In Helsinki, Finland

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

In Helsinki, Finland

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

In Helsinki, Finland

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

In Sweden

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

More movies

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

Confrontations

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

NHL

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

Movies

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

Jackass

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

Aftonbladet

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

TV in USA

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

Sunday... or is it still Saturday?

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

Big Brother

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

Boogie Pimps

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

Games

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

Israel vs Palestine

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

That's what I think!

Bush In Space

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

Routines

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

Spam

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

New Year, Same Problems

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