Autumn winds

Tomorrow is September 1 and the first day of the autumn months. The reminder of a colder season is almost gone since the sun has been shining both today and yesterday. But the mornings are cold and when I get up at six o’clock it’s almost dark outside, especially if it’s cloudy. But everything isn’t bad about the autumn. Just earlier today I realised that the leaves sounds different now blowing in the wind. During the spring and summer it’s more a like a whispering sound luring you outside. Now the sound is dry and harder. Even though the sound now tells me that summer is over and it’s time to go inside, it somehow also fills me with some sense of comfort. Comfort that everything goes in circles and that Mother Nature simply is amazing. It also comforting to know that it’s OK to be inside a whole day reading curled up on the sofa with a blanket. To light candles, sip tea and listen to the rain and wind outside. To go to bed early, snuggle under the duvet and just sleep. I have to admit thinking about all those things makes autumn less daunting. So let the rain come. I’m ready with my books!

The Scream is back

According to the Norwegian police Edvard Munch’s masterpieces The Scream and Madonna were found today after been missing for two years.

We are 100 percent certain they are the originals," police chief Iver Stensrud told a news conference. "The damage was much less than feared."

A bit unbelievable since three men were convicted earlier this year for taking part in the theft, even though the police back then had no idea where the paintings could be located.

Amazing stats

Wall Street Journal has some very amazing and fascinating stats about YouTube. Just look at this:

• In a single month the number of videos on the site grew 20% to 6.1 million


• YouTube has some 45 terabytes of videos


• Video views reached 1.73 billion


• 70% of YouTube's registered users are American, roughly 50% are under 20


• The total time people spent watching YouTube since it started last year is 9,305 years

Since 70% of the users are Americans, I have a feeling this is only the beginning. In a short period of time YouTube will be spread all over the world. Just like blogging starting out in the Anglo sphere. Looks to me like social media and global video market is here to stay. And it will only get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger…

I’m a redhead

Spent the afternoon at the hairdresser’s getting a cut and red highlights. And they are red, very red! It covers my grey though. I know some of the extra colour will go away after a couple of washes, but still. It’s red. Or bronze as the hairdresser called it. I will get used to it. I always do, but when I look in the mirror right now I see a totally different person. Not the Cathy I’m used to.

I have question about hairdressers or salons. How come every time I sit down in the chair and someone start working with hair I start yawning? I yawn like I haven’s slept in days and I get so sleepy. Is it the fumes from colouring liquids etc or is it I relaxing? Something I tried to ponder while the colour was working. I didn’t come up with an answer though. I was too sleepy.

And the world stopped turning

Today is the anniversary of dad’s death. 19 years. That’s a loooong time. Do I feel sad or do I miss him today? No, honestly I don’t. I’ve been thinking about him a lot today and I’m sure I’ve come off as a bit of scatterbrain, but I don’t feel sad. He will always be part of me and who I am. In a very naïve way I also think he’s watching over me. So I don’t miss him. I do wonder how things would have been if he was still alive. If things would have been different or if I would have been different. I’m pretty sure I would.

Because the world did stop turning for a moment that sunny Saturday morning when the phone woke me up. Half awake I heard mum talking on the phone saying: Are you aware of what you are telling me? I have a daughter”. The next minute she stood in my doorway wearing that hot pink velour robe she loved. “Dad’s dead. It’s just going to be you and me now.” I screamed like I never done before and probably never will. And then the world started turning again.

So here’s to you Dad! Today I think about you and remember you because you will always be a part of me!

This cracks me up

Catchy headlines can sometimes be hard…

Johnathan Pearce at Samizdata:

Treasury Department Official Says Banks Cutting Ties With North Korea

I did not realise that international banks had many ties with one of the last remaining Stalinist totalitarian countries in the world to start with. Live and learn, I guess.

The Swedish Model

That is something that all of us Swedes have grown up with. The government take care of all your needs from the cradle to the grave. Well, over the last couple of years this model have been falling a part more and more. I have for myself never understood how one could expect that the government should take care of you and your needs. It’s my life then it’s my responsibility. Not somebody else.

In the latest issue of National Interest, Johan Norberg, a Swedish writer and senior fellow at the Centre for the New Europe, points out very critical and correctly why the Swedish Model doesn’t work anymore. A very interesting article in times of election here in Sweden.

Via Carl Bildt

Sandwich hotel

My favourite sandwich chain in London, Pret a Manger, is heading into the hotel business. On Friday Co-founder Sinclair Beecham will open Hoxton Hotel not far from The City. In the same way he revolutionized the sandwich business he’s now trying a new and different approach to hotels and its customers.

…a room pricing system borrowed from the budget airlines. It starts with attention-grabbing special offers - five rooms are sold off at £1 a night - then there are some for £29, and thereafter the price rises steadily and transparently the later you book. At the moment, weekend nights for the next month come in at just £59.

This is so smart, it’s hard to think that nobody have thought about it before. The rest of the travel industry are already doing it, so why shouldn't it work with hotels?!

Socks on

Every morning last week I debated with myself if it was time to start wearing socks and heavier shoes. Open toe or slip-in won every day, but not today. A second day of pouring rain, wind and only 14 degrees forced me into putting on socks and more suitable shoes. I have to admit that my feet felt very warm and cosy, but giving up summer shoes was a big defeat on my part. From hereon it will only get colder, darker and wetter. Could someone please remind me why I live all the way up here in the North? Right now I can’t come up with one single reason.

Good enough

Last week’s many meetings and discussions at work have made me think more than once "This is good enough, just leave it with that." We don’t need all the fancy spancy stuff and our customers don’t need it either. Too much stuff and options will just make them confused.

Then reading Seth Godin I couldn’t help wondering if I wasn’t on to something.

I wonder, though, if "good enough" might be the next big idea. Audio players, cars, dryers, accounting... not the best ever made, not the most complicated and certainly not the most energy-consuming. Just good enough

I think my old mantra "Less is more" is ready for a comeback.

It’s a smelly job

…but someone got to do it. New York Times has hired their first ever perfume critic.

Mr. Burr will review and rate new and classic perfumes as well as other scents such as perfumed candles. He will ascribe a four-star rating system to each perfume, similar to those awarded by The Times to restaurants, ranging from no stars for a poor or satisfactory perfume to four stars for an extraordinary scent.

Hm, I do love perfumes, but I don’t know… Isn’t this going a bit too far?!

Via BuzzMachine

Special phone call

The last couple of days I’ve been thinking about my old boss from the years at BingoLotto. Ever since he became my boss back in 2000 he has always been a person I can toss ideas with, get meaningful insights and sometimes-hurtful truths from. I think he’s one of the people who actually know me best. He’s seen my most of my ups and downs. Supported me through a late 20’s early 30’s midlife crisis. Cheered me on losing weight. Seen me go through the whole journey of being redundant and losing a job you love. Encouraged me to go from strength to strength in new job, which in the end got me so burned that I left without having another job. Being one of my references for my current job he was very bold and frank telling them "Yes, Cathy is very good, but she can also be very stubborn, headstrong and has a bad temper". That’s the way he is, and I don’t expect anything else from him.

With a week like this I’ve been thinking that I need to call him. I need to hear his deep voice and feel his reassurance that I haven’t taken on too much this time. That I will make it. With a lot of patience, one day at a time.

Doing some ironing earlier I was once again thinking that I really needed to call him. Faith or not, 10 minutes later the phone rang and it was him! I got so surprised, but very happy. Sadly enough we couldn’t talk long since a real bad thunderstorm moved in and neither of us felt comfortable being on the phone with thunder and lightning coming at the same time. But we promised to get in touch next week for a longer talk. Hanging up I felt very grateful and blessed for having him as a friend and mentor. He’s just a very special person.

The meeting race is on

I hate to complain about work since only three months ago I didn’t have a job to complain about, but this last week has been a looooong one. Every single day I’ve been in meetings all day long. Running from one meeting to another one hoping that brought the right papers or presentation with me. So far so good! Every morning I’ve been coming in around 7 am just to catch up on the everlasting flood of emails. And the same goes for the evenings. Emails, emails and emails. Right now I curse the man who invented emails and the CC button. I’m drowning! Is this how it is to be a manager? In my old job as E-business Manager I was still involved in some "real" work and productions, but now as Internet Manager I just tell other people what to do, plan ahead and try to bring some structure into things. I guess this all being very new to me is the reason why I feel so stressed out and overwhelmed. I will get used to it I hope…

Leave it to Dr Seuss

…to get things right on the spot:

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Via Jackie Danicki

Spot your underground

My favourite London blog, Londonist, are very good at finding nerdy and quirky sites, but still fun ones. Today the time has come to underground logos.

So far I’ve spotted London, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin and Washington DC. How many can you spot?

Things that make you smile

I have to admit that I’m starting to like YouTube. Surprise! Surprise! Here’s something that really made me smile tonight.

The Snake

I’ve been rather fascinated by the hype over the movie Snake on a plane. Reading tons of posts and comments about a movie that hardly anybody had seen (until Friday that was). Now it looks like the hype was bigger than the first weekend revenues.

The high-flying thriller preceded by months of unprecedented Web buildup technically debuted as the No. 1 movie, but with a modest $15.25 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The buzz around the movie is every marketer’s dream, but somehow in my opinion it was becoming a bit too much. And we all know that too much of a thing is never good.

New wars to fight

Seems like the Israeli government has been rather busy now when the war is over.

The president is locked in a sex scandal, the justice minister is quitting over a purported stolen kiss, the prime minister is haunted by a property deal and the country's top general is under fire for stock trading.

Yikes! Interesting to see if any of the scandals will have an effect on PM Ehud Olmert and his government. The popularity polls have been sliding since not being able to exterminate the Hizbollah and win the war as expected.

Internet maturity

For the last couple of days I have thought a lot of Internet maturity. It’s something that keeps coming back to me when discussing Internet and its opportunities at work. It doesn’t matter how much I preach people in whole don’t get it. They don’t see that we need to think in totally new ways and treat the Internet as any other sales and marketing channel.

By the end of 2008 more than half our revenues should come from the Internet. A rather aggressive goal and in my opinion quite impossible to reach when Internet always comes last on the agenda. We need to turn the equation up side down. If the Internet part is going to be the breadwinner in the company we need to treat it like a breadwinner as well. Just the other day I had a person telling me that when she works she doesn’t think about Internet until she’s done with her tasks. Then she just does something very quick and easy without any thoughts and regards on where it’s going to be used. And the worse part is that she just does it because she has to. She doesn’t’ understand why. Thinking about Internet in all new project and ongoing tasks should be something that comes natural.

It seems like the people who gets it gets it very well, and the people who don’t get it are very far from getting it. The gap is enormous and I guess that’s where Internet maturity comes in. It doesn’t matter if the top management gets it and hires people like me to strive towards the goal when the rest of the employees don’t get it. As everyday producers and doers they are the core of the company. And the core group needs to understand before we will see any changes. Sad, but true.

I really don’t know what I will do besides continuing with being passionate about the Internet and its opportunities. One department has actually asked me to come and talk about the use of Internet and why we as a company should make a shift. The funny thing is that this department has been involved with Internet issues since the company started with online booking about 10 years ago. So I’m a bit surprised that they haven’t gotten it by now. But then on the other side they are interested and that is a very good thing. I guess Rome wasn’t built in a day...

August 19, 1991

Carl Bildt:

Early in the morning 15 years ago - it was Tuesday August 19, 1991 - a TV announcement in the Soviet Union said that emergency rule had been declared, that Michael Gorbachov was sick and that power was now in the hands of an emergency committee namned GKChP.

I can’t believe it’s been 15 years already. Those days in August are still very vivid to me, but not because of what went on in Moscow. Growing up living next to the Iron Curtain this historical event is actually something that I totally missed. Two days earlier on August 17 I had arrived in Texas to start a whole new chapter in my life – being a freshman at an American university. Something that I had dreamt about doing after spending the last three summers in summer school in the DC-area. Let’s just say that there is huge difference between the East Coast and West Texas, and for a month or so I had no idea what went on in the world outside the university walls. To be honestly I hardly understood what went on inside the walls either…

Within two days it was clear that the coup had failed - and that Boris Yeltsin was the new leader of a new Russia. Soon he were to take the bold move of recognizing the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Soon he would outlaw the Communist Party and dissolve the Soviet Union as a whole.

And the world got to see a whole continent go from dictatorship and planned economy to democracy and market economy. A very good ending for something that actually could have ended terribly wrong. At least seen with western eyes.

Loving red things

I’ve loved the colour red as long as I can remember. If I’m going to buy something and if it’s available in red I buy it immediately. Just the other day I realized that my handbag is red, my Filofax is red, and my umbrella is red. The backpack I carry my gym gear in is of course red. I have two pair of pants that are red. I have a red business suit and three different kinds of red blazers. My carry on trolley used to be red until the zipper finally gave in. Still haven’t found a new one in red, but I know I will some day. I just love Big Red chewing gum, which finally can be found here in Sweden, and every month I buy Red Magazine from the UK. I use contacts nowadays but I think that two or three pair of my glasses has been red as well. But sometimes it can look a big funny though. The other day I was carrying my red handbag along with my red backpack wearing red pants while using the red umbrella. Proof enough that I’m nuts about red things.

15 years

It’s been 15 years since Tim Berners-Lee released the code for turning the Internet into a publishing medium. He called it the World Wide Web and his idea was that it should be free so anyone could use it. And just everybody did. No one really knows how big the Internet is today and it’s constantly growing. The Internet has changed our lives in most areas and today it’s hard to think about life without the Internet. The Observer continues:

The strangest thing is how casually we have come to take it for granted. We buy books from Amazon, airline tickets from Easyjet and Ryanair, tickets for theatres and cinemas online, as if doing so were the most natural thing in the world. We check the opening times at the Louvre in Paris or the Museum of Modern Art in New York (or browse their collections) online. We check definitions (and spellings) in online dictionaries, look up stuff in Wikipedia, search for apartments to rent on Craigslist or a host of local lookalikes such as Daft.ie in Ireland. You can buy and sell just about anything (excluding body parts) on eBay. Children seeking pictures for school projects search for them on Google Images (and download them without undue concern for intellectual property rights). Holiday snaps escape from their shoeboxes and is published to the world on Flickr. Home movies likewise on YouTube. And of course anyone with doubts about a prospective blind date can do an exploratory check on Google before committing to an evening out with a total stranger.

According to John Naughton and the book A brief history of the future: Origins of the Internet this is the websites that changed the world.

1. eBay.com
2. wikipedia.com
3. napster.com
4. youtube.com
5. blogger.com
6. friendsreunited.com
7. drudgereport.com
8. myspace.com
9. amazon.com
10. slashdot.org
11. salon.com
12. craigslist.org
13. google.com
14. yahoo.com
15. easyjet.com

Very interesting! What would we do without them?!

A star is born

Just a couple of days I ago I posted about geriatric1927 and his first try at YouTube. Quickly his vblog posts have become some of the most popular. Antony Mayfield writes:

Already the video-sharing community's members have taken to him and he has found an enthusiastic audience, notching up over 430,000 views of his videos, approaching 7,000 subscribers and almost 9,000 comments (mostly positive).
…
The man is a technology enthusiast, who proudly tells of making many friends on MSN Messenger and Skype prior to his YouTube experiment.

I’m just so taken by geriatric1927 or Peter as his real name is. What amazing man! He shows very clearly that everybody can embrace new technology and that creativity can take you a long way. Social media can't get any better than this.

Great quotes

Things are getting worse.
Please send chocolate.

I found that on postcard on my way home from work last week. That’s so very much like me. Chocolate is the cure to all of life’s aliments.

Why we write
If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.
~ Kingsley Amis~

Via Samizdata

You are never too old

Watch first try by geriatric1927 at YouTube. He does a very fine job. And I just love his comments on being able to bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who’s been there and done that. We need more of that in contrast to the fast pace world we are living in.

This is why…

Blogging is such an amazing media. Just about two weeks ago I posted about being outed as a blogger at work. Mack Collier of The Viral Garden and Marketing Profs Daily Fix happened to surf by and commented on my post. Today while doing my daily blog reading I found this:

Cathy had a secret. A secret that she was hoping to remain hidden, but one of her co-workers found out about it recently, and the cat was out of the bag.

She'd been outted. Now everyone knew that Cathy was a blogger.

And what Cathy is finding at her job, is that many of her co-workers are wanting to hear all they can about blogging and social media.

And just like Mack writes, now when people know that I blog people want to know all about it. I’m also very open about my blogging now. When people mention blogs and blogging I tell them straight out that I’m "one of those". And usually we end up having a very interesting discussion about how blogging and social media are changing the world as we speak.

Thought of the day

Money Follows Applied Talent

Great reminder from MarketingShift.

Mixing and mingle

Yesterday’s sponsor event at the European Athletics Championships was fun, even though the weather could have been better. Showers on and off all day, but we were real lucky to not get wet at any time.

We met in the Sponsor Village where we tried some of the events in the People’s Heptathlon, which our companies were the proud sponsors of. I tried running in too big shoes, spitting gummy bears and pedal car race. Pedal car race was my best event, but I still think I’m going to keep my day job. Don’t see much of a future in pedal car racing…

After a mix and mingle lunch we all walked over to the stadium just in time to see the finish of the Women’s Marathon. The seats were some of the best seats in the whole arena, right in front of the prize ceremony area. When you watch athletics on TV you only see one event at the time. But in reality 3-4 events take place at the same time and you really don’t know where to look. When it was time for the men’s triple jump and Christian Olsson the whole stadium was just clapping and shouting. His second jump at 17,67 meters turned out to be the gold medal jump and by then all of us were just screaming. What a comeback after 21 months of injuries!

Dinner was supposed to be al fresco, but because of the pouring rain it was held at a newly opened gourmet restaurant. Delicious seafood as starter with a very nice Chardonnay. Main course was a perfect grilled sirloin steak with all the trimmings. To drink we where served a Chianti that went perfect with the grilled meat. Desert was homemade vanilla cream with Boudreaux marinated fresh strawberries. To this we had a glass of Sauterne that balanced off perfectly with the vanilla and fruit. During the dinner we also had our own prize ceremony where all of us got a prize - a hot air balloon ride. OMG! What an incredible prize for just having fun and play around! Coffee was served in another room were we once again mixed and mingled with loads of sponsors and other important people, including the mayor of Gothenburg.

Like I wrote in an earlier post I’m not very good at mixing and mingle. Or really I just don’t feel comfortable doing it. But after yesterday I think I’m as good as anybody else doing it. It felt a little bit awkward in the beginning, but after a while I just did it. Fake it until you make it!

Nutty sport fan

No posts today. I’m spending the whole day at Ullevi Stadium being one of those nutty sport fans. If you watch the event on TV look real closely and you might catch a glimpse of me.

It’s a girl

My dear friend and cousin Maria and her husband Thomas had a healthy little baby girl early Wednesday morning. (I know I’m very late writing about it…) So now I can finally go out and buy tons of pink girlie things. The last babies arriving in the family have only been boys so all the women are now cheering the fact that it’s time to go pink.

Needing a hug

Today has been one of those days when it feels it’s me against the world and the world is winning. When I lived in Texas a friends gave me a little plastic card that looked like credit card. It was a Garfield’s Hug Club Card that I’ve been carrying it my wallet since then. On the back it says:

Having one of those days? Feel like it’s you against the world and the world is winning? Well, whip out your trusted Hug Club Card and watch your trouble disappears. Just present it to friends or family for a squeeze that’s guaranteed to please. And the best thing about this card is the more you use it, better you feel!

So I’m using it right now. I need a hug and to be assured that everything is going to be all right. A couple of unresolved issues at work bather the hech out of me, even though they are out of my control. Just this morning I realized that those issues are nagging me more than I want to admit. They are constantly there interrupting my thoughts and daily work. Not good.

Then when the news came this morning about the foiled London terror plot I just started to feel uneasy. London and the UK is something that is very close to me in heart (and in distance) so when hearing things like this I get big lump in my stomach.

I guess most everybody’s reaction is to get terrified at first, but then I just got plain angry and upset. This is a threat to everyday existence and to the global world we are living in. How can those people think that blowing X numbers of jumbo jets in pieces will make the world a better place. Black, white, red or green. Christian, Jew, Hindu or Muslim we are all humans and equal. Why can’t we just get a long? I know it’s not that easy, but in my dream world we are all getting a long and are dancing around like 60’s flower children. I have a feeling life would be so much easier. Or maybe not…

She did it again

Carolina Klüft just won the first Swedish gold medal at the European Athletics Championships in heptathlon. I’m so amazed by this girl. She has won everything there is since 2000. What an athlete! Just look at these fabulous stats:

• 2000 Junior World Champion Heptathlon
  
• 2001 Junior European Champion Heptathlon
  
• 2002 European Indoor Bronze Pentathlon (last event she's lost to date)
  
• 2002 Junior World Champion (defending) Heptathlon, World Junior Record
  
• 2002 European Champion Heptathlon, current World Junior Record
  
• 2003 World Indoor Champion Pentathlon
  
• 2003 World Champion Heptathlon, 3:rd female past 7000 pts
  
• 2004 Olympic Champion Heptathlon
  
• 2005 European Indoor Champion Pentathlon
  
• 2005 World Champion (defending) Heptathlon
  
• 2006 European Champion Heptathlon (defending), championship record

Quite a picture!

I just couldn’t resist posting this. It such a great pic! Brian Micklethwait has posted yet another great Billion Monkey photo

The blogsphere is growing

Intersting facts from Dave Sifry based on stats from Technorati

• Technorati are now tracking over 50 million blogs
  
• The blogosphere is now 100 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
  
• It’s doubling in size every 200 days
  
• 175,000 blogs are created each day (the old 1 blog starting per second stat is out dated - it’s now 2 per second)
  
• Daily posting levels are at about 1.6 million posts per day (18.6 per second)

Via Problogger

The aftermath

Reuters have pulled all photos taken by photographer Adnan Hajj after yesterday’s revelation that one of his pictures had been altered in PhotoShop. Even though Reuters acted rather quickly in this matter I do feel like their reputation has been severely damaged. Not good since they are suppose to be one of the most trustworthy news sources we have.

This whole ordeal also shows that the blogsphere is here to stay and that they are to count on. Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine has more on this and the ongoing debate between blggers and mainstream journalist. One just has to wonder who is right and who is wrong in this case…

When will people learn?

When will people learn that everything can be checked nowadays? Here’s the Reuters photo everybody is talking about.

And here’s another one. Different dates, different homes, same woman. A bit odd… You judge.

Via Samzidata

Today it starts

The 19th European Athletics Championships. The city is going to be rather crowded with about 250.000 visitors. Only 1370 are competitors, the rest is media, volunteers and spectators. I live next to the closed off venues and event zones and acting like an old grumpy lady I’m actually going to try to stay away from the whole thing. Lots of people, raised prices on food and drinks etc isn’t my cup of tea nowadays. OMG, maybe this is sign after all that I’m getting old and grumpy?!?!

But really I shouldn’t dismiss the event just like that. It is fun too of course, and I am actually going on Saturday. The comany is one of many sponsors to The Championship City Festival and on Saturday there is a big sponsor event. Our Marketing Director was invited, but when he wasn’t able to go he asked my team and I if we wanted to go. He’s such a sweet man! It’s a whole day thing starting with lunch in one of the sponsor lounges. Then we will watch the Gothenburg son Christian Olsson hopefully win the men’s triple jump final. When the competitions are done there will be diner and mingle bash in another sponsor lounge. I’m not very good at mingling, so I can’t say I’m looking forward to the lunch and dinner thing, but watching the athletes will be fun. Even though I think I would be able see better watching the TV at home. But on the other hand when watching at home I wouldn’t get free food and drinks... So I guess I just have to take the good with bad.

Belief

Seth Godin is so right:

People don't believe what you tell them.
They rarely believe what you show them.
They often believe what their friends tell them.
They always believe what they tell themselves.

One always get the best answers from oneself...

Outed

I was outed as a blogger yesterday. I know it would happen one day or another, but still it caught me a bit off guard.

Yesterday morning one of the Marketing ladies came by our little cubicle where my team and I sit. She entered by asking if I blogged. Uhm, well I do… My mind started racing immediately wondering what she could have found and if I might be in trouble. She continued saying that she had done a search on the company and found a very amusing post about a meeting in London. I remember being very frustrated when writing that post and also wondering if I might be saying too much. This is the Internet after all… But I did it anyway thinking that it would go by unnoticed. Having been part of the Internet for more than 10 years and most of those years as a professional my frustration must have clouded my mind very much… So I succumbed saying that yes it was my blog. To my surprised she told me that it was well written and just plain amusing. For a while she had also wondered if it could be me since the English was so good. She ended with saying that I should keep up the good work. Flatter will take you everywhere…

After this little outing we started discussing blogs as a whole. It’s coming more and more in Sweden, but still it’s not changing the business scene as it is in the US or the UK. It’s just the “early adapters” who does it and neither of them is out to change the world. The Marketing lady used to work at Communications Department and she told me that our CEO had asked her two years ago if he should start blogging. He had read somewhere about CEO bloggers and now he was wondering if he should do it too. He never did though, since hardly anybody in Sweden know what blogs where back then. Hearing this got my mind working in all different kind of directions. We have to get him blogging. Then we could do a PR thing presenting him as one of the first Swedish CEO bloggers. That would be so cool both business and marketing/brand wise. Travel 2.0 is just around the corner as well for the Swedish travel industry and with a blogging CEO we could take the lead. One has to start somewhere.

We both got pretty worked up with the idea, but getting it to work in reality will be a totally different thing. But if I run into our CEO (not very likely though) and I’m going to be a bit bold and tell him about our idea.

Breakfast al fresco

The warm weather is back so I had breakfast this morning outside on my balcony. It was quite early (around 8 am) so the city was still peaceful and quite. Just the birds singing and myself. And an occasional car every now and then. My breakfast wasn’t too shabby either. Vanilla yoghurt with All Bran and fresh strawberries, orange juice and two big very big cups of coffee. During the weekends I use my coffee mug from Texas and like everything else from Texas it’s huge! I also noticed lots of trees with yellow leaves while sitting there, which made me a bit sad. It’s August already! Where did the summer go?! Thinking about the autumn always makes me a feel bit melancholic and realizing that time marches on very quickly. But, we are not going down that road today…

150th post

That last post was my 150th post on this blog. Wow! When a dear friend of mine told me to start blogging back in March I thought I would just do it for a while. Just to have something to do during the days when I wasn’t out looking for a job. Well, I found a job in May, but I’m still doing it. It’s like an addiction! Now I can’t even imagine not doing it. So here’s to blogging and to dear friends!

Freeeezing!

One week ago I complained how hot it was. During the night a real heavy cold front moved in and lowered the temperature to 15 degrees. Freezing now when you’re used to warmer weather. The cold front also dumped a ton of rain making everything flood. No thunder though, which one should expect after the heat. So when walking home from the gym earlier tonight it almost felt like autumn. Sigh! I don’t even want to think about it. I want at least two more months of nice warm weather. But according to the meteorologist the warm weather is coming back right in time for the weekend. Puh! I could not have survived having autumn already.

Zzzzleeping

For the last two days I’ve been going to bed around 10 pm. I know it sounds kind of boring, but boy does it feel good or what. And waking up in the morning without dragging oneself out of bed. It’s amazing. Probably for the last six months or so I’ve been going to bed later and later, not realizing (or maybe don’t wanting to realize) that I need to sleep. So many things to do and so little time… I haven’t watch any TV this week though. When I’ve been done with my things like blogging instead of slouching in front of the TV set I’ve gone to bed. Read a little bit and then fallen asleep. Mmm! So nice. I had totally forgotten how lovely it could actually be to just sleep. So that’s where I’m heading now folks. To bed. Good night and sleep tight everybody!

Snowing in South Africa

While Europe just went through a sweltering heat wave and the northeastern parts of the US are having one right now today it snowed in Johannesburg for the first time in 25 years. Pretty cool! (If you like snow that is…)

The best marriage proposal

Dave loves Elizabeth. Look for yourselves.

Hmm, interesting

I knew the French loved blogs and blogging, but this really makes you go hmm. Newswatch India reports:

60% of French Internet users visited a blog in May, ahead of Britain with 40% and little more than a third in the United States, according to Comscore, an Internet ratings service.

Likewise, French bloggers spent more than an hour in June visiting France’s top-rated blog site, far ahead of the 12 minutes spent by Americans doing the same and the less than three minutes by Germans, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a sister company to the television ratings giant.

I’ve never met a French who didn’t like to discuss and debate things so now it looks like they have taken it one step further, into the digital world.

Words of a wise man

Today’s Washington Post has an excellent OpenEd by former US President Jimmy Carter. Being the man who produced the most significant contribution to Israel's security in modern time with the Camp David accords he knows the Middle East. In the Ed he speaks up against both the Israeli and US policies and conclude that there has never been any attempts for longstanding peace even though that’s what the majority in all communities want.

Leaders on both sides ignore strong majorities that crave peace, allowing extremist-led violence to preempt all opportunities for building a political consensus. Traumatized Israelis cling to the false hope that their lives will be made safer by incremental unilateral withdrawals from occupied areas, while Palestinians see their remnant territories reduced to little more than human dumping grounds surrounded by a provocative "security barrier" that embarrasses Israel's friends and that fails to bring safety or stability.

Indeed a wise man.