Don’t have much to say here really.
Our house project is moving along nicely. Should be ready to move in around july 15th if all goes well.
Me and Helena are going about our daily lives hoping that the rest of our lives are as good as the past year have been. ‘Cause it has been freaking awesome!
F1 is going down the drain for Ferrari and now it seems like they may not be with the sport for 2010, great fun that’ll be!
Other than that… moving along, nothing to see…
This’ll be a quick little update before I head out the door to join my friends and watch the pilot of “Caprica”.
Me and Helena went down to Söderköping again. The ice-cream place had just opened and it was a swedish holiday (valborg) so we figured “what tha heck” and rented a cheap room at a nice hotel so we could stay for two days and have even more ice-cream and maybe see more of this calm, old little town. It was abso-freaking-awesome! 🙂
You can find pictures here and as usual, log in as “guest” to see all pictures.
And today I went out to check up how the work on the house was going. Or maybe I should say the foundation cause that’s what they are working on now. Pictures are here. You might wanna make that into a Favorite since I’ll be updating it alot over the next two months! 🙂
And the summer is finally coming to stockholm so it’s even better going out for a ride today!
Have fun! I will!
I’m not that narcissistic that I left that update for this long, it’s just been really busy around here. Trying to sort everything out and making sure things are rolling and all the papers get signed and shipped to god knows who… but it’s getting along now.
They shaved off an inch of ground on our lot to give us an idea of how big it was and it’s pretty damn huge! You can check the image album here. You’d do best to login as “guest”. The password is the name of the company I work for.
Even though it’s been a year now some friends are still surprised that I actually have a girlfriend, that I moved in with, and am now engaged with and building a new house with. I get alot of nice congratulations (like this). But the best compliment have come from three different people (from a family member, a close friend and an estranged friend/former collegue) and that is – “proof that good guys can win”! I like that. I like that people consider me a good guy. I know it’s narcissistic as hell, but it still feels good getting the compliment.
Regarding our house building, everything seems to be set – except for that damn approval from the council that we may actually build the house we want and the way we want it!
Small steps every day for us to build our home! Right now everything seems to be on track, just waiting for the permit to start building and we’re good to go.
I can’t imagine people who have to deal with all of this plus do the actual building work, I’m going nuts just calling around and making sure everything is moving ahead…
But right now we’re on track to move in week 32 (late july/early august) 🙂
This is getting really complicated. Remember when I said that this house building stuff was gonna be rushed and if everything would click we’d get to move in early august?… it’s really not clicking. Right now there’s two key elements that are not happening. First it’s the permit we need from the council to build there. It’s a pure formality but we still haven’t seen anything. Then it’s the downpayment for the building lot that we thought was gonna be handled by the bank. Which it would’ve been, had she not been home sick all week! I called them today to find out and someone was gonna try to sort it out but as it looks now we’re fucked… so all change and reset target to november 🙁 … *cry*
Sorry to say but I don’t feel any different today than I did when I woke up on saturday! And I’m pretty sure Helene agrees. Although she was shocked that I actually asked her it’s still a bit of “was that all?” feeling. Hopefully it’ll change when we get our rings, should be friday.
And as always I won’t be doing an update tomorrow for the same reason as last year, and the year before that. But we do have a really good april fools joke planned for NataliePortman.com 🙂
The sales rep at the company contracted to build our house is trying to rush things so we can move in in early august. Unfortunately some stuff are slowing it down. I hate old mail system, takes 2 days just to send a letter… but if everything goes ok we’re in for a rushed ride.
We’re about to go up to check the building lot again and the surroundings. And if everything goes according to plan, there should be an interesting update here later today …
Update: Yeap, it did. Now we’re engaged 🙂
Now we got the papers sorted. Not signed but they are right here. Just for the lot to build on we’re paying 850.000 swedish crowns. That’s more than I have ever paid for anything in my entire life. Not to mention the 2 million that comes afterwards for the house and everything in it!!
But I hope it’ll be awesome! Once we get the practical details (like “where the f*ck are we gonna get the 10% deposit for the building lot?!”) and we got the house, then everything will be worth it. But the road will be long and bumpy and I will have second thoughts a gazillion times…
Thankfully my Helena is a rock 🙂
And so on saturday I sat down among fellow sci-fi geeks to enjoy a good send-off party the Battlestar Galactica. I hate watching the last episode of a series I enjoy but in this case I was completely ok with it!
I loved the show from the very first scene (cause I did particularly like 6 and the odd CGI space sequences) and it had some ups and downs and alot of “yeah, as if that could happen!” plots, and it did get a bit nutsy sometimes but I always liked watching it and watching how the characters grew and what they go through. Because the show wasn’t about bad robots, the science, the space battles, the CGI, it was about the characters. And I was totally ok how they left things for the characters. I was fine with not knowing really what she was and why she wasn’t dead, and with her dying and with everything. Considering most of the show was extremely dark it was a very bright ending. And the song “all along the watchtower” now has a special place in my heart 🙂
Nicely done Ron!
Looks like that decision about changing the F1 scoring system is gonna be pushed a year, if it ever does make it. So for once I guess they heard us cause not many people thought it was a good idea… one week now 🙂
Quite often you’ll hear me saying that “variety is the spice of life”, cause I do really like to have the option of doing things one way or the other. But since I met Helena, one thing has become clear – I excel at coming up with different options and ways to do something, but I suck at deciding which is best! Just a simple thing like driving from my parents home to Barkarby, there’s atleast 7 different ways to do it and I can’t decide which is the best! It’s getting pretty frustrating.
And now this entire house thing. I’ve drawn up 100 different ways we can do but can’t decide which is the best. When it affected me, no problem, I’ll go this way and suffer the consequences. But now that it also affects Helena I’m struggling. Which is really unattractive. But right now we’ve narrowed it down to 3 different options and a “due date” on April 1st on which way to go. Unfortunately, one way to go may be “keep on looking”…
Soon time for the next F1 season! Next sunday we go again in Australia. The thing that’s making it more exciting now is how poorly McLaren are doing in the test season and how the new, pretty independant, Brawn GP are kicking everyones asses across the paddock. Pretty cool stuff if that keeps up come race-time!
What’s not so cool is the new “rules” that the FIA hammered the other day! According to the new rules the driver with the most wins, regardless of points, wins the championship! So it’s quite possible Lewis Hamilton may take home the win even he just wins 6-7 races and don’t even race or get to the checkered flag in the rest! And it’s a good idea but not so good for us supporters of a team who has managed to field two championship contenders three years in a row now! If you’re a supporter of say McLaren or Renault, who have a great first driver but a second driver that fades away, then it’s great. ‘Cause then Hamilton won’t really ever be competing against Heikki in a serious fight for the win and if it were to happen, Heikki would move over for the teamssake. Just like Barrichello moved over for the teamssake back in Austria to let Schumacher take the win for the most points! That was done openly and according to the rules at that time and completely fair, and this new rule pretty much guarantees that someone will have to do that again, let their teammate pass to take the win cause it’s all about wins now!!
Only good thing about this idea that I can see is that we won’t see Schumacher/Hamilton like behavious in the last couple of races for the seasons where they are going around only scoring as many points as they really need and nothing more. Cause it wasn’t by accident Hamilton won by just one point last year. ironically though, with these rules Massa would’ve been champion…
We thought we were ready for bidding on a house but apparently we weren’t. An arrogant real estate agent, some things we knew were wrong with the house but thought “ok, for this price we can fix it” and when the price went above 2.25 million we called it off. We really wanted that house cause it was as perfect as a house can get for us!
But the real estate agent was really sucky, ignored our questions, was promised private showing but that never happened and can’t shake the feeling that we were bidding against something fictional.
Anyway, the search goes on… but we swedes really need to take after the customer care I receive everytime I deal with asians or even americans!
So now I know different foundations to houses. I know about isolation, mortgages, wall-building, roofs, leaks, heating your house and all those other completely irrelevant small things that I one year ago didn’t give a crap about!
One year ago I was living completely happy in my 2 room apartment in Visättra, without a thought in my head about moving anywhere. I’d lived there for 9 years, 9 good years and didn’t see any real reason to move, it’s just a huge hassle. I couldn’t care less about concrete foundations or not.
And here I am. After just one year, one awesome year, I have moved to the complete opposite side of the city, gotten pretty comfortable but now we’re bidding 2.2 million swedish crowns on a house. I have no idea how to maintain a house, all the stuff you need to do with regular intervalls. I’m counting on losing ALOT! of sleep over mortgage rates and leaky roof than I ever did about things I used to lose sleep over…
Damn… I think I just may be growing up now…
GOD DAMNIT!!
If you’ve done your math you might now what today is?…
No? Well no surprise really. But it is one year ago today that me and the love of my life, Helena, met for the first time on a weird walkathon date in Stockholm, the date that ended with me making the wrong “kiss or hug?”-choice. But even with that little hick-up we ended up falling in love, and me moving in with her and now even looking at buying a house! Things are awesome between us!! One hickup or two but pretty much awesome!
I just love her! I love how she can talk in that cute little girlish way, how can be so adult and cold with the banking people, how she drives like a maniac, how she laughs at people messing up, love making love with her and love how she makes me feel! It’s awesome!!!
To celebrate it we’re going out to our favorite restaurant tonight and this weekend we’re going away to some mansion and staying the night without a care in the world!!
Life is good!!
Today I’m pissed! I was planning to make an update explaining how much I love my Helena, but instead I find myself being pissed about an article in Metro this morning. I’ve always like Metro cause they have like a no-bullshit attitude towards news, they just report the news. Sure they have a columnist or two but this wasn’t it. No, this was a 30-40 year old woman (juding by the photo) writing about a report from a swedish company that said that “there’s not a single case of computer game addiction that doesn’t have any links to World of Warcraft. It’s a computerized cocaine”!!
Oh man…. I don’t know where to begin. But lets!!
To start with, let me introduce myself. I started playing Warcraft at european launch in early 2005 and from fall of 2005 to may 2008 I was in one way or another leading guilds and 40 man raids (that was later slimmed down to 25). I played the game almost as much as I worked during that period and I feel pretty comfortable saying I know the game inside and out, every aspect of it. Then in may 2008 I met the woman of my dreams, sold off my main account and settled for my B account that I play occasionally with my friends. But enough of me, let us start…
First off, it’s “what’s the source of the news”. It’s a company. Complete with CEO and everything. Sure they have a green light from the social office, but it still comes down to making money and to do that people need to know they exist so what better way than to call the most played game in the world for cocaine!?
(and yes I do realize the irony of me writing about it here increases their audience, but I’m sure as hell not gonna link to them!)
Secondly, don’t people commit crimes to pay for their cocaine addiction? I have no problem dishing up the 10 euros per month it costs me to play Warcraft. And the kids today ask their parents for money for it. Now how would that sound if a 15 year old asked his mother for 10 euros for cocaine? And don’t ask me how much cocaine you get for 10 euros per month, I have no clue!
Thirdly, the drug dealer. In this case it’s Blizzard who has such a high profile thanks to Warcraft that they can’t afford to NOT listen to criticism. A company so responsible they even built in a parent tool into the game so parents (remember, the ones that pay for the account) can set limits to how much and when the account can be active. How would that go with a drug dealer? “Sorry, can’t sell to you, it’s past your bed time!”…
Fourthly (is that even a word), there are no documented health related issues to playing Warcraft on a regular basis. Yes there have been one or two cases of people dying after playing computer games for days at an end, but that’s not a regular basis! And really people, take two normal people, give one of them cocaine constantly and let the other level up a new char in Warcraft and see which of them dies first! More people die from ice falling off buildings than of Warcraft!
Fifth, I don’t know why people take cocaine but the only reason a person would play the game more than what can be considered “healthy” is if they have serious psychological problems! Because there really is just two ways to play the game. Either you can do it “the casual way” which is to play occasionally with friends and do some small scale stuff and you’re happy just playing with friends and maybe making new ones. Or you can do it “the hardcore way” which is all about one thing – E-PENIS! Yes, that’s the correct word for it! To make your character better geared, more powerful and more so called achievement points for achieving different in-game goals. But it’s all in game and if you have a need to get such a huge e-penis that you play it that much, then you’re not right in the head. And what would you rather have people who are not right in the head do – play Warcraft or do cocaine?
Sixth, now that sweden fails in pretty much every sport we used to own (like skiing or tennis), what’s not so known in the general media is the status Sweden has in cyber athleticism! We dominate! And last time I checked the most famous Warcraft player (besides Jenkins) was “kungen” who happens to be Swedish, leading the most famous guild that’s made up of a lot of swedes. Now how is that related to cocaine? Do we have any chart of cocaine addicts that are doing well and putting Sweden on the map?
Seven – the good feelings of cocaine (as I understand it) are artificial and chemically induced and effects your body so much that if done on a regular basis makes the body so addictive to it that you need weeks of detox to get out of it. Cause as I understand my House, cocaine isn’t something you cut cold turkey. The good feelings in Warcraft comes from achieving goals in game and the “just a little bit more” feeling is constantly there. However, pulling the power cable will quickly remedy that – cold turkey style. The body won’t be chemically dependant on anything and after a few days he/she won’t even care. I know, I sold my paladin account without any drawback symptoms what so ever.
I don’t for a second regret the almost 3 years I spent playing the game as much as I did. I made alot of friends. I learned a lot more about people skills. I learned how to motivate people, how to balance being nice and enforcing discipline, I learned alot. And I had fun.Which is what it’s all about for me.
So yeah, you come here and call me a cocaine addict if you want to and I’ll give you a crushing blow with my thunderfury! (how very old-school!)
//RoLaren aka Tandie
Edit: My bad, they said “cocaine”, not “heroin”.
I guess you all know that there’s this big trial in sweden against Pirate Bay. The prosecutor and representatives of the media business are charging them with aiding and abetting copyright violations and all that crap because of the site and torrent tracker. And the defense is saying “no haven’t done anything wrong”…
The fun thing here is that from a legal stand point they didn’t (as far as I understand it). Morally they did ofcourse and their disregard for copyrights and encouraging anarchy is way off, but nothing they can’t get convicted for. And the swedish court system has time and time again proved that they are all about the letter off the law rather than the spirit of the law so it’s my bet they’ll walk away free.
For whatever it’s worth, either way the losing side will appeal and we’ll be right back here in a year or so…
I tried golfing last sunday. Just going to a huge simulator that has like 6-7 feet to a huge screen and you hit the ball on the screen and it guestimates and projects how the ball goes. Surprisingly accurate, as long as you actually hit the screen! When we were putting we sometimes hit the ball so lame that it didn’t get to the screen so it didn’t count! Fortunately it had 2 meter “giving” distance (if you got within 2 meters of the hole you were in).
I did surprisingly well I think although I still don’t feel like I can say I have control of where the ball is going! Really when I swing that huge driver I really feel I have no control what so ever and just happy if I hit near where I was looking!
Not sure if it’s a sport worth investing alot of money in, cause it sure as hell aint cheap!!
Today we went out to look at a house in Täby. The house looked pretty good for us, just the right size and everything. Even a little small door for the cats to run in and out as they wished. However, and this was the deal breaker, it was exceptionally close to the railway (I mean like 50-60 meters. And not 50-60 meters of forest, it was 50-60 meters of playground to the school that was right next to it. And right now that’s really not what we want.
We want a nice place in a calm environment where we can sit out and enjoy a nice juicy steak in the summer, and with a living room that’s ok to set up a home theater in and where the kitchen and living rooms are not that seperate, prefereably not at all. But that seems impossible to find and since this is the biggest deal we’ve ever done, yes we will be that picky 🙂