I'm getting that retro feeling now! Maybe it's the onset of the christmas spirit or something, I dunno. Anyway, a while back we had the "thanx for a job well done!" party at the state department to wrap up this project of travelling all around the world. And one funny thing they had done was to get pictures from everyone and assembled them into one long slideshow that just kept on going and going. It was really fun to see since I "only" did 1/6 of the trips. And then there were some pics of me that I hadn't seen before. But going through the entire thing I just get this "damn that was some good times!". Problem is I can't say that without hearing Ricki and everyone else going "and you thought it was a bad idea!?" in the back of my head...
So anyway, here are some new additions to my digital gallery:
The Swedish Embassy in Sofia.
Me and Annika in downtown Buenos Aires.
Me, (little bit of Ellinor) and Annika planning the weekend activities.
House warming party for one of the guys in Buenos Aires.
Dinner at the ambassadors residense in Congo.
This is how happy I was when it was time to go home from Congo.
A common sight indeed. In Copenhagen this time.
Live/Band Aid
Guess what VH1 did last night? They had Live/Band Aid specials! What are the odds :) But here's a thought about that song and the lyrics - "let them know it's christmas time". The song was about poor Africa and the starving children down there right? So I've been to africa - thrice - but as far as I know this is true for most african countries as well... THEY'RE MUSLIMS! Isn't that like a slap in the face? I'm pretty sure they didn't care that much but somehow it just doesn't fit...
Remakes
You know I'm a little bit undecided about remakes and covers of movies and songs. Some are good, few even better than the original but most aren't even good. And here are two examples we could very well do without : an american version of "Taxi" and a new version of Band Aid's christmas song from the 80's! The american version of Taxi I can understand and it's more of a comedy than the original. But I bet 99% of americans haven't even seen the original I guess they won't even know what they missed. And about a new version of Band Aid's christmas song... that's just bad all around. If Robbie really cared he would donate a few millions. And if Coldplay cared about the survival of anyone the wouldn't do music that makes you wanna slit your wrist. Still, as sir Bob Geldoff (founder of the original, in case you don't remember!) said - "it's a great Christmas present! It's cheap and noone who gets it can express their disappointment"...
Reason 9 : Going with the old saying "the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons" (Feodor Dostoyevsky), the american propaganda machine said over and over again how terribly the iraqi government treated their prisoners. Regular executions, torture and so on. Maybe so, but now we also know how the americans treat the prisoners in Iraq. And I loved that memo that, if you read between the lines, said it was ok to bend the "quaint" rules set in the Geneva convention!
I might as well finish the top 10 today...
Reason 10 : "After all, this is the guy that once tried to kill my dad". Yeah, Bush Jr. actually used that line as a reason why going in there and taking him down was a good idea, because Saddam had once tried to kill Bush Sr. As far as I know, that never happened. Maybe Saddam once wrote or said "I wish he was dead", but as far as I know he never actually tried to kill him. Not after all the favors Bush Sr. did to Saddam in the 80's as Reagan's vice president! What did happen however is that Bush sent in a bunch of special forces to kill Saddam's two sons, which they did! And not only that, they took credit for it aswell! "tried to kill my dad" versus "killing two sons"...
Reason 9 : Going with the old saying "the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons" (Feodor Dostoyevsky), the american propaganda machine said over and over again how terribly the iraqi government treated their prisoners. Regular executions, torture and so on. Maybe so, but now we also know how the americans treat the prisoners in Iraq. And I loved that memo that, if you read between the lines, said it was ok to bend the "quaint" rules set in the Geneva convention!
I might as well finish the top 10 today...
Reason 10 : "After all, this is the guy that once tried to kill my dad". Yeah, Bush Jr. actually used that line as a reason why going in there and taking him down was a good idea, because Saddam had once tried to kill Bush Sr. As far as I know, that never happened. Maybe Saddam once wrote or said "I wish he was dead", but as far as I know he never actually tried to kill him. Not after all the favors Bush Sr. did to Saddam in the 80's as Reagan's vice president! What did happen however is that Bush sent in a bunch of special forces to kill Saddam's two sons, which they did! And not only that, they took credit for it aswell! "tried to kill my dad" versus "killing two sons"...
MTV EMA
Did you see the MTV European Music Awards yesterday? I almost missed it since we have Battlefield matches on thursdays but my sis called me and screamed "switch to mtv!" and when I did I saw the huge crowd of people on Fori Imperiali that they had closed off (again!) and the stage that looked really, REALLY tiny in front of a very well lit Colosseum! It felt funny cause ... well... I was literally right there! :)
Reason 8 : Iraq played it's part in 9/11 by supporting Al Quada and the hi jackers. Well that's been proven over and over again that that was never the case, but it sure worked on those patrotical americans didn't it? Actually Saudi Arabia and USA itself had a lot more to do with that than Iraq - Saudi Arabia because alot of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, the flew to the US from Saudi Arabia and Usama Bin Laddens money comes from his filthly rich family in Saudi Arabia. And the hijackers got their pilot training in... USA, the same country that taught Bin Ladden how to fight great evil powers in the first place. Excellent job!
Reason 8 : Iraq played it's part in 9/11 by supporting Al Quada and the hi jackers. Well that's been proven over and over again that that was never the case, but it sure worked on those patrotical americans didn't it? Actually Saudi Arabia and USA itself had a lot more to do with that than Iraq - Saudi Arabia because alot of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, the flew to the US from Saudi Arabia and Usama Bin Laddens money comes from his filthly rich family in Saudi Arabia. And the hijackers got their pilot training in... USA, the same country that taught Bin Ladden how to fight great evil powers in the first place. Excellent job!
Chachachanges
First day of snow for this winter, but as opposed to last year (and the one before that) most people were prepared. I changed my tires last night so I was prepared too :) Wanna see the most useless web thing ever? Click here and relive your childhood!
Reason 7 : Iraq has close ties to Al Quada and is a training ground for terrorist. No they weren't but they are NOW! And Bush himself said a while back that there are no evidence to support that statement about Al Quada so let's just give up on that. Speaking of training grounds for terrorist, the american militia... hmmmm....
Reason 7 : Iraq has close ties to Al Quada and is a training ground for terrorist. No they weren't but they are NOW! And Bush himself said a while back that there are no evidence to support that statement about Al Quada so let's just give up on that. Speaking of training grounds for terrorist, the american militia... hmmmm....
Boring
Now I've fallen into that boring routine of getting up, going to work, doing some work (and sometimes NOT doing any work), getting home, watching some TV, playing some games and going to bed. It could be alot worse I guess but still, I don't like getting too much into routines like this. Got any suggestions how to change it?...
Reason 6 : The Iraqi government was corrupt us as hell and Saddam appointed relatives in his government. Well that's certainly true. But then again, in USA we've got the Bush clan with father former president Bush and brother Jeb the governor of Florida, so the family ties are all there. As far as corruption goes, we've all seen Fahrenheit 9/11 with all the Haliburton stuff as well as the Carlyle group making millions on the War on Terror and dad Bush just happens to be a member of the bord. And then ofcourse Cheney's wife, Lynne, who's a member of the board of directors at Lockheed-Martin who's also making millions since they are in the war business. It seems all top players there have some connection to either oil companies or companies that profit from the war. GREATLY.
Reason 6 : The Iraqi government was corrupt us as hell and Saddam appointed relatives in his government. Well that's certainly true. But then again, in USA we've got the Bush clan with father former president Bush and brother Jeb the governor of Florida, so the family ties are all there. As far as corruption goes, we've all seen Fahrenheit 9/11 with all the Haliburton stuff as well as the Carlyle group making millions on the War on Terror and dad Bush just happens to be a member of the bord. And then ofcourse Cheney's wife, Lynne, who's a member of the board of directors at Lockheed-Martin who's also making millions since they are in the war business. It seems all top players there have some connection to either oil companies or companies that profit from the war. GREATLY.
America, fuck yeah!
Reason 3 : Iraq has fought a war with two countries. They fought a war in the 80s with Iran, a war that may or may not constitute self defense. A war that USA, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, supported. His vice president btw was Bush Senior, and the guy they sent over to do the dealings with Saddam was Donald Rumsfeld. Guess we should be thankful he's the one in charge of destroying that country. Then they invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait. More oil for them, but the USA wouldn't have it and knocked them back. And now USA have invaded Afghanistan, a war that may or may not constitute self defense after 9/11. And then they invaded Iraq. And dare I say "more oil for them"? So to summon up : Iraq invaded 2 countries, USA invaded 2 countries - FOR NOW.
Reason 4 : Saddam and the Iraqi government are constantly defying the UN and pushing it as far as they can, but without breaking any clear set rules. They'd go along with a UN resolution, like the inspectors, for a while, then stop. And that'd go on for a while, but did they break any resolutions? Meanwhile we got the US who are constantly defying the UN. Every time there is a resolution up for condemning Israel when doing something with their military against the civilian palestinian population, like rolling in their tanks saying "we occupy this place now, you - move!", the US is very quick to put in their veto. Not to mention that they defied the UN by invading Iraq in the first place. And also breaking the Kyoto agreement because they felt that the pursuit of a clean environment was too expensive for them. So yeah, Iraq was bad at following the UN, but the Bush administration just doesn't care about the world opinion or UN.
Reason 5 : Saddam is a dictotor that need to be replaced by an government elected by the people. This reason has replaced all talks about WMD's so I guess it's gotta be important. But like the WMD's argument, doesn't really work considering... was Bush elected by the people? Nope! More people voted for Gore and then we had the Florida screwup. The american election system of having electorates instead of actually letting the people decide let that happen. But what would you expect from a system that dates back to the Roman empire. And if you'd look up the definition of "dictator" it'll say "An absolute ruler". Which Bush seems to be when he can't only invade a soverieng nation at his own will, lie about and not be held responsible for it but actually might be reelected! And btw, how's that "government elected by the people" going in Iraq? Got any elections coming up anytime soon?
Reason 4 : Saddam and the Iraqi government are constantly defying the UN and pushing it as far as they can, but without breaking any clear set rules. They'd go along with a UN resolution, like the inspectors, for a while, then stop. And that'd go on for a while, but did they break any resolutions? Meanwhile we got the US who are constantly defying the UN. Every time there is a resolution up for condemning Israel when doing something with their military against the civilian palestinian population, like rolling in their tanks saying "we occupy this place now, you - move!", the US is very quick to put in their veto. Not to mention that they defied the UN by invading Iraq in the first place. And also breaking the Kyoto agreement because they felt that the pursuit of a clean environment was too expensive for them. So yeah, Iraq was bad at following the UN, but the Bush administration just doesn't care about the world opinion or UN.
Reason 5 : Saddam is a dictotor that need to be replaced by an government elected by the people. This reason has replaced all talks about WMD's so I guess it's gotta be important. But like the WMD's argument, doesn't really work considering... was Bush elected by the people? Nope! More people voted for Gore and then we had the Florida screwup. The american election system of having electorates instead of actually letting the people decide let that happen. But what would you expect from a system that dates back to the Roman empire. And if you'd look up the definition of "dictator" it'll say "An absolute ruler". Which Bush seems to be when he can't only invade a soverieng nation at his own will, lie about and not be held responsible for it but actually might be reelected! And btw, how's that "government elected by the people" going in Iraq? Got any elections coming up anytime soon?
WMD
Reason 2 : Iraq has proven it's willing to use WMD's, on it's own people no less! Indeed they did, but USA is the only country in the world that's ever used The Bomb for any reason other than scientific and that was against two civilian targets. Kinda hard to forget. And when Iraq did gas their "own people", it was on the kurds up north and as I understand it, they don't really consider the kurds iraqi citizens? They're kinda of low on the social scale down there so I'm sure they didn't really consider them "own people". Not that it makes it any less horrible from our point of view. But USA also kill their own citizens systematically. Only they do it in the name of "justice". During Bush's time as governor, a position that would allow him to pardon people on death row, more people were executed in Texas than in any other state. And as president he also has the power to pardon people and even to abolish death penalty completly. But what tha hell, it's only criminals and murderers so it's not really "their own people" either is it? Just check with Amnesty how many people have been found innocent after they've been sentenced to death, or even worse - executed. As long as that figure is greater than 0 I'm afraid to set foot on their soil knowing I could be framed for a murder and executed for it (even though that's unlikely since they would have trouble executing a foreign citizen quietly).
On a happier note - gotta love Agassi's comments.
On a happier note - gotta love Agassi's comments.
WMD
Do you remember Powell's "Top 10 Reasons Why Invading Iraq is a Good Idea" speech he did at the UN Security Council two years ago or something? Wouldn't it be totally cool of someone with enough balls and power at the UN to do a "Top 10 Reasons Why Invading USA is a Good Idea"? 'Cause when going through it all 2 years after the fact it's still bothers me. I'm gonna start my own little top 10 list now. But now that the entire war is done (more or less), the only valid reason they had was that Saddam was a bad guy. And really, how many countries in the world would sign up on a "Bush is a bad guy"-list? Enough to invade them I'm sure! I think it's time for someone to step in, before the election, and give those americans a wake up call because it looks like it is gonna be close. And 4 more years with that guy and I'll have no more respect for them. He was appointed once, never elected that we can blame on a clerical error or something lame, but if he's actually elected... oh, dude....
Reason 1 : Iraq has WMD's. Now we all know they didn't. They had them 10 years ago but the only thing they found, according to Bush's "State of the Union" speech quoting the Kay report, was "WMD related program activities" which is so vague that it may include chemistry lessons in grade school! Btw, Kay resigned just after Bush gave that speech because that's not at all what it said. Now, the USA has the biggest WMD arsenal in the world and as Bush himself said in a speech on August 5th - "[Our enemies] never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.". Aside from it coming out totally wrong, it still says that USA still continues to develop WMD's. And as soon as any other country in the world, like the current North Korea thing, try they are shut down by USA who seems to think they are the only country in the world who should have them.
Reason 1 : Iraq has WMD's. Now we all know they didn't. They had them 10 years ago but the only thing they found, according to Bush's "State of the Union" speech quoting the Kay report, was "WMD related program activities" which is so vague that it may include chemistry lessons in grade school! Btw, Kay resigned just after Bush gave that speech because that's not at all what it said. Now, the USA has the biggest WMD arsenal in the world and as Bush himself said in a speech on August 5th - "[Our enemies] never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.". Aside from it coming out totally wrong, it still says that USA still continues to develop WMD's. And as soon as any other country in the world, like the current North Korea thing, try they are shut down by USA who seems to think they are the only country in the world who should have them.
Money isn't so funny
Interesting day I had today. Rewind a week when I went over my budget for Christmas and come to the frightening conclusion I HAVE NO budget for Christmas! For some reason I can't phantom I have no savings or anything and my finances are down the drain. But fortunately I have a very supportive family so I'll make it somehow. Reminds me of the 111th Rule of Aquisition - "Treat people in your debt like family...exploit them.". ANYWAY, I joked that my car breaking down would be like the worst thing that could happen. And on saturday it started making noises. Nothing big, just... inconvinient. But today when I was driving home it got worse and by the time I got home I drove it right into the shop. Again! Probably the rear brakes. So by now I was pretty upset over the bad timing, but what can you do. So I get home and realise that they changed my rear brakes two years ago so there should be some warranty on that job. Then I spend about 3 hours going through old papers and drawers full of old "should save just in case"-things. And this is when the day turned around from annoying to a great nostalgic event. Going through old stuff and finding things like our airline tickets from our trip to Greece, old photos and even our high school photoalbums! Damn that was fun! I didn't find what I was looking for ofcourse, but hey, I'm a computer engineer not a filing clerk! (I actually found my old engineering diploma!)
Control Room
Go and see "Control Room". Now please. It's a documentary showing the difficult task the media and the liaison officers had during the war in Iraq. It mostly focuses on Al Jazeera who were showing the other side of the war and being hated by Rumsfeld and at the same time hearing the iraqi information minister call them "the american propaganda machine". Surprisingly, the liaison officer in CentCom (Rushing) liked them alot and they showed alot of their conversations and alot of interviews showing what a difficult time this guy had trying to be objective in that bloody mess. Really powerful stuff. Go see it! It's not really an anti-america or anti-Bush movie. Just a documentary showing propoganda up close.
Environment
You all remember Bush wonderful attitude towards the environment, right? That he called off the Kyoto agreement and doesn't bother about "naturual reserve" signs when drilling for oil? And the lovely "it would cost us too much to care for the environment" attitude (not an exact quote, but the point was the same)? So, who in the US southern states believes that mother nature isn't striking back with all typhoons and cyclones and stuff that have hit them over the past 3 weeks? It's a record number of weather related disasters over there, and now we got Mt. Helen warming up for a party. And perfect timing too with the election coming up. I love the irony...
Go-karting
Today I had a huge accident! The kind that makes you think about ever driving again. Go-karts that is. We had an event today with tons of customers and we were driving go-karts. I wasn't doing too well so I decided to step on it a little bit more. Came up to pass a guy but he wouldn't let me pass, even with blue flags. So in the corner area I bump into him, bounce into the 1 foot high track markers and I come flying off the track and landing on the side way out of bounce. Fortunately the guys running the place were professional enough so they handled everything and didn't allow me to drive anymore which costs us the second place. Except for my ankle acting up again, my knees are hurting like hell and my knuckles aren't in the best shape I'm fine. Could have been alot worse. The worst part is that I let the team down. We qualified second and held that until I was up and I totally screwed it up and we finished second to last. Damn sorry for that guys!!!
Shortcut
So I did it again. In my totally idiotic and makes-no-sense quest to come home a little bit faster I cut a corner a little bit too close and hit the sidewalk. Immediate puncture right there. Fortunately I had a spare and I drove by a tire shop on my way home that fixed the busted on right away. So $90 and 2 hours later I got home. So much for trying to come home faster. Why do we do that?! But like the other times - no one got hurt :)
Facts of Life
I'm really getting annoyed at that "Facts of Life" song that seems to be really popular on the radio. I dunno why... maybe because it's pointless ... or maybe it's because it goes on about weird facts that my brain has a dedicated storage space for that exceeds the storage space one would like to have for usefull stuff... I prefered the sunscreen-song, that was hilarious and actually made sense!
Supersize Me
Saw "Supersize Me" during the weekend. Scary stuff. Kinda don't wanna eat McDonalds after that, especially not after seeing the guy trying to eat his first supersize meal. But overall I think it was a very good movie that should make alot of people realise that we have a problem. And it's spelled "lazyness"... also saw "Bourne Supremacy" which was suprisingly good. I don't expect much out of sequels, but this one was just as good as the first one, maybe even better. Ask me again after I've seen it three times :)
Hungarian movies
Today I woke up to a swedish moviemaker and critic on the radio that really got me angry. He was so pretencious it goes behind words. He was the kind that would go to a hungarian film festival just because it's a hungarian film festival! I don't mind hungarian films, but you understand what I mean? He explained how he likes to get out of the theater inspired or emotionally effected by the movie he saw, but added, "sure, sometimes I can go and watch an american movie"! I'd agree that alot of the movies that come out of Hollywood are crap, but out of all the movies some are good, few great and once in a while amazing movies will pop up. I hate the kind of movie critic that has the default opinion that an american movie = crap, and Hungarian movies = not crap because they aren't american! I'm atleast so open minded I can watch Hungarian movie and might even like it but this guys whole attitude just annoyed me. He also got a bunch of questions, like if he did a movie with sponsors and they wanted the products to be displayed in the movie, and the guy just said "NO!"... I used to be blue-eyed naiv like that but eventually had to realise the monetary forces where too strong to ignore.
September 11th
So, September 11th again huh? It's impossible to think of this day as anything positive now after the brutal killing of Anna Lindh last year. Feel sorry for anyone that has this as their birthday, that's gotta be tough.
Donating blood
When I went to bed last night I thought to myself "now that we've got so little to do at work, shouldn't I donate some blood?". I actually felt bad for not donating blood in a while. See, I'm the only one in my immediate family that is currently in such good health I actually can donate blood so it's really more of an obligation I think. Not to mention it's a good calorie burn! Then I realised they have this 3-months rule, and last time was ... June 15th. So another week I guess. Woke up the very next morning and found a "it's that time again!"-letter from the bloodbank. Terrible coincidence that I couldn't ignore so first thing today I went up there. And even though my self esteem got a little boost, your ego takes a little beating when filling out the form you have to fill out every time. They have this little yes/no-box saying "in the past three months, have you had a new sexual partner?". And no matter how much I wanna put down a yes, I really don't think these are the kinda forms you wanna lie on...
Fahrenheit 9/11
Finally got a hold of "Fahrenheit 9/11". Scary & funny stuff. Funny to see how Bush is trying oh so hard at press conferences and interviews but ending up saying stuff like "fool me once, shame on...[silent pause and a look of confusion only Bush can do]... you...". Scary to see that the president of "the land of the free" can do stuff like that. It was all abit too much and sometimes very longshots trying to connect the Bush's to saudi oil interests and all of that, but then it got really personal when interviewing soldiers in Iraq, and it got really heavy when interviewing the mother of a soldier who'll never come home after fighting, what I'm sure history will call, the worst planned and executed war ever. Anyway, you should all go and see it and then wait in anticipating for the US of A to do the biggest mistake ever by re-electing this idiot. I really can't see how it can be this close? I mean how many people do you hear being very very pro-Bush, saying that he's been a great president, he hasn't screwed up, the war was just and so on? I don't hear any people saying that but that might be because I'm way over here in Sweden...
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