Teenage idols Bros

Talked with a person about the phenomenon teenage idols. When I was about 14 till 17 (about 1988 to 1991), my biggest idols was British group Bros (twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss and to begin with Craig Logan)... Do you remember?

Not one of these groups and songs that made history. But from memories and diary, Bros was a group that meant a great deal to me at that time.

Searched a bit at YouTube to remind myself what I really listened to back in this time.

I owe you nothing

Drop the boy

Cat among the pidgeons  (part 1)

Silent night  (part 2) 


Try

Are you mine

Halloween: Get the facts fright

A year ago I was at Edinburgh Airport, heading back to Sweden after 1,5 week in Carlisle. I found an issue of The Scottish Sun in which they wrote about Halloween. They said, most people had a vague idea about Halloween and what it's all about, that is ghastly ghosts and witches.

The Scottish Sun, October 29th 2013

Maybe you have bought a suit to scare the hell out of everyone you meet. Maybe you have
cut out a pumpkin. Maybe you have filled up your storage with a lot of sweets to restrain all the horrible monsters at your door, screaming trick or treat. But why?

As said, most people have a vague idea what Halloween is all about, but there are more than ghosts and witches. There are theories about this period of the year is a sort of a thin line between our profane world and the so called other side. Medium Joan Charles says: "It has long been one of the most important times of the year when our departed loved ones come close and can connect with those they've left behind" (The Scottish Sun, 2013).

American tradition, many would say, but in fact, Halloween has roots a lot older than that. The Celtic festival Samhain (or Samain as the festival could be spelled as well) underlies Halloween (Cunliffe, 1997 / The Scottish Sun, 2013).

During this festival Celts made fires as sort of cleansing ritual. Summer was at its end and winter was about to start (The Scottish Sun, 2013). Barry Cunliffe (1997, p 189) writes in his book The Ancient Celts that the festival Samhain more was about the year was at its end and new year was about to start.

Samhain fell on November 1st, and as said above, it was a line between two years, end of the year that passed and beginning of a new year, and as such, it was a dangerous time: spirits from people who had died were about to roam freely (Cunliffe, 1997, p 189).

A theory, according to The Scottish Sun (2013), is that Celts' cleansing fires during Samhain, attracted insects with its light, and insects in turn attracted bats - a fantastic feast for them, all insects at one place.

Celts were really superstitious (The Scottish Sun, 2013), noted also by Roman Julius Caesar, who wrote about it in his text Commentaries on the Gallic War (Cunliffe, 1997, p 185). He imagined that bats feasted out of Celts' deceased ones. That is one theory of how the vampire developed.

Trick or treat-part of Halloween can be traced back to Middle Ages, where beggars occupied themselves with "souling". They went from door to door and begged for food. They said something like they would beg for people who felt sorry for them. 19th century kids to Scottish and Irish travellers picked this up. They danced outside houses for money and cookies (The Scottish Sun, 2013).

All Hallows Day, All Saints Day, where we're honouring our deceased, are also originated with the Celts Samhain. But it is the Christian variant (Cunliffe, 1997, p 189).

Resources:
Cunliffe, Barry (1997). The Ancient Celts. London: Penguin Books.
Get the facts fright (The Scottish Sun, October 29th 2013)

Good morning Wednesday

I've been sleeping pretty well this night, eventuellt if I believed for awhile last night that the really curious family hamster would knep me awake with its movement in our ventilation system, where it had out mistakenly though it was blocked by 2 heavy books. She's a strong little one that hamster. Eventuelly, se came upp again. No fun in there and longer.

But now I am heading for a new day. What to do today? I'm going to read some psychology, lecture 7, which I've received in written form. Only one out of eight lectures is filmed in some way for this course, I prefer filmed material. I think you get another contact with teacher studying at distance as I do. You hear his / her voice (and you see power points) - that is the most ordinary sort of lecture. Best is when you see the while teacher, face, movements, I believe.

Well, let's start the day now. See you! :-)

When Cultures Collide

Must say this book offered a pretty useful reading. My edition was, however, from 1997, so much has happened after that, but it still gave a good foundation about cultures.

Cultures could be divided into 3 groups:
- Linear active
- Multi active
- Reactive

Linear active cultures plan, organise and act in a decided order, do one thing at a time. British and Swedish cultures are among these.

In multiactive cultures, you're pretty vivid, talkative and gladly do more than one thing at a time. Instead of acting according to a planned order, you do what is most interesting or relevant at the moment. Lewis put Italians, Latin americans and Arabians to this group.

In reactive cultures, politeness and respect are important. They listen without interrupting, carefully considering what has been said before they decide. Chinese, Japanese and Finish cultures belong to this group.

Linear active trusts information. Multi active prefer personal contacts. And the reactive combines the two of them.

Lewis tells language is vital for how we think and not just a tool to tell thoughts. Notion of brain paths differentiates. In Britain, thoughts run along British brain paths, and those are different from brain paths of other nationalities. An Englishman, a Chinese and an Italian experience the same happening. First the experience is a sort of kaleidoscope and must be registered by brain. And brain mainly do this by help of language. It results, the three of them see three different things. Lewis illustrates with "fair play". It could be something else for a German person, as he/she has to translate the word ny help of other words. In a society lacking organised games, "fair play" may lack meaning.

But Lewis warns. It's a bit risky to use stereotypes. This is all about getting a bigger picture of a people in a whole. A Dane could be quite like a Portuguese. But a Danish choir or a Danish football team are easy to distinguish from their Portuguese equivalences. Generalised, national characteristics are rarely applicable to individuals, Lewis tells, but for several members out of a specific cultures, it is.    

Brits as well as Swedes see the space around them, within 1,2 metres from themselves, as their territory, and they do not like this being offended by someone they do not know (and in that case, they will probably rear away to restore the distance). However, people close to us we accept at a distance of 0,6 metres. But there are cultures, book exemplifies with Mexicans, who talk to strangers with 0,5 metres distance. They could understand our rearing as they are physical distasteful.

In the end of the book, Lewis means that if you have an cross cultural understanding, you will accept differences, and use this in a positive way.

This book will give you a good foundation to build this cross cultural understanding of yours.


About the book:Lewis, Richard (1997)
When Cultures Collide - Managing Successfully Across Cultures (link intends an English edition from 2005)

Some old coins

New stuff in my Family Binders, foreign, non-valid coins I saved from some trips I did in the 90's.

In 1993, I went to St Petersburg in Russia. Small coins is nice to put in between photos and bigger stuff, I think.

In 1997, I was in Lloret de Mar, Blanes, Barcelona och the amusement park Port Aventura in Spain. I have 1 100 pesetas left from this trip.

The coins. One from Russia and three from Spain.

Russian coin in place in the Family Binder.

1 000 pesetas next to photos from the streets
of Lloret de Mar in Spain.

100 pesetas next to Dragon Khan at Port Aventura in Spain. I was not able to ride that one, because it was a bit too windy the day I visited the amusement park. If you knew me at that time, you'd also know I rode about everything in an amusement park. Everything! So consider my disappointment when this one, which I had read about before I came there and was looking forward too, wasn't available the only single day I was there.   

Orange became black

I've been changing the paper pieces of my Family Binders. White papers and a black filter pen... it'll probably always be possible to buy, and from that, I'll have a bit of a consistency in system, at least on the face of it. Earlier, I have used a vague coloured paper and an yellow-orange kind of filter pen. But then again... to always find the same nuances in the stores... Much better now. :-)

Before

After

Let the walls inspire you

Among all articles that I have written, I found such creative ideas. What about this one about wallwords in the horse stable, as I wrote for the Swedish equestrian magazine Equipage in 2009.

I read in my article that the trend of wallwords was born in 1996, but first it mostly was a trend for creative creative upperclass homes. Professional work costs.

But then there were those vinyl decals... they made wallwords cheapier and it was easy to put words on your walls.

Erika Hermander in the Swedish net store My First Room says in the article that:

"Many has white or unicoloured walls and wallwords on those walls give you an opportunity to strengthen the style you want for your home in a good way - often better than for example a picture."

It is not only about to fill out unwanted emptiness. Words well thought out attract curiousity, inspiration and thoughtfulness. Words and phrases choosen for its appropriateness can strengthen the atmosphere of both home and stable.

But if you do not want to have vinyl letters on your wall, you could paint them yourself, with or without patterns. Your own painting will, of course, be unique, and that could be fun too.

Words and wallwords is told to be helpful in identifying and fulfill our goals and dreams. Written goals are more often fulfilled than told ones. The process of formulate helps us visualize and remember.

But also, there has to be action too. Words may do you more effective in your work toward success. But you have to do the work itself.

Lectures in English

Hmm... only today, I realized that two of my courses at Swedish universities have their lectures in English. One of them is produced in Sweden, but speaking English at the lectures of some reasons. But for the other one, me and my co-students are to watch our lectures on You Tube, from Yale university in the US. So they didn't manage to do their own lectures... hmm...

But for you, if you are an EU citizen, you may be able to study some classes online at Swedish universities. It's free for EU citizen except for the books. Just a tip. :-)

The Knowledge Project, part 2: Erase, erase, erase... your planning

The picture shows a key role in my studies. Around 14 meter shelves, most often overcrowded from current literature, study literature, magazines and some books/magazines in line for me reading them. And a crossword magazine. At the top of the shelves, I have put two whiteboards on the wall. On those, I write what to be done week for week, 2 weeks at a time.

Each thing done, I rub out, and to rub things out is extremely fun. Or maybe not... but you have to persuade yourself with that. Your brain wants to do more of what it has been rewarded for; the thing is to reward when you do what you planned to do.

But a brain do not demand same sort of rewards as you do. It is easy to fool, and is able to be fooled to think the most fun thing ever is to rubs out things from a whiteboard. Well, you have to eagerly tell yourself that and hence the brain will accept it after awhile.

But the whiteboards aren't the only place I am rubbing things out from. I also have a Google calendar, where I place the long-term planning, and from where I fetch the information I put up on the whiteboards. Also here, I am allowed to rub out things when they are done.

Biology - a new subject in my folder

Yesterday, I was accepted to a new course, Evolutionary Biology. One of the questions of the course: why are we being sick at all?

The Knowledge Project, part 1: Being effective

Being effective and you'll do more. And from that, you can press in some more. But not too much. There has to be a space left for pleasure and doing whatever you like, just to be whoever you are.

I am not putting in full time into my studies. Still I have studied about 143,33 university credit points per year the last 3 years (60 university credit points is full time). It means I have done a little more than 7 years of studies in just 3 years. And now I have passed the desirable line of 500 university credit points.

And I allow myself to be a bit proud of my accomplishment. :-D

But I see people around me struggle just to pass one full time-course. And I think, I probably can help someone by telling what I do. So by this I start this series of The Knowledge Project.

Like A Swede in Carlisle on Facebook, so you won't miss a part of The Knowledge Project. :-)

Message of death gave me reflections

Robin Williams (1951-2014)...

I have seen many of the films he was in, but the one I foremost associate with him i Dead Poets Society. The film was on the cinema at that time, but my class had to go to an private sitting at the cinema in Trollhättan during school day. In class, I know it was talked about this film sounded terribly boring. More action, please.

But the film was okay, as well as I can remember. It is not a film I have seen 111 times, actually I don't like to watch things more than once - done is done. So why do I associate Robin Williams foremost with this film? I was thinking about it and probably it was from this film I "learnt to know" the actor in the first place. If I have a look at the films he did before Dead Poets Society, I can't say I have seen any of them.

Good Morning Vietnamn... all should have seen that one? Mork & Mindy? No, obvisously not me. I was 13 when the former came. I didn't go that much to the cinema at that time. And the film has never got me interested after that. When Mork & Mindy came in 1982, I was 8 years old. I do not remember that one.

So from this message that Robin Williams had died, is that you (at least me apparantly) probably associate actors to the film they first attracted your attention for the first time. I'm going to keep an eye on that specific part of psychology. Interesting observations.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 14: Laid the foundation to equestrian media

Next article I wrote for Dagens Nyheter was published December 8th 1998 - the day after the article about banks being opened 24 hours a day.  Note that this was in the middle of Christmas shopping, so I guess this was the reason, I was selling my articles.

This time, I compared prices of video films in different Internet shops. This type of journalism is going to be my entrance to the equestrian journalism several years later, but that is another story.

Photograph prohibitions are litter to me

Forbidden to take photos... copyright, things sensitive for camera flashes.

Those world exhibitions coming to Sweden... nice, but you're not allowed to take photos. First, I saw it with Harry Potter and now Titanic. I'm not impressed. But I have seen it before.

When I was in the local museum of Carlisle, Cumbria, Tullie's, I was informed I wasn't allowed to photograph. It went so far, I had to sign a paper to be able to study texts and things in peace and quiet at home. That is how I learn. My brain is too much of a scanner when out among people and I am on pins to stay very long at one object. Hence, I want to photograph signs and things to be able to relive the museum visit all over again - at home. I'm not aiming to publish every single photo I take, so people won't go to the exhibitions or the museums, because they have already seen it on the Internet.

But pictures do have another goal for me. I want to be able to go back and remember those experiences that I have had. Maybe because of subject being in question again, or just because I want to. What did I really learn there? What did I really see?

Maybe I publish one or some pictures on this blog or on Facebook. But somehow, I reckon, it could be seen as marketing for them... something that can make someone else to pay attention to the exhibition, and from that, decide to go there him- or herself. At least, I have being tipped on Facebook about things I later visited. But without that status, I may have missed that exhibition or whatever it is all about.

Maybe I take this to my heart a bit hard, and that is probably because I am a person that take photos of about everything I find interesting. It feels good, somehow, still having pieces from the past, and how funny and interesting I see it in the future, I probably tasted when I found my diary from being 14 to 17 years. These days, I know more about and the world, and from that, I can meet my younger me out of new perspectives.

Prohibitions are not really my thing. And foremost, not those kind of silly ones. But but... Go go go... just, I won't go there, paying expensive entrances if I can't take my photos.

Pee and Poo-book, part 1: The reports

Hmm... I'm going to read those two reports from my book shelf - at last. They were sent to me, one in 2009 and one in 2011, for me being interviewed in the project of neglect that was done by the state of Sweden for a couple of years ago.

Now, when I am writing about my childhood, and especially about my time in a neglecting foster home, I believe this could give something for my own development and for the book I write. Just looking through the first book, it seems like that anyway.

My thought with this book is to start from my own experience, at the same time as i try to put it into a context and into the psychology. So far, I have written almost a 100 pages. Mostly, extracts from journals and diary, commented by me as an adult. It feels good. :-)

The book has some peculiar work title: How much pee and poo do the society (you) really handle? However, this is one of the main questions for this book.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 13: Do you remember the millennium crash that never came?

Nowadays, you can pay your bills in the middle of the night if it suits you, at least in Sweden. Just log on to your bank and fix your bank errands. Another sort of service is the one that we had before, when you just had your bank office to go to, with opening hours only when you worked yourself.

It is possible to write kind of much about these small stuff. The success of the technique gives other options. And all of a sudden, tight-fisted opening hours is opened around the clock. And queues are gone. This article also got a puff on the first page of the newspaper. :-)

But I found more in this article. Also, I had written about the turn of the millennium, that was supposed to be happening about a year after the publishing of the article. Some quotation from the article:

"There are customers who is thinking about emptying there bank accounts so that money won't disappear if computers would crash."

"Handelsbanken has analyzed, prevented and taken measures against problems in connection with the turn of the millennium - for years. This includes all parts of the bank. No money will disappear."

Skandiabanken: "Our bank was founded in 1994, so our computer assists are new and well prepared for year 2000. Still, extensive tests and controls are carried through." "It is important that we, as far as possible, are prepared for problems that could break out if communicating computers at other banks are hit by problems followed by the turn of the millennium. To empty ones account is totally pointless and could put one at risks. A worried person could order a statement of account before the turn of the millennium."

What a thing this was, 1999 would be 2000. And in the end, after all worrying, and all the work, absolutely nothing happened. And probably it wouldn't have without any of that job and well prepared computer systems. After all, it is kind of obvious, but at that time, when everyone incited everyone, you didn't know. Maybe it wasn't that strange after all customers were worried and banks did what they could to reassure their customer that nothing would actually happened, at the same time as they picked some points from each other through put themselves as the most secure bank. That was the time.

Flat shoes for me with high arches

Not that I am going to start running - I've not come to that crisis just yet despite I'm now is 40. But I thought I needed a more of flat shoes than those heelshoes I use to walk around in during days. Last time I bought a pair of flat shoes, I had a pair that tore the skin of my heels away. They didn't fit really well, I guess... even if they seemingly should have done just that. It was beyond chafe.

Now, I bought those from English www.sportsdirect.com. First time I was in Carlisle, I saw it as a pure sport store... that is boooring - if I sa the store at all. Next time, I was in Carlisle, my swimming goggles went broken when I took some turns in the Pool's pool. And a sport store should be a good shop for finding a new pair of googles. Hence, I found Sports Direct.

Sure, some sport-bras followed me back home (never use underwired bras anyway, because I think they chafe) as well as the mentioned swimming goggles. But also a pair of jeans and a belt (which I had for free because it wasn't price tagged and staff didn't come to the cash desk in time - English politeness... but the belt should cost 50 p according to a sign... not much, but did the cashier knew that), some clothings and toys for the kids. Sports Direct was more than a typical sports store. So that was a store I had to visit next time I come to England.

But it went faster than that. English Internacionale, where I used to order clothings, seems to have got into administration. So I checked around on the net, and found Sports Direct. And just £3 for transporting all the way to Sweden.

For me, I bought a pair of jeans and a pair of shoes with high arches (I have never seen one of those in Sweden and as I has that kind of problem, I wanted to try them out). High arch means I can't use boots if they aren't zipped all the way down to the foot sole, and I get a bad pain out of walking much, as the press from the arches is pressed forward towards the toes. So if there are shoes for people with like foots like me, I wanted them.

£17 was the price. So now I'm going to walk.

Jeans... well, they were too small. The jeans size I learnt I have in Britain, 10, didn't fit one bit. Daughter, that is much thinner, got a new pair of jeans though. But shoes anyway.

Ethical animals... or ethics about harness racing

Well, yesterday, I hopefully ended this university course I have been doing this summer. Just have to wait for the result on my last assignment.

But yesterday, I had this //seminarium//, where I was an opponent on someone else's assignment, and someone else (not the same person) was opponent on mine. I think it went quite well, could have written more on the theory part though, but well... You can probably always do better.

My assignment was about the ethical part on harness racing, and the course itself was about the ethics and morals of animals. I have learnt a lot from that course, really. So just waiting for my marks for that course now.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 12: Charged for an answered question

Book store charges for each question that a seller answers. About £3 for a selling contact (and this was in 1998). That is something!

Some peculiar news item I found. A sort of situation that for me as a journalist is a bit fun. That is so obvious that they shoot them selves in their feet when they acting like that.

The company Boktjänst Direkt is not very present on the Internet nowadays, about 16 years after the article, but at that time, in the article, they defended their action with they being flooded by questions, and the customer buying the book wouldn't need to pay that cost.

Okay... some sort of selling technique: I've already paid £3, so if the book costs actually £6, I only need to pay £3 more. Or you can call it blackmail: buy the book, otherwise you pay an asking price. For my own part, I would go to a book store that didn't charged me for asking questions. I could be really tight-fisted in such a case.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 11: Boxman

October, 20th, a new article was published. This time it was the cd business that I took a look on. It was back then, when people were buying CDs in stores, before file sharing, that mostly killed the music records off.

After my article was published, I received quite a lot of letters from readers telling me, that the delivery time, Boxman did state wasn't correct. I had to write about that too.

Boxman was a Swedish net store between 1997 and 2000, that was selling CDs and DVDs. Wikipedia tells Boxman had logistical problems as well as profitability problems, and the business entered administration in October 2000.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 10: Book Stores

But at late summer of 1998, I had
a bite for further career as a freelance journalist. It was the consumer desk at the big daily news paper in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter, that took the bait.

My thing here aimed to compare Internet stores - a role I also had at Hästmagazinet (a Swedish equestrian magazine) later on.

In the first article, published September 18th 1998, I compared book stores on the Internet. I also had been commissoned to write about the SET-technique, that was guarantee safe payments on the Internet.

Emphasizing dialects in Northern England?

Right now, I am reading the book Cultures Collide: Managing Successfully Across Cultures by Richard Lewis (1996). In that book I read that Scots and Englishmen from Northern England, emphasize their dialects to be seen as more genuine, more sincere and warmly human. Do you agree with this?

As the link can tell you, there are new editions to this book, but I have only access to the one from 1996. As my copy is somewhat old, I wonder, if you find the use of dialects in the area different today?

:-)

From a quilt in the grass

Sometimes, it is just wonderful, a nice summerday like this. Being in the garden. Do the job outside instead of inside. I mean, I can be inside any other time, when the weather isn't that well. Here are some pictures from my garden.

Have a really nice night tonight everyone! :-)

The new linen cupboard. Phew!

This is our new linen cupboard.

Usually, linen cupboards are quite low under the cupboards. This one... I don't think there will be any problems keeping it clean under it. Most air there. In return, it was quite high, about 130 centimetres. Still quite good space to keep your stuff inside. Good good... it relieves other cupboards in the house, which was the thought.

Candles upon the cupboard looked nice, better than on the dining table in the living room.

The big disadvantage of this cupboard was its weight. It was much heavier than a normal linen cupboard. So it was a bit tricky to get on place. But we did it. :-)

Raped and Linen cupboard

I've been to jumble sale today. I bought a book I found interesting enough to read; a self biographical book about a woman being raped, but not being victimized anyway. Well, well... I will probably return to that book to give you a review, when I've finished reading it.

I also bought some strange linen cupboard. No key however, so we have to fix that. But we do love strange-looking things... why have stuff all other persons have do? Since we did need a new cupboard for some special keeping... so why not? Put a picture up here tomorrow when it has found its place in our house.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 9: Philosopher's Stone

While waiting for a new affiliate - no, I wasn't a very good seller, I worked as a telemarketing seller, I got a new kid (my fourth one) and was on parental leave, read a lot and wrote on a book - a book that disappeared in a hard drive crash. It was named The Philosopher's Stone, so you could probably imagine what I thought of Harry Potter when I saw that book for the first time. But at the same time, it showed that both me and Rowling lived in the same sort of context. Something inspired her, and something inspired me in about the same era.

I also wrote a reproval letter to the editor of the magazine Natur & Vetenskap, what the shortening IT really was short of. I said informationsteknik, and not the informationsteknologi, as the magazine used in an earlier issue, and as I said was a failed translation of English Information Technology. The magazine said I was right. :-)

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 8: Where to date in Gothenburg

After Titanic and teenager-article, it did pass two weeks until I was ready with a new article. Do you have a date? The idea was to present different propositions of what to do for a date in Gothenburg.

Haha! Have to be one of the most odd articles I have ever written, however, but the idea was creative. :-)

After this, the cooperation with Göteborgs-Posten was over of some reason I don't even remember. Well well, life goes on...

We like the same

Found 4 sorts of energy drinks for causal sale at Lidl. Tested all four of them, but did only like the one on the picture. The other three did not taste very well, according to me. Obviously, I wasn't alone. When I came back today to buy a new can, there were only 2 cans left. Causal sale... what the heck, I buy the both. But there were plenty of the other three sorts. Hmm...

I might be ordinary in my drinking preferences, or quite odd... depending how you see it. Earlier today, I was to a store to buy water, just ordinary non-carbonated water. I found 1 bottle in the whole store, but there were plenty with carbonated water. Well, okay, I just needed one, but gets me to think.

Dead fish disappeared - sorry puss!

My old worn diary from the 80's

Since I am putting all the memories I can find into commemorative hard covers, I came to think of, for a week or so, that I wrote diary as a teenager, 2 diaries are there somewhere. Today I found one of them.

I have read a bit in it. And I realize that I, by the age of 14-15, already was much of who I am today. I didn't write much about feelings. Instead, I documented all sorts of facts. And a bit about what I did during the days.

The most spectacular story so far has to be the one about the dead fish. It rings a small bell, a really small bell.

I had found a dead *small* fish at the beach. So I brought home to give it to our cat Tiger. When I was about to wash the fish, I accidently dropped it and it disappeared somewhere down the sewer. The cat didn't get any sweets as I promised it. WTF... hahaha!

Will see if I found anything else exciting from my adolescence. :-)

First spread: a lot of stickers from the Swedish youth magazine OKEJ

A Long way to Carlisle, part 7: Titanic and teenagers

Week after my first publishing, it was time for more things from me in the paper. Also this time, it was two writings. One of them was a news item about the ship Titanic connected to the premiere of the film Titanic.The other thing was an article about the etymology of the word teenager and several other words for that part of life. 

I found such stuff as history of words quite enjoying. And I still do. One period I had a site about those things: När kom ordet? That was fun! :-)

File or bin bag - not a very difficult choice

At last... this morning I decided to sort all the school things my youngest children brought home from school in June - when summer holiday starts in Sweden. All the relevant things are put into commemorative hard covers. But it got me thinking.

One child's stuff came home in a file, that the child made and had drawn on.
The other child's things came in a big bin bag.

Hmm... I imagine that if a child has to put his or her things into a big bin bag, you (school) tell the child that everything he or she did during the year, everything he or she worked on, everything he or she learnt, is to be seen as litter.

I, as a parent, thought it was more pleasant, going through the file than the bin bag, but that was also due to another factor. A file preserves stuff better than a bin bag does. In a bin bag, stuff just get really crumpled.

Oculus

I have seen the film Oculus. American horror that I found interesting because of jumps in time, relations and Karen Gillan, who I know as Amy Pond in Doctor Who.

To begin with. In Doctor Who, there are also jumps in time between Karen Gillan, as is playing Amy Pond as an adult, and a child actress, who plays Amy Pond as a child. Hmm... seen that before.

Moreover, I'll say, that the film obviously is American. Everything supernatural is made as malicious as possible. I've seen the Swedish tv-programme De Okända (=the unknown), and in that show, they seem to have the attitude that you should help the spirits, because they have gone adrift or something after they died. In a similar show from the US, I met another attitude. Is it unknown, supernatural, then it is absolutely dangerous and is just aiming for scaring the hell out of you and in the end, kill you. I found it really fun with culture differences, so I look for pattern where I can.

Another actor I know from earlier stuff I watched is Miguel Sandoval. He played District Attorney Manuel Devalos in Medium.

The film is about siblings Kaylie and Tim. Their family went from being a quite ordinary family, if there is one, to parents developed into psychotic, murderous madmen. The mother is shot by the father, and the father is shot by 10-year-old Tim - a crime Tim had to spend 11 years on a psychiatric institution. Kaylie goes to a foster home. 21 and 23 years old they are reunited. Problem is an antique mirror. One who look into that will be showed whatever mirror wants him or her to see. That is now going to be destroyed.

Oculus is worth seeing, but not a wow-movie.

Acceptance for Autumn, part 1

As it seems now, I was accepted for 5 university courses for this autumn. Totally 90 university credit points. However, I am only going to study 60 of them this autumn, the rest next spring.

As it seems now, cause there will be another letter of acceptance. Things can change when acceptances of reserves start. But the credit points I will study is most certainly the same.

But this university courses:
* Psychology III, 30 credit points - University of Kristianstad
* Comaparative Literature, Bachelor course, 30 hp - University of Linnae.
* Understanding Food Habits: A Sociological Perspective, 7,5 hp - University of Umeå.
* Literature and Existential questions, 15 hp - University of Linnae.
* Documentary film, 7,5 hp - University of Linnae

Lost by the Jetty

For a couple weeks ago, me and Gorm went to Vänersborg to have a picnic on a jetty. We went as far out as we could - all the way on some sort of big stones; stones we were balancing on to get forward. Could tell that shoulders get a bit exercised when you balancing on stones. At least it is what I feel the most of afterwards. :-)

The picture above is taken from where we sat and ate. Far away from proper land.Right in the water, to the left of the jetty, we witnessed a detective story in the bird world. Suddently, a bird came swimming, big like a wild duck or something, but with a longer neck - don't really know what sort of bird it was, but we have discussed if it could have been a great crested grebe. It swam more deep than a wild duck do, and it moved a bit jagged. Then it dived. And never came up again. We sat, for sure, about five minutes just looking for ut. It didn't come up where it went down, and it never came up within reasonable distance from where it dived. Hmm...

In the literary studies, I learnt during this past spring, that Swedish detective stories are well known outside of Sweden, and I saw several of them when I was in Carlisle last year, as well as in Denmark this year. A small Swedish detective story from the animal world, yes, but with a crappy ending. ;-)

A guy came walking on the jetty right opposite the one we were on. He sat down and took his shoes of, after that his shirt, and then his shorts and underwear. And then, he walked down into the water. And at that moment, a motor boat came and rounded the jetty, and from that, two big waves came and watered our food and us. Hmm... it was probably worse for the naked guy in the water.

So, back on proper land. All the way out, we had our picnic. 

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 6: Remember a bit more

My first article (articles) in official media, was published in Göteborgs-Posten (big newspaper of Gothenburg) January 10th in 1998. Actually, it was two articles. One of them about techniques to remember stuff, so called mnemonics (well, it is not misspelled). That article was however, written for Opus, the school paper. But as there was a schism between school and me, telling me it was forbidden for me to have some time off to visit a Christening in the family. I dropped this education after half.

So, no Opus for me. But Göteborgs.Posten took an interest in my article. I also did get an extra order from them, a smaller article as a complement to the bigger one. And I was happy. All of a sudden, I was paid to write.

A Long Way to Carlisle, part 5: Abortion and illitteracy

ScreenPlace and screenwriting was a period of my life. Instructive and worthwile also, as I think I get more out of life when I know what work that is behind it.

Journalism stayed. In the school paper, Opus, I had two articles: one about abortion and one about illiteracy. The latter one I wrote with a fellow student. I was to visit a lesson in Swedish as a second language for that article, and from that I gained an insight worthwile..

I wrote the article about abortion because I don't like abortion. I am no opponent of abortion as I can see it being needed in some cases. But for my own part it is a no-no. Six children I have, and no abortion I have done. Even if I didn't wish for that to happen all the times, I am very glad that I have all of my kids today.

In this question, I have been challenged since I was 13 - some years before my oldest child was born, however. But at that time I was determined, I was not having any abortion ever, no matter what situation I was up against.

And a picture of me from the backside of the magazine, where the editorial staff was fronted.

Mini fasting can get you a longer life (and less weight)

Bild på artikeln "Nya rön lovar längre liv" av Eva Olsson.

Realized  a couple of days ago that enough is enough when talk about weight. I started with a diet constructed in person: not eating a thing after 3.30 pm - until breakfast the day after. Mini fasting, I learnt this morning from an article.  And this mini fasting could even get you a longer life.

I read that "today, people is terrified being hungry, and throw themselves over food as soon as the stomach is rumbling. But we can actually be without food for 30 days".

Sounds pretty logic. A car should hardly go twentyfour hours a day, seven days a week. That car will probably end up being a jalopy sooner than a car able to rest a couple of hours a day. A stomach is also some sort of machinery. And it shouldn't either go twentyfour hours a day, seven days a week. Fascinating understanding, and it supported my original thought


Source:
Olsson, Eva. Nya rön lovar längre liv. Hälsa 3/2013 (Swedish magazine)

Work harder, and you'll not be punished... by God

Kville... the place where the priest told its people from the pulpit that the devastating fire of Fjällbacka in 1928, was because the people of Fjällbacka didn't work hard enough. This is the church.

I don't really know what this is for a formation of crosses, but I found it among the graves. Interesting.

And this grave was a cute one. There are some ironed plastic beads, and they seemed like they had been there for awhile (looked a bit old). The last person in this grave died in 1945. Cool!