MUSICAL CONFESSION

I've got a terrible confession to make. I actually like Lene's CD. "Play With Me" has got to be one of the best tracks all year. And that has got to mean the rest of this musical year has been a complete mess!!

NOT AGAIN

Oh my god, they are doing it again. They are blaming entertainers for causing people to kill people. This time some teenagers (in the states of course!) that played Grand Theft Auto a bit too much and thought it'd be cool to get a gun and start shooting randomly at cars, and OOOPS, they killed a guy. This is wrong on so many levels, and that computer game is the last thing on the list of "Things to blame". But it is on the list though. First of all, that game comes with a "graphic violence" label. That should tell the parents, if they even cared, that "hm, perhaps it's not such a good idea". Then it's the huge leap from seeing something on the computer monitor and thinking it might be cool in real life. It's a leap I've never had any problem staying away from, no matter how violent the games or the movies I watched were, I never thought it was a good idea to actually build an X-Wing and fly out into space looking for the Death Star only because I saw it in the coolest movie ever. At the time. Bad role models I guess is to blame, but not only the parents, how about the #1 role model they are suppose to have in the states - their president who's respect for human life is.. well, isn't. Then we have the last little thing here... how did they get the gun!? Did Sony or Rockstar make the gun too? How comes this kinda thing only happens in the states? Both the shooting and the lawsuit itself, you never hear about something like this in Canada or France, let alone Sweden!

Everybody should go out and see "Bowling for Columbine"...

NOTHING TO REPORT

Sorry. Nothing to report. Not mot much is happening over here. Not that I can talk about anyway :(

BACK IN SWEDEN

Today I went to the "Democratic Republic of Congo"'s embassy here in Sweden to apply for a 2 week visa. Knowing all the strict rules, regulations and safety precautions of all foreign swedish embassies, I was pretty surprised that this was only a guy at a desk in an apartment in a suburb... felt really weird, but as opposed to the stiff swedish embassies, this has a much warmer feel to it. And homemade coffee too! 

GILBERT WOLF

No joy can last for too long, remember. Today I got the sad message that Gilbert Wolf, the owner of MinDator, passed away. And that's really, really sad. Although I never got a chance to know him very well, I still owe him ALOT for hiring me and running the company in such a nice way for the employees. He wasn't all about making money, he made sure we enjoyed coming to work. That's why he sprung for all the office parties, why he gave us all a 3 day trip to Greece. He was the kinda nice person who talked with everyone, from the sales people right down to the yugoslavs cleaning the office! And when the company was going down the drain and we merged with Pulsen, he made sure our employment contracts were carried on, instead of terminated and renewed in the new company. That little technicality has saved me from atleast two cutbacks and "streamlining" at Pulsen. I liked him. He liked us. And he will be missed.

And like a month ago when Anna Lindh died, I'm not even in the country to attend a memorial or anything. Although I'm terrible at those things, I'd still like the option of attending. 

IN BRUSSELS

Wow, this weekend was so full of sports I feel like... manly :) Football quadrupled and Formula 1! Boy am I happy I've got a sportsbar right down here in the square in Brussels (at the end of Luxemburg street). And the swedish soccer girls didn't really win the world championship, but I can't really say they lost it either. They didn't go like "oh no, we got hammered by US of A, and then USA got hammered by Germany, so what chance do we have against Germany?" and play dead, they put up a helluva fight.
And here's a question that will make me sound like a sexist or something, but really, this is all about equality... why don't the girls trade shirts after soccer games like the guys do? Come on, the girls get a looong good look at Beck's pex (I just thought of that), why can't I get... I'll stop it right there. As I said, all about equality baby!

Seriously though - amazing job girls!!

IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

So Bush have done it again. Come up with a great quote that might have sounded good in... well, somewhere like in an empty head - "no civilized democratic country would develop weapons of mass destruction". Says the man in charge of the only country to ever have used Da Bomb. For military purposes anyway.

INTERIOR DESIGN

Two things about my personality that has recently come under fire - 1) My lack of "taking charge" and actually do something about that thing I've wanted to fix for a while. And 2) I'm a terrible interior decorator (so much for me being gay!... ok, that one was prejudicial, but I'm trusting you see the humor in it!). As most of my friends will tell you I usually need a good kick in the ass to to do something. Doesn't matter if it's deciding which restaurant to eat at or to change the wall my bed faces (hey, that's one underestimated issue to think about!). And if there was a swedish version of the Fab 5 they'd have their first mission right here! But since we don't my friends took it upon themselfes to just swing by here on a calm saturday and literally drag me to Mio and buy some new shit for my place. And I'm grateful they did because I probably would never have gotten out of the apartment today had they not shown up. Not to mention my apartment looks a liiiiiitle bit better now. And when it comes to my living room, the old styling saying of "a quick look and get rid of the first thing that you notice" wouldn't work since the first thing I notice is my TV and my speakers since their kinda too big to NOT notice. So I guess that size does matter... and we're back to being gay again...

Can you tell I've been up way way too long with far too little sleep by the way I'm babbling now?... thought so!

BANG!

Well that "haven't been in a car accedient" luck that I was living all year was bound to come to an end. Once again it was in a round about, I was in it and a guy didn't see me (?) and just smashed into me. Car is f*cked up, but guess what? I'm TOTALLY ok with it! "Why?" Because I'm a down to earth guy and I knew it was only a matter of time until I was gonna collide with someone. I've just been waiting for it to happen, trying to avoid it. And as I said, this time it wasn't my fault, which takes care of my insurance problem. And what's even better - noone got hurt! Since it was in the middle of a round about there were no high speeds to talk about, just pure inertia based on weight so there wasn't any real danger. So I'm totally ok. After all, it was a friday, I've just gotten the Dead Zone DVD box and UFO - Aftermath so I'm still happy.

Speaking of Dead Zone, it now dominates my "hottest comments" of all time:
1) "Let's make a hockey team!" and 2) "Resistance is futile."
Ok, so you probably have to see the episodes in question ("1" is from the pilot and "2" is from "Date with Dana") to get the context. But trust me, they were hot! Speaking of hot - how about this!

FOOOOOSBALL

So who would have thought that Sweden would ever beat Brazil in football? I mean in real life football, not any cyberversion? I never thought that'd happend. But yesterday "we" did! And I'm proud to be a swede when they did it. Hockey WC gold in all honor, but beating Brazil in a quarter final felt a hell of a lot better. And the way they did it... way to go girls!! (or do they prefer "women"?) Now let's see if they'll be greeted in the same way when they come back as the guys in 1994 were. Even though Sweden is a model of equality between the sexes (we even changed our constitution so that a woman can and will inherit the crown!), I doubt it. Unless ofcourse they win the entire thing. Which they will!

BUSH BASHING

Best quote of the year - "Leaks of classified information are bad things". Wow, what rocket scientist said that?... noone, it was the President of the US of A... that Bush guy continues to surprise me, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. I don't consider myself a political person, but when it comes to him I just can't lay off it...

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE

Go see "Bowling for Columbine". I've always been critical of the sloppy gun regulations and the attitude of the NRA in the states. But after seeing this documentary I can relax knowing that me and Moby aren't the only ones who thinks something is pretty screwed up "over there". Although it was pretty one-sided, biased, Moore was set to get Wal Mart and Heston, but what I really liked was when he just went off to places not knowing what he'd find, like in Canada. And after this documentary, you gotta like Canada :)

ROBERT PALMER

Sad day today. It may be friday, it may be day after pay day and I might have a great weekend ahead of me. But... Robert Palmer died the other day of a heart attack. At 54. And both "Addicted to love" and "Simply Irresistable" were some of my favorite tracks. So sad.

But on a happier note : The US vs France war of words continues.

SHOPPING

I like shopping over the web. It's much more relaxed, you can do your research and there are fewer chances of spontaneous unecessary purchases. But then there are the very bad things, like when I decided I needed a DVD recorder. Costs about $550. Then I also needed a new scart cable for it and that was only $30. And today I got the e-mail saying it would be delivered in mid-november!? Only because they didn't have that freaking cable in stock the system holds the entire order. Actually had to call their customer service to fix that. I guess programming that little additional intelligence was too much for them...

IN SWEDEN

Today was the memorial service for our Anna Lindh. Beautiful event, although I think they could have been a little more low key than shutting down half the inner city. And I had just made it back to Arlanda and got in my car and turned on the radio to haer the live broadcast. I gotta give it up to Eva Dahlgren, who's music I've never been a huge fan of, but to be able to stand there and sing those songs without breaking out in tears, which I did and I wasn't even there!, absolutely fabulous. (And if someone could get Jewel for my funeral, that'd be great...)

IN GDANSK

Do you watch CNBC? I very rarely do since it's 99% financial news and I'm simply not that into it. But I accidentally flipped it on on thursday and heard what may be the best quote this year. "Hurricane Isabell closes Washington and shuts down the federal government... will anyone notice?". I thought that was hilarious. And if you're wondering why I'm not updating as much as I used to... recent events have made it less fun posting stuff here, hopefully that'll pass and I'll get into the spirit of things again.

IN GDANSK

So no to the Euro, huh? Damn, was kinda hoping that somehow all the polls would be wrong and the rest of the swedes would actually say yes to the Euro. I'm a trekker and hence for all attempts of globalization and in the wonderful world of Star Trek money isn't an issue. Not to humans anyway. So discarding one global currency would be a lot easier than trying to get every country to discard their currency. Byt anyway, to snap us back to today, what will this mean for us swedes? Well, it can't make things better, right? No anti-Euro person ever said having the SEK would make things better, just not worse like they thought Euro might be. Me, I'm a gambling man so I'd rather take the chance of getting things better than stay the same.
And oh yeah, we get to keep control of our economy here in Stockholm instead of down in EU HQ Brussels. And here I thought one of the lessons of 2001 was that the financial world is intertwined and what happens in the States will affect us here in Sweden. And everytime there's a price increase for gas here in Sweden they blame it on the dollar, but yeah, I'm glad we get to have control of our finances here in Stockholm. And noone will dismantle our great social security net that the anti-Euro people were talking about. And here I thought our social security net was more a state of mind, more bread into the Swedish consciousness than it was bound to our currency. Thanx for destroying that illusions on a "might"/"if"/"perhaps".

Soon shopping at Arlanda airport will be like shopping in Copenhagen airport - you will be able to shop with both the local currency and the Euro only to confuse the customers left and right.

But what do I know, I'm just a good little worker ant.

IN GDANSK

Today I did something I knew I had to do but didn't think I'd get the chance - visit a concentration camp! "Schindler's List" is one of my favorite movies and "Surviving Auschwitz" my favorite book so I felt I had to see one for myself. And just outside Gdansk is Sztutowo with the "Stutthof" camp. Very emotional just being there! Most of the place had been tored down but some of it was still there, a few barracks and ofcourse the gas chamer and the cremation building. And I have to disagree with whoever said the holocause was one of mankinds biggest mistakes because to me, mistakes are acidental and not pre-planned. And places like this was the very opposite of that, very cold calculated brutality. Definitely mankinds darkest hour though.

IN GDANSK, POLAND

Not only is it the 2nd anniversary of what happened in NYC & Washington, now September 11th will be a day of mourning here in sweden as well. One of the few politicians I've had the most respect and admiration for passed away after being stabbed yesterday. And she might not have been the best politician around since she was so... good, decent, well mannored and alot of things politicians shouldn't be. And she would have made an awesome prime minister one day already having worked up the respect of international politicans. But because she decided to do what alot of other people take for granted - just going out shopping - we'll never know.

Anna Lindh - here's hoping you'll atleast get to rule heaven.

VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS

I don't know why I bother watching the VMA's anymore. It must be the "I'm too old for this shit" syndrome or something like that, but I haven't enjoyed an MTV award show since the MTV EMA in Stockholm 2000... But like last years MTV EMA's, the only thing I liked was the opening (Madonna, Britney and Christina) and closing (Metallica) acts.

And while I was writing that I thought of another reason I might not like these shows, a fact that may make me sound a bit rascist but I trust you know me better than that - out of everyone that got awards, how many were white? Coldplay and Linkin Park were the closest one, if you disregard "why oh god wasn't I born black" Eminem or Justin "I wanna be Michael Jackson so hard I even twist my nuts just so I get the same high pitch voice" Timberlake. Or wait, does it make me a rascist not liking Jay Z, 50 Cents, Piff Diddly, Ashanti, Missy Elliot or whatever everyone's names are? Now I know what black people must feel like when watching sci-fi...
And while I'm on the subject - how many people would laugh at Chris Rock if he was white? Not many, 'cause he'd be in jail for being the most rascist person on the planet. But he's black, so that's ok :) But his joke about Coldplay was pretty funny - it is damn depressing hearing that guy laying all his heartache in that "I'm fighting back my tears"-voice.

But that's just about the music, I did enjoy other parts of the show, Black is always hilarious and those gay interior designer guys were hilarious, loved their expressions when Madonna was bringing down the house.