to O'Learys at the central train station to get some blackjack in.. but no dice since they didn't have that anymore! So we took a beer, had some popcorn and then calling it at 22:30. I could've gone on and on for a few hours more but didn't really feel like it. Plus today I can't spend money on myself without feeling a bit like "should really save this for a baby seat on the bike" or something else.
But it was good fun and thanks for organizing it sis :)
But things are different now. We still went out for dining and beering then we went to O'Learys at the central train station to get some blackjack in.. but no dice since they didn't have that anymore! So we took a beer, had some popcorn and then calling it at 22:30. I could've gone on and on for a few hours more but didn't really feel like it. Plus today I can't spend money on myself without feeling a bit like "should really save this for a baby seat on the bike" or something else.
But it was good fun and thanks for organizing it sis :)
SAMS FIRST TASTE OF THUNDERSTORM
Today was Sam's first encounter with thunderstorms! When preparing to go to kindergarten I noticed it was getting darker in the skies. So I put on his raingear and made sure I had an umbrella and off we went for that 15 minute walk. About 5 minutes in lightning struck about 5 seconds away (because you always count how many seconds away they are right?). The after that it was only 2 seconds away and the rain came poring down! Fortunately we were able to take shelter under some tin roof which made for some interesting noises for him. A few more lightnings and 2-3 minutes later it was ok to continue the walk as the lightning was getting further away. But just like his dad he got more excited than worried over the sound of thunder! I like my little guy, he's pretty fearless. So far :)
DOWN AND OUT!
I had an awesome weekend! We didn't have any major plans, we only had some neighbours coming by on Sunday afternoon but other than that it was all me and H and Sam! And Formula 1! And movies. It was great, and we had planned to BBQ on Sunday evening to close it on a high note!
Unfortunately on Sunday at around 6 I started feeling a bit queasy. So no BBQing and I went to bed at 8 pm hoping to get some sleep. But at around 10 my body decided that we weren't gonna have any of that and I ended up crawling on the bathroom floor after having everything I'd ever eaten that weekend shoot out of my body like a bat out of hell. The first time was pretty bad but the second and third one just got worse and worse and before the night was over I'd visited the toilet atleast 6 times and it really wasn't pretty. It got so bad I lied in bed shaking like if I had Parkinsons! And man was I delirious! Through all of this though was my Helena comforting me and holding me, making sure I had something to drink all the time and painkillers.
Today I've only had to pay two visits to the bathroom but right now I'm starting to feel ok again. And that's probably because the nicest neighbour in the world brought over some coca cola! That'll settle any bad stomach!
I'm just happy it was me and not Sam or Helena!
Unfortunately on Sunday at around 6 I started feeling a bit queasy. So no BBQing and I went to bed at 8 pm hoping to get some sleep. But at around 10 my body decided that we weren't gonna have any of that and I ended up crawling on the bathroom floor after having everything I'd ever eaten that weekend shoot out of my body like a bat out of hell. The first time was pretty bad but the second and third one just got worse and worse and before the night was over I'd visited the toilet atleast 6 times and it really wasn't pretty. It got so bad I lied in bed shaking like if I had Parkinsons! And man was I delirious! Through all of this though was my Helena comforting me and holding me, making sure I had something to drink all the time and painkillers.
Today I've only had to pay two visits to the bathroom but right now I'm starting to feel ok again. And that's probably because the nicest neighbour in the world brought over some coca cola! That'll settle any bad stomach!
I'm just happy it was me and not Sam or Helena!
LIFE MOVING ON
Nothing really exciting to report.
Sam is doing very well at kindergarten. Surprisingly well I think! I drop him off at 7 am and H picks him up at 5 pm so that's a full 10 hours he's there. But by the time I get home and dinner is over with he's pretty much ready for bed. And then he sleeps 12 hours until it's time to do it all over again. But tomorrow will be different 'cause he'll sleep until he wakes up himself whenever that is nowadays. He definitely sleeps longer in the mornings now than he usually does.
And this weekend we don't have much planned actually. Neighbors coming over for a quick visit bit that's pretty much all we have planned. And the F1 race from Monaco of course! And put up the doors for the greenhouse so I can finally say "Done!".
Sam is doing very well at kindergarten. Surprisingly well I think! I drop him off at 7 am and H picks him up at 5 pm so that's a full 10 hours he's there. But by the time I get home and dinner is over with he's pretty much ready for bed. And then he sleeps 12 hours until it's time to do it all over again. But tomorrow will be different 'cause he'll sleep until he wakes up himself whenever that is nowadays. He definitely sleeps longer in the mornings now than he usually does.
And this weekend we don't have much planned actually. Neighbors coming over for a quick visit bit that's pretty much all we have planned. And the F1 race from Monaco of course! And put up the doors for the greenhouse so I can finally say "Done!".
TECH TOO COMPLICATED SOMETIMES
It never seizes to amaze me how a simple little thing in the tech world can be so damn hard. Especially when dealing with Sharepoint!! A few years ago we had to upgrade our Sharepoint 2007 from a 32 bit architecture to 64 bit. There was no change in sharepoint version, a small upgrade of SQL version from 2005-2008. Yet that one little project dragged on for months and cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, dollars. And now when we have to upgrade from Sharepoint 2007 to 2010 we're kind of in the same spot having to spend all that money. And really, all we're doing is going from 2007 of a product to 2010, how tha hell can that be so complicated? But it, and part of me is thankful for it since I have a job because of it. But part of me says "how hard can it be!?".
MY LIFE IS GOOD
This weekend was a pretty good weekend for me. Not very unique in any way which can only mean one thing... that my life is pretty good right now!
We had guests over on saturday, a couple who are friends with Helena and by default me too. I like 'em, they're pretty funny and share alot of our opinions about what it's like to "moving along, living your life having a blast and BAM! you're pregnant and your life changes drastically to become about this one little thing all day every day". We had dinner, talked alot, tried to get the kids to bed (their
daughter is almost a year old so sam has 4 months on her) and then we woke them up by watching "Battle: Los Angeles". I don't know what to make about that movie... it was the least original film I've ever seen I think. It was kinda like the people who wrote it and produced it had played too much Modern Warfare and Crysis 2 (although Crysis 2 wasn't even released when the movie was made, but still). Or if you'd prefer movie-analogy - mix Independance Day, Blackhawk Down and season 2 of
Stargate Universe and you have the entire movie right there.
Then on sunday we had a looooong breakfast on our lawn, just soaking in the sun and the good feeling of life at that moment! Then in the car for an hour to drive out to my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday and we combined that with mothers day. I also helped dad along on the greenhouse they're building which is identical to the one we've built for us and we helped our neighbours with. So I had a bit of advantage there :) Also got to enjoy my mothers cooking one more time!
Then an hour home, get Sam to sleep and then it was time to watch the F1 race. Although Vettel won again it sure was good to see a Ferrari in the front for a while!!
Yeap, got nothing to complain about here!
We had guests over on saturday, a couple who are friends with Helena and by default me too. I like 'em, they're pretty funny and share alot of our opinions about what it's like to "moving along, living your life having a blast and BAM! you're pregnant and your life changes drastically to become about this one little thing all day every day". We had dinner, talked alot, tried to get the kids to bed (their
daughter is almost a year old so sam has 4 months on her) and then we woke them up by watching "Battle: Los Angeles". I don't know what to make about that movie... it was the least original film I've ever seen I think. It was kinda like the people who wrote it and produced it had played too much Modern Warfare and Crysis 2 (although Crysis 2 wasn't even released when the movie was made, but still). Or if you'd prefer movie-analogy - mix Independance Day, Blackhawk Down and season 2 of
Stargate Universe and you have the entire movie right there.
Then on sunday we had a looooong breakfast on our lawn, just soaking in the sun and the good feeling of life at that moment! Then in the car for an hour to drive out to my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday and we combined that with mothers day. I also helped dad along on the greenhouse they're building which is identical to the one we've built for us and we helped our neighbours with. So I had a bit of advantage there :) Also got to enjoy my mothers cooking one more time!
Then an hour home, get Sam to sleep and then it was time to watch the F1 race. Although Vettel won again it sure was good to see a Ferrari in the front for a while!!
Yeap, got nothing to complain about here!
NOTHING HURTS MORE
Sam had a bit of double-trouble this week. On Tuesday his molars started pushing through which apparently hurts a bit. And for Sam it was more than a bit! He couldn't quite fall asleep at all in the night, only slept for like 15-20 minutes at a time then woke up crying. And on Wednesday Helena stayed home with him and he cried so much he lost his voice. Or maybe it was the cold he's had for a few weeks now but he couldn't even cry or scream or anything and that made him even more upset. But it really hurts, holding your son, trying to comfort him when he's in pain like that. On Thursday I stayed home with him and it got better and by the afternoon I could hear his voice coming back and he didn't seem to be in pain anymore. And on Thursday night he actually went to sleep and slept for 11 hours!
Today we handed him in to the daycare, no problem at all!
STARGATE UNIVERSE
Saw the last episodes of "Stargate Universe". I kinda liked the first 2 "Stargate"-series but they were never ever even really close to striking a human cord or draw out any intense emotions. Because to be honest they were always making fun of themselves and it was hard to take it seriously.
But "Universe" was different. Even from the beginning it felt so much better and more human than the other ones. Less humor, more human. And episode 18 of season two, "Epilogue" was... well science fiction at it's absolute best! I don't know if it's because of how my life has changed so much in the past years or what but I actually dropped a tear in the incredibly well written and directed sequence of TJ's sickness progressing, that was intense.
I'm pretty pissed it got cancelled ofcourse. But hey, life goes on...
But "Universe" was different. Even from the beginning it felt so much better and more human than the other ones. Less humor, more human. And episode 18 of season two, "Epilogue" was... well science fiction at it's absolute best! I don't know if it's because of how my life has changed so much in the past years or what but I actually dropped a tear in the incredibly well written and directed sequence of TJ's sickness progressing, that was intense.
I'm pretty pissed it got cancelled ofcourse. But hey, life goes on...
ALMOST FORGET... THE HOCKEY!
As expected Finland whooped our asses in the hockey world championship final. Although I still say it was a lot thanks to the refs! Their first goal was a direct result of a questionable penalty against Sweden. And right before their second goal the refs could easily have taken a penalty against Finland for the mowing down of a Swedish player behind the goal, but oh no. And right before their third goal Finland should definitely have gotten a penalty against them for putting his stick up in the swedes face. And the rest was just because the swedes stopped playing.
But I can't say that Sweden played better than Finland so it was a fair cop I guess. And at least Canada didn't win it!!
But it looks pretty promising for the future generation of hockey players in Sweden because most of the players were pretty young and we didn't have many NHL pros with us, yet we still managed to end up second. But it's only a sport :)
But I can't say that Sweden played better than Finland so it was a fair cop I guess. And at least Canada didn't win it!!
But it looks pretty promising for the future generation of hockey players in Sweden because most of the players were pretty young and we didn't have many NHL pros with us, yet we still managed to end up second. But it's only a sport :)
HOW HARD CAN IT BE?
As it turns out it really wasn't that simple! We had around 8 people calling about the car, 5 of which said "I'll come by to have a look at it" and 1 "if you can drive it to me I'll buy it without having seen it". Only two people actually came to look at it. It's so frustrating people saying they wanna buy it and they're coming around 'cause we're nice honest people and tried to hold it for the first callers that said they'd show up and never did. So after that it was first come first serve.
Eventually we got it sold however but not even that without a huge problem! Since it was Helena's car I kinda made it her business to handle it which I now regret. Because when she finally did sell it (while I was at work) she did it without getting the proper paperwork done! She's the nice honest and somewhat naive person that trusted the buyers that they would sign and send in the proper paperwork. Now I'm different in these kind of things. I assume the counterpart is hellbent on screwing me, and not in the nice way. I assume they have ulterior motives. So what I'm seeing here is that because the paperwork isn't in order, all parking tickets and stuff like that will be on Helena since she is still legally the owner of that car. And she can't counter by reporting it stolen since they have paperwork that she signed it over to them!! And the fact that their cellphone number was a cash-card, i.e no registered owner, doesn't make me feel better.
Of course I'm hoping for the best and I don't think it will be that bad. But .. why's it gotta be so complicated??
And not to be too racist here but guess how many of the people that called where swedes (and you know what I mean without having to define it!)? Only 1. And unfortunately it wasn't the one that bought the car.
All we wanted was to get rid of the car and get something for it.
HOW DID SWEDEN GET THAT FAR?
I think pretty much everyone is surprised at how well the Swedish team is doing in the hockey world championship right now. They're all set for a showdown with Finland on sunday. And I'm pretty damn surprised too 'cause when looking at games like Russia vs. Canada it's a whole different energy than the Swedish team but somehow they've managed to get this far. I still have no doubt Finland will win on sunday but they are defenitely doing better than I thought.
This weekends plan including getting rid of one of our cars (cause we don't really need two), starting to put in the glass on our greenhouse, a trip to Plantagen and maybe some BBQ.
This weekends plan including getting rid of one of our cars (cause we don't really need two), starting to put in the glass on our greenhouse, a trip to Plantagen and maybe some BBQ.
NOT HAVING A HEART ATTACK
And having lost his best friend 9 years ago to a heart attack you'd think I'd be more worried and lookup a doctor for it. But nope, not me. I'm the kind of guy that just lives with it since my Restless Leg Syndrome and my tinnitus is more troublesome than this.
Well a few weeks ago I had the annual physical and I decided to mention this to this nurse and she didn't think it was much to worry about but still set me up with a specialist. Thankfully we have a very good health insurance at work so I got an appointment within a week. He wasn't the least bit worried and just said it's my asthma acting up prescribed me inhalers (that I haven't used regularly since my teens!) and said he'd call me back in a few weeks. I was very skeptical that asthma can present itself like this, like your chest collapsed. But I'm not the one to argue so I went along.
Yesterday he called me and asked how it was going. And when I thought about it I realised that I hadn't felt it since... well since I started the inhalers! So I guess the dude knew what he was talking about. And he set up a prescription for more inhalers and when I asked for how long I should be using this he just said "for life". Literally, that's what he said. In English too! Although I can't say I'm one of those people who'll die if I don't get my meds because I've lived with these symptoms for years.
I just hope my son doesn't have any of this crap!
DO THEY HAVE THE RIGHT?
As I'm slowly rebuilding the blogposts I've come across alot of my old Bush-bashing posts of 2003-2004. And I guess it wouldn't be right of me to not write something about them offing Bin Laden.
Obama says that it was justified and he had it coming and anyone who doesn't agree should have their head examined. That's a helluva diss of most of the western world who, for over a century, have abolished death penalty and never consider it legal to execute anyone. Let alone someone who's not a citizen of that country. But US of A have no problems justifying killing a citizen of another country without trial or due process. Or are they playing the "self defense"-game? There's a reason why we have that tribunal in Hague! And having the entire might of the american army and intelligence service and it still took them 10 years to track down one guy, and they are celebrating it?? It's a matter of taste (or maybe national pride) if you think it's ok to celebrate the death of a person but noone can call that manhunt a success by any means. Cause if you ever worked in the private sector you'd know that just wouldn't work.
Having said that... does someone have cookies? Anyone?
Obama says that it was justified and he had it coming and anyone who doesn't agree should have their head examined. That's a helluva diss of most of the western world who, for over a century, have abolished death penalty and never consider it legal to execute anyone. Let alone someone who's not a citizen of that country. But US of A have no problems justifying killing a citizen of another country without trial or due process. Or are they playing the "self defense"-game? There's a reason why we have that tribunal in Hague! And having the entire might of the american army and intelligence service and it still took them 10 years to track down one guy, and they are celebrating it?? It's a matter of taste (or maybe national pride) if you think it's ok to celebrate the death of a person but noone can call that manhunt a success by any means. Cause if you ever worked in the private sector you'd know that just wouldn't work.
Having said that... does someone have cookies? Anyone?
THAT WEEKEND WAS INDEED A GREAT ONE
Really good weekend there. Our "Star Trek" day was everything it was supposed to be - good episodes, good company and good calories! The F1 was pretty ok, could've been better since Ferrari didn't win.And we also got alot, and I do mean ALOT, of work done around the house. The greenhouse we're building is now cemented in place and it's time to fit the glass. That'll take alot of weeks to sort out but I'm not in any rush. Helena unfortunately is since the stuff she's already growing needs to move out of the house and into the greenhouse before it takes over our bedroom! It's pretty amazing how I've gone from spending a sunday morning/afternoon in the World of Warcraft to spending it building a greenhouse and still being happy about it!
I have no ideas what's gonna happen this weekend, remains to see if we're gonna have another couples dinner with Helenas friends or just the two of us. Maybe we can make a breake for it and catch "Thor" in the movies somehow ... anyone willing to step in and take care of Sam a few hours ? :)
IT'S OFFICIAL - I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS
I realised it while trying to watch Twilight and Smallville I kinda hoped it was a one time thing. But yesterday there was no more denying it - I'm really am too old for high school movies!
Yesterday we saw "I Am Number Four". Pretty good story and everything but what ruined it was all the high school drama. The stereotypes set by John Hughes 25 years ago were still there. And what tha hell was that teen-party thing they threw in completely misplaced and irrelevant! No I am most certainly too old for this!
Which is kinda sad considering some of my all time favorite movies belong to this genre - Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Ferris Beuller, Can't Hardly Wait, Pump Up The Volume, Heathers and there are probably10 more I forgot.
Yesterday we saw "I Am Number Four". Pretty good story and everything but what ruined it was all the high school drama. The stereotypes set by John Hughes 25 years ago were still there. And what tha hell was that teen-party thing they threw in completely misplaced and irrelevant! No I am most certainly too old for this!
Which is kinda sad considering some of my all time favorite movies belong to this genre - Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Ferris Beuller, Can't Hardly Wait, Pump Up The Volume, Heathers and there are probably10 more I forgot.
CELLPHONES
Before 2008 I always considered cellphones as a "nice thing to have" and mostly used for texting. Then I bought a HTC Cruise, mostly for the GPS feature. I still have it in the car for that one purpose but that's when I was introduced to how techie they can be cause it had a very primitive and slow browser and RSS reader so I could read news and stuff on my way to work.
Then in 2009 I went over to the light side and got an iPhone 3GS and since then I've used it alot - Facebooking, surfing, still reading RSS, doing some bank stuff and also audioplayer with Spotify.
Now it's time for the next step. But which one to buy? It's very much like updating your computer 'cause you know that next month there's one better. I've got my sight set on the new Samsung Galaxy SII but they seem to be out of stock everywhere and before they get new ones in it's time for HTC's new Sensation. Not sure how it'll end but either way, it's gonna be my own present to myself!
Then in 2009 I went over to the light side and got an iPhone 3GS and since then I've used it alot - Facebooking, surfing, still reading RSS, doing some bank stuff and also audioplayer with Spotify.
Now it's time for the next step. But which one to buy? It's very much like updating your computer 'cause you know that next month there's one better. I've got my sight set on the new Samsung Galaxy SII but they seem to be out of stock everywhere and before they get new ones in it's time for HTC's new Sensation. Not sure how it'll end but either way, it's gonna be my own present to myself!
"STAR TREK"-DAY?
Maybe I should explain what a "Star Trek"-day is for those that don't know. It's when a bunch of us trekkers in Stockholm (also known as "Stockholm Trekkers") get together in Skarpnäck and some of us watch "Star Trek" or some other science fiction and some of us just sit around talking about what's new and happening and alot of talk about TV and movies and tech-stuff. It's a great chance to catch up on what's happening with alot of my friends that I don't get to talk to as much as one should. And to see some old classic "Star Trek" episode. And to indulge because we usually end up eating pizza and candy, Coca-cola and alot of other sugary stuff!
And nowadays it's also a chance for me to get away from home :)
And nowadays it's also a chance for me to get away from home :)
ALL SET FOR A GREAT WEEKEND
This weekend has all the prerequisites to be a really great weekend!
We're starting off tonight with tacos and hockeygame (Sweden vs France). Then tomorrow we have another Star Trek day in Skarpnäck. And on sunday we've got the Formula 1 from Turkey. And all the while the weather is supposed to be extremely good. And we're gonna fix the concrete slabs for our greenhouse! Throw in some good sex in there and I can't see hos we can fail to make ot great!!
We're starting off tonight with tacos and hockeygame (Sweden vs France). Then tomorrow we have another Star Trek day in Skarpnäck. And on sunday we've got the Formula 1 from Turkey. And all the while the weather is supposed to be extremely good. And we're gonna fix the concrete slabs for our greenhouse! Throw in some good sex in there and I can't see hos we can fail to make ot great!!
TREATING MY SON LIKE LUGGAGE
Every morning on a normal working day at 7 am I hand my son Sam over to a woman I hardly know and everytime I get the feeling that I'm treating him like luggage at an airport - "here, take care of this and I'll pick it up on the other side". I hope I'm not the only one that feels like that? Because as we understand things this is what you do after staying home for a year?
Ofcourse we can only blame ourselves - if we had stayed in our old 41 squaremetet apartment we would have afforded being home more. Or if we'd lived closer to my family they'd happily take care of him. Bu we chose to build a house and it made sense giving a child the same comfort of growing up in a house like I did. But considering that choice now means we have to check him in at a kindergarten for 10 hours a day I'm wondering what's more important for him...
Ofcourse we can only blame ourselves - if we had stayed in our old 41 squaremetet apartment we would have afforded being home more. Or if we'd lived closer to my family they'd happily take care of him. Bu we chose to build a house and it made sense giving a child the same comfort of growing up in a house like I did. But considering that choice now means we have to check him in at a kindergarten for 10 hours a day I'm wondering what's more important for him...
MISQUOTING ON THE INTERNET
The Internet is great for alot of things. One of those things is when you hear a quote and wanna check it up. Unfortunately, as everyone should know by now, you can't really trust the results when searching at Google for example.
And when they offed Bin Laden a quote was circulating and attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. It was a good quote ("I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy") but as it turns out it wasn't him. Fortunately we still have some real journalists out there who actually do their fact-checks about stuff like this. And unfortunately we still have tabloids like Swedish Aftonbladet that will print anything on their website to make people click it. Like the other day when they said Chuck Lorre called Charlie Sheen a heroic addicted monkey. Had they just checked around they... well they probably would still have printed the story 'cause it's juicy stuff, just not really good journalism. And that makes me a sad panda.
And when they offed Bin Laden a quote was circulating and attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. It was a good quote ("I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy") but as it turns out it wasn't him. Fortunately we still have some real journalists out there who actually do their fact-checks about stuff like this. And unfortunately we still have tabloids like Swedish Aftonbladet that will print anything on their website to make people click it. Like the other day when they said Chuck Lorre called Charlie Sheen a heroic addicted monkey. Had they just checked around they... well they probably would still have printed the story 'cause it's juicy stuff, just not really good journalism. And that makes me a sad panda.
CHESS THE MUSICAL
During my entire childhood my parents listened to "Chess". ALOT! So much that I think me and my sister could probably "sing" (or whatever you may call it) most of the tracks from memory. But I had never heard the actual performance of it. I knew the recorded album like the wiring in my computer but never heard anything recorded live. And I've always looked for a DVD with a recording from that but never found one.
But thanks to Spotify I've now listened through the entire performance. After I got over the initial "this doesn't sound right!" when the lyrics aren't the ones I know it's still pretty good. Although Björn Skifs made a better arbiter :)
Not sure when I'll have the opportunity to pump it up on my speakers but looking forward to it.
But thanks to Spotify I've now listened through the entire performance. After I got over the initial "this doesn't sound right!" when the lyrics aren't the ones I know it's still pretty good. Although Björn Skifs made a better arbiter :)
Not sure when I'll have the opportunity to pump it up on my speakers but looking forward to it.
MOVING TO BLOGSPOT
I'm moving my blog to Blogspot. "Why?"... there are lots of reasons why!
Number one is my ability to update! With blogspot I can just send in a mail on my iPhone on the way to work, while in a meeting or slacking in the couch. I don't have to log into a computer, find the site, login and browse my way to it.
Number two is the interaction part. You guys and girls can now comment on things here on Blogspot or their affiliates. Not gonna allow anonymoous because if you can't put your name on what you're saying maybe you shouldn't say it.
Then ofcourse there are alot of other benefits too, like the tagging and stuff. I'll have a huge job ahead of me migrating all of the updates from my database to this one but hopefully won't be too hard. My photogallery will still be on my own servern though!
What do you think, is this a good thing or am I a sellout? :)
Number one is my ability to update! With blogspot I can just send in a mail on my iPhone on the way to work, while in a meeting or slacking in the couch. I don't have to log into a computer, find the site, login and browse my way to it.
Number two is the interaction part. You guys and girls can now comment on things here on Blogspot or their affiliates. Not gonna allow anonymoous because if you can't put your name on what you're saying maybe you shouldn't say it.
Then ofcourse there are alot of other benefits too, like the tagging and stuff. I'll have a huge job ahead of me migrating all of the updates from my database to this one but hopefully won't be too hard. My photogallery will still be on my own servern though!
What do you think, is this a good thing or am I a sellout? :)
SON STILL NOT DOING WELL
Our little boy Sam still isn't 100% after all these weeks. The burns are almost gone now but he's still coughing and sliming up the house and last night he even had a slight fever.
I don't know if we're just too paranoid or obsessive but it would be such a relief if he could just wake up one day and feel normal. We know it's probably the normal RS-virus that every kid gets in kindergarten but that doesn't make it any easier on us or him :(
I don't know if we're just too paranoid or obsessive but it would be such a relief if he could just wake up one day and feel normal. We know it's probably the normal RS-virus that every kid gets in kindergarten but that doesn't make it any easier on us or him :(
PARENTING FAIL
On friday me and Helena decided to have a small BBQ with our small grill. What we didn't really think about was that our son Sam have on multiple occasions used that BBQ as a tool to stand up. And for a few seconds I took my eyes off him and watching 2 1/2 Men on the TV and when my eyes went back to him he was just reaching for it. I yelled at him and ran as fast as I could but it was too late. He got burnt! At first we didn't think it was that bad but when the swelling really kicked in we knew we had to see a doctor. So in to the ER where they bandaged it up in a nice neat package and we got an appointment Tuesday morning to see the burn-specialist that'll take a better look, but they weren't the least bit worried about it, they said he'd be fine. Unfortunately until then he'll have a stump at the end of the left arm, as he'd lost his hand in an accident. It looks worse than it is, or so they say.
So those few seconds were all it took. After spending the winter looking after him like a hawk so he wouldn't get burn on our indoor fireplace only to relax for a few seconds.
And you'd think he might have learnt something? Not, on Saturday morning he was all over that BBQ again (which ofcourse wasn't lit)!
So those few seconds were all it took. After spending the winter looking after him like a hawk so he wouldn't get burn on our indoor fireplace only to relax for a few seconds.
And you'd think he might have learnt something? Not, on Saturday morning he was all over that BBQ again (which ofcourse wasn't lit)!
The Life of a Parent
Sometimes being a parent sucks. Right now it's trying to comfort our little boy who caught some bug at kindergarten and is now down with a cold. It's so difficult when he's to young to understand or to be reasoned with, trying to tell him he just has a cold and it'll pass in a day or two, all he knows is he doesn't feel good and he doesn't like it.
But it's kinda expected now that he's in kindergarten. I got a little bit of a cold but not as bad as Helena that was totally out on monday. And ofcourse we didn't help by exhausting ourselves on saturday..
But it's kinda expected now that he's in kindergarten. I got a little bit of a cold but not as bad as Helena that was totally out on monday. And ofcourse we didn't help by exhausting ourselves on saturday..
The Life of a Homeowner
Been busy as always the past week - working and taking care of stuff at home. Now that it's getting warm and sunny outside all of a sudden we have to take care of the house. And the big project this year is to fix a greenhouse for the love of my life. We've only done the prepwork for it and it's already tiresome to even think about! We spent all saturday transporting stuff to or from our house, exhausting. Guess that's the life of a homeowner :(
Kickass Weekend
Hope your Easter weekend was as good as mine!? Playing alot of computer games as always, but I also went out to my parents place to enjoy my mothers awesome cooking and a good old round of Trivial Pursuit (that I won, but granted, my father wasn't playing) and it also happened to be a Formula 1 weekend but that race could've been alot better. Then off to a friend to try to fix her computer problems and just lame about. All in all an awesome weekend!
I also saw "300". I had no idea about that movie until someone showed me a trailer a few weeks ago and the first thing I said was "that has to be seen on the big screen!" and on Friday I actually went to the cinema again to see it. Back in my teens I was a big fan of Greek mythology and stuff like that, and although this battle doesn't really qualify as mythology I still remember reading about it. The movie was overall great, and I was right - it had to be seen in the cinema. As always with movies like this they get a few of the things wrong or left out (like the second part of the oracle's prophecy) but overall a good movie. But one thing that really, really annoyed me all throughout the movie was all the muscles, pex and six-packs wherever you looked. Right away it annoyed me and it kept on annoying me. But I'm still gonna buy the DVD because it was still a great flick.
I also saw "300". I had no idea about that movie until someone showed me a trailer a few weeks ago and the first thing I said was "that has to be seen on the big screen!" and on Friday I actually went to the cinema again to see it. Back in my teens I was a big fan of Greek mythology and stuff like that, and although this battle doesn't really qualify as mythology I still remember reading about it. The movie was overall great, and I was right - it had to be seen in the cinema. As always with movies like this they get a few of the things wrong or left out (like the second part of the oracle's prophecy) but overall a good movie. But one thing that really, really annoyed me all throughout the movie was all the muscles, pex and six-packs wherever you looked. Right away it annoyed me and it kept on annoying me. But I'm still gonna buy the DVD because it was still a great flick.
Ooops, I Kinda Forgot
Ok I'm now the officially worst blogger since I haven't written anything here in over 2 months now!
But after I've gotten back to work it's all beeen pretty hectic in my life actually, both at home and at work. But I'm gonna have to chance that and make this a daily thing to get on here and make an update or two.
So what's happening at work right now? Well I'm in the middle of upgrading our Adobe Connect from 7.5 to 8 which is not happening so looking at a fresh install instead, and that means having to do battle with SSLs again. And then we have SharePoint 2010 migration and on top of that we're rolling out Windows 7 with new office and document management which is huge here.
At home my wonderful fiancé Helena is taking care of Sam and he's just now begun kindergarten and so far it seems to be ok. Hopefully it's not only because Helena is still there with him but we'll see tomorrow when he has to deal with 5 hours there without her. Other than that it's same old same old - trying to spend time with the love of my life while trying to get time to play some computer games, watching the latest episodes of House/Chuck/Big Bang Theory/SG:U and then there's F1.
I am anything but bored :)
But after I've gotten back to work it's all beeen pretty hectic in my life actually, both at home and at work. But I'm gonna have to chance that and make this a daily thing to get on here and make an update or two.
So what's happening at work right now? Well I'm in the middle of upgrading our Adobe Connect from 7.5 to 8 which is not happening so looking at a fresh install instead, and that means having to do battle with SSLs again. And then we have SharePoint 2010 migration and on top of that we're rolling out Windows 7 with new office and document management which is huge here.
At home my wonderful fiancé Helena is taking care of Sam and he's just now begun kindergarten and so far it seems to be ok. Hopefully it's not only because Helena is still there with him but we'll see tomorrow when he has to deal with 5 hours there without her. Other than that it's same old same old - trying to spend time with the love of my life while trying to get time to play some computer games, watching the latest episodes of House/Chuck/Big Bang Theory/SG:U and then there's F1.
I am anything but bored :)
Old House Or New House
This house-searching thing took an interesting turn last week when we were tipped off about a building project going on now that we could buy a finished brand new house customized to our needs and most of all, our wallets. Only problem is it's a bit far away (not as far as I used to be though). And 2.6 million crowns, that's alot of money I'll never earn... And we're still looking for old houses. Not sure how this will end, but as long as it ends with me and Helena ending up in bed together, I really don't care if it's old or new :)
Yeah, I'm Still Alive
My life has turned into a series of routines as it is right now when I'm on parental leave. It's just a matter of keeping the son happy, well fed and.. well that's all really, everything else is a bonus! And I get about 1-2 hours of "else" every day which right now goes to "Starcraft 2". Yeap, I finally gave up on "World of Warcraft", it just wasn't as rewarding continuing on lvl 85 as I'd hope. "Starcraft 2" is still challenging, I have a 50% win rate which I guess is as it was meant to be played (because the more you win, the higher rank you are and the better your opposition is so when you're ranked perfectly I guess 50% is just the way it's supposed to be).
ANYWAY, I'm going back to work in 4 weeks time, probably gonna spend the first week just catching up to what's new and even what's old since I haven't been there for 6 months! Other than that everything is good, we're still waiting for a place at some daycare so we can both work full time, not sure how that's gonna work out otherwise!
Also trying to catchup with movies since we have missed alot since Sam was born. So far the best one has been "Tron 2" that we actually saw at the movies in 3D. But then again, you'd expect nothing else from a computer geek, right :)
Also updated alot in my photo album so check it out. You should know the password by now!
ANYWAY, I'm going back to work in 4 weeks time, probably gonna spend the first week just catching up to what's new and even what's old since I haven't been there for 6 months! Other than that everything is good, we're still waiting for a place at some daycare so we can both work full time, not sure how that's gonna work out otherwise!
Also trying to catchup with movies since we have missed alot since Sam was born. So far the best one has been "Tron 2" that we actually saw at the movies in 3D. But then again, you'd expect nothing else from a computer geek, right :)
Also updated alot in my photo album so check it out. You should know the password by now!
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