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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hehe, what can I say, go Britney and Madonna 🙂 I’ve always liked Madonna and her no-bs approach to things. Might even get to like Britney if she keeps that up 🙂 But more about the VMA’s in a later update.
But it kinda reminds me about a Deep Space Nine episode that I saw, very recently – “Rejoined”. An episode about homosexuality, without homosexuality ever being an issue but so totally in your face when Terry & Susanne gets it on 🙂 Yeap, got season 4 of DS9 on DVD so I’m kinda in DVD hibernation now, expecting to come out of it late on Saturday.
Saw “The Core” the other day. I actually didn’t think a movie could disregard real physics more than “Armageddon” did. But “The Core” did. Pretty damn obvious who was gonna die, sometimes even how! I particularly liked the “404 access denied” error. (404 is actually “not found”)
Also saw “Identity”. Very, very good movie. Although you it shouldn’t be sold as a “who did it” story.
Then I also saw “Down With Love”, that 60’s type movie with Renee Z. (not even gonna try with her last name) and McEwan (how many got that joke?) about the battle of the sexes. And it was one of the most booring filmes I’ve ever seen. Had it not been for Niles Crane it would have tried to reclaim the 2 hours I lost watching it. And then there was Jeri Ryan. For about 2 minutes.
Finished it off with “Lost Summer”, that “Project Greenlight” movie with the guy that got his dream movie made. And it was slightly less boring than “Down With Love”, but only because of Aidan Quinn and Kevin Pollak. Both of them are cool and good in just about anything they do.
Do you like “what if”-ing? I love it. Thinking about those small little events in your life that have had a huge impact. Like “what if I hadn’t by accident heard of that computer course at Thorildplans that turned out to be the best year of school ever” and “what if I hadn’t wasted a year in college”, “what if I had gotten the first job I applied to” (it was just a freak accident I didn’t get it!), “what if I had taken up the offer of joining the old MinDator crew at ITF”, what if… Had any of these things happened I wouldn’t be where I am today. It might have been better, it may have been worse, I have no idea. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I like “Dead Zone” so much – they are really great at “what if”-ing. They visualize the possible consequences of the choices the characters are forced to make. I’ve exceeded my download ratio, TWICE, downloading this show that I’m liking more and more. More thoughtful and deep shows like this please!
Ok, now why haven’t I been updating this place in almost a week, and wouldn’t have done so tonight either if my mother hadn’t called to check up on me? I mean, even when I’m out travelling, even when the hotels don’t have any internet connection, I’m still able to update this place more often than that, right? Well, it’s… kinda like nothing much have been happening to report about. Compared to being out travelling, seeing new cities, meeting different people, speaking other languages, learning how to appreciate different foods and just admiring the beauty that is life… well, compared to that nothing much have been happening on the 67 square meters that is my (rented) place on Earth. I’ve been entertaining some friends, and over the past two days I’ve been busy watching movies and launching the new and improved NP.com. We’ll talk more about those movies and “The Dead Zone” later, right now I gotta go to bed and get some rest for the coming week that I’ll spend at the lawfirm. Atleast 8-5. That is unless someone calls me because… that’s right, I’m on call this week too 🙂
Why have I been so quiet lately? Well, nothing really thought-provoking has happened. Well Bush had a hilarious press-conference last friday… as I said, nothing thought-provoking. Working away at work, re-programming NP.com. just going on with my life. Move on, nothing to see here.
This morning I woke up and saw one of the best interviews ever on CNN. One of the guys responsible for the bombing on Bali got his judgement and it wasn’t the death penalty which many would’ve thought. So CNN got a live interview with an aussy parent of one of the people who died and tried to get him to say “they should just kill him!”. But he quite simply stated that “I’m not a believer in the death penalty, it’s not a part of my philosophy and that’s the way I raised my children as well, so I’m content with this judgement”. And the poor interviewer did her best provoking him, even interrupted his sentences (no pun intended), no luck there. So much for death penalty being implemented to make the relatives feel better!
I don’t know why, but I’m a sucker for nostalgia. Always have! I use the words “good old days” way to often and like reminiscing about them. Like today! I accidentally met Chribba, the guy who tought me everything about being a corporate computer tech, today. And then I visited ITF’s office (ITF is a competing company made up mostly of old MinDator employees) and spent an hour there, which was really nice seeing these guys & girls again. And she’s as hot as ever…
I saw T3 yesterday. I was expecting it to be crap. Just another movie made to squeze some money out of the Terminator brand. But I was proven wrong! It was actually pretty damn good! Alot deeper than the other ones, not just a no-brainer action flic. Although they must’ve had way too much money during that street-carnage-scene! And the ending scene with Earth from orbit I thought was just beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t enjoy the thought of a scene like that, but it was really beautifully animated!
Gee, have I been busy! Movies, programming, computer game & Formula 1. And work ofcourse. That’s why it took me so long to upload the new pictures that can be found here. Enjoy!
Two more movie reviews : 1) “Office Space”. Don’t know what’s up with me and office-humor, but I just love it! And this movie’s point of “it’s only a job” and “what tha hell” is just so wonderful. And the gangsta-anti-fax-machine scene is one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen. I just wish someone could hypnotize me and take away that little blocking mechanism I have that stops me from just going into a place and ask a girl out like Peter does 🙂 And 2) “Daredevil”. I bought this movie for three reasons : a) Kevin Smith b) Jennifer Garner and c) “Bring Me To Life”. Well, Kevin is in for about 1 minute, you know what happens to Elektra, right? And the “Bring Me To Life” video wasn’t in DD 5.1! So I should be disappointed. But I’m not. Simply because of the two scenes with Jennifer Garner in the rain. And I’m not talking wet t-shirt alá “Spiderman” here (although that wasn’t bad either), I’m talking about the visual effect and the Matt Murdock POV. That was just beautiful! Worth the money just for those two scenes!
So this week is the annual national tolerance and respect week. Also known as gay pride week. For one week everyone in stockholm, from big coorporations to the little guy sitting in gridlock because the streets in downtown stockholm are closed, are suppose to show our respect and support to the gay community. What about the other 51 weeks of the year? As if I need an appointment in my calender to be respectful and support a bunch of people who wanna live the way they want! Some political correctivness is just too much. This, and casual Hawaiian T-shirt day (yes, I just saw “Office Space”, but more about that later).
The two travelling companions I had during my trip to South America had one thing in common – their need to shop! Shop shop shop! And I suck at shopping even when I know the store and even worse when I don’t even know the language. So I did my shopping from the hotel room by ordering stuff from the ‘Net. And now I finally got to see some of the DVD’s. And … well, I think I’ve seen so many movies that it is now almost impossible to sneak a twist by me. One of the movies was “Basic”, that military/murder/who did what movie. I heard the writer behind it had said he wanted to throw us, as in the people who pay attention and give away the ending 15 minutes too early, off balance. And there sure was alot of twists, so many in fact that he tilted himself and there are three major plot points still unresolved. And unfortunately I pay so much attention that the little broken eight ball outside Travoltas place totally gave it away, and that was less than 5 minutes into the movie! Then there was “Life of David Gale” with one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey. He said in an interview that it’s pretty unpredictable, and this is the guy who played a huge part in the movie with one of the biggest twists in movie history (“The Usual Suspects”), so that promised alot. But 60 minutes into that one I knew how it was gonna end, with one little exception – did he or didn’t he know. But I still recommend everyone to see “Life of David Gale”, quite simply because of the entire anti-death penalty story.
And so I’m finally back here in lovely, warm & sunny Sweden! Man have I missed it! It took us about 23 hours from checking in at the airport to checking out at Arlanda. 15 of those was spent sitting in one little chair with severely limited space. I even tried sleeping pills, no luck there. But that just made coming home more enjoyable. So enjoyable I went right out to buy some new toys for my computers at home! And now I’m using wireless shit here, so I can actually sit in my bed and surf the web, checks mails and everything! Ofcourse I could do that before as well, with a long cable. The schedule over the weekend is very relaxed, only real “have to!” is doing my laundry. And I began it with sleeping 14 straight hours!
And then I checked my kristoffer.com mail account today for the first time in almost two weeks. It contained about 1350 messages! That’s about 100 messages per day! And maybe 10 of them was worth reading, the rest was just junk & spam mail. It doesn’t seem to matter how many proposals are on the table to stop spam mail and shit like it, it just keeps on coming 🙁 This has as another bad side-effect that when I go through my mail I spend about 2 seconds per mail to determine if it’s worth reading or not. And when I get 1350 messages hopefully you’ll understand why – 45 minutes to go through mail only to find the 10 I actually wanted to read!
Woke up today to the news that the USA military had killed Saddam’s two sons. And both the White House and 10 Downing Street were ecstatic. Without really knowing the exact nature of the operation I can only deduce this from what I hear on CNN and read about it on the net – but what gives the US the right to off people in foreign countries? They’ve probably been doing it for years, but this was kinda public and they’re even bragging about it? When they execute their own citizens in the name of justice they atleast give them a trial. But oh yeah, that’s right, the US don’t wanna go along with this international war tribunal until US soldiers are immune to being prosecuted for anything!