A quiet evening at home

Very unexpectedly I got out from an all day meeting an hour earlier today. Back at my desk I also found out that my plans for tonight had been changed, so suddenly I could leave work at a normal hour and just go home. On my way home I stopped by at the shop to get some food, and today being my name day I decided to celebrate with cottage cheese, baked potatoe and roast beef. For dessert I bought a small bag of yogurt cowered cashew nuts that I just loved. A big and bright bouquet of yellow-orange tulips toped off my purchases.

While having dinner in front of the TV watching The Simpson’s it hit me how quickly things can change. Just a couple of months ago an evening like this would have been like any other evening and now I cherish it like a rare treat. Seems like things are either off or on, nothing in-between. But still it’s been a nice evening and very much what I needed. It's those little unexpected things are the best things in life.

A feasting dictactor

Robert Mugabe turned 83 on Saturday. He celebrated in style with the ruling elite while ordinary Zimbabweans faced shops with empty shelves.

Mugabe is now the oldest head of state in the world and has ruled Zimbabwe for 27 years. The starvation of his people and his vice-president plotting against him didn’t seem to bother him much as he dug in to a thickly frosted birthday cake.

A stuffed crocodile was presented by cabinet ministers who said it represented the President's 'maturity and wisdom'. Critics quipped that it more aptly sums up Mugabe's cold-blooded, voracious nature.
…
Even people who thought they had become inured to the country's seven-year economic slide are increasingly frightened. Inflation has hit 1,600 per cent and is predicted to soar to 4,000 per cent later this year. Unemployment is at 80 per cent and severe shortages of fuel, staple foods and medicines have caused thousands of deaths.

Somehow this make me think of Emperor Nero who was said to play fiddle while Rome was burning.

Dying normally

More or less everyday in the news now we hear about suicide bombs killing X numbers of people in Iraq. No matter what one think about the war, in my opinion it’s the people, the civilians, living there who are the heroes. Hardly anyone of us can imagine how it would be living in a place where dying normally has become a fantasy.

When most of us hesitate before calling a friend it's not because we think they might be dead.

"Every time I want to call someone I think a million times before I decide to make the call," he explained. "Every time I call someone and the recording tells me that the line has been switched off or is out of the coverage area I immediately think that they might have been killed or kidnapped and I hope from the bottom of my heart that I'm wrong."

When most people worry about their children, they don't worry that their children might grow up without them.

"I'm trying not to think of the moment when my wife will try to phone me and the recording will tell her that my phone has either been switched off or is out of the coverage area and it will be because I've been killed. I'm trying not to think of what she might tell my 2-year-old son or the daughter we're expecting about the father they never got a chance to know."

Last week my colleague heard that a friend had lost eight brothers in the bombing in the Sharja market in Baghdad. When most of us mourn friends or relatives who have died, the list doesn't normally stretch into the dozens.

A very different life, but a life.

Math anxiety

All through school I struggled with math. The more complex calculations the more I struggled. I would have failed math my last term at uni if I hadn’t promised my professor that I would never apply to job where math and difficult calculations were need. A promise that I kept over the years and even now 15 years later I cringe when I think about math. Now researchers say that math actually saps working memory.

Math anxiety -- feelings of dread and fear and avoiding math -- can sap the brain's limited amount of working capacity, a resource needed to compute difficult math problems, said Mark Ashcraft, a psychologist at the University of Nevada Las Vegas who studies the problem.

"It turns out that math anxiety occupies a person's working memory," said Ashcraft, who spoke on a panel at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Ashcraft said while easy math tasks such as addition require only a small fraction of a person's working memory, harder computations require much more. Worrying about math takes up a large chunk of a person's working memory stores as well.

Hm, so really then I could have been better at math if I hadn’t been afraid of math. Interesting thought… I wonder what my old math professor would say?

Cancer free designer babies

Discussing designer babies are always very tricky. Endless are the ifs and buts, and every decision has a story of its own. As much as I’ve seen and know what breast cancer can do to women, my feelings are very mixed when it actually comes to creating cancer free children.

Four women with strong family histories of breast cancer are seeking to create embryos without some of the mutations known to cause the disease.
…
The women, who do not suffer from fertility problems, will undergo IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) to create test-tube babies free from a gene that would give them up to an 80% likelihood of developing breast cancer later in life.
…
Screening embryos for genes that predispose to cancer is more controversial, because there is a chance that the women will not develop the disease. If they do, it would not affect them until their thirties or forties.

In a perfect world there would be no cancer. Period. No suffering. No death. Maybe it then comes natural for a survivor of this awful disease to wish for cancer free babies. No mother wants her child to suffer and if you were given a choice it would more or less be idiotic not to take it.

Still though, in my mind, backbone, faith or whatever it is, something bothers me. This is alerting nature and messing with what is decided at conception. So really should we argue with that? I honestly don’t know.

Speeding

For the last two weeks or so it feels like I've been speeding. At work I run from one meeting to another and I’m constantly trying to catch up on emails and phone calls. In between all of that I also have to try to squeeze in some real work, which usually means evenings and/or weekends. At home the list of things that need to be done is long and I just keep running.

This weekend was the first weekend since Xmas that I didn’t have anything planned. I’ve been looking forward to it for days, but I just couldn’t settle down with a book or magazine. My mind was still racing with things I need to do.

Cooking a very nice and yummy pasta dish with salmon distracted my thoughts for a while, but I feel very much how both my body and souls is on super speed and that sort of worries me. I think I need to do something fun and totally carefree to break this downward spiral.

What it’s all about

This clip have been around for while, but I find it quite explanatory of what Web 2.0 really is all about. Sharing and interaction.

An important letter

Norman Geras has posted an open letter by a group of Iranians that challenge head-on the outrageous Tehran Conference on Holocaust Denial that took place in December 2006. Very good. The letter really shows that not all Iranians believe in what the rest of the world already know is falsehood. Go and read now.

Via Samizdata

Rudest cities in the UK

According to the Somerfield Group Liverpool and Birmingham are the rudest cities in the UK. The researchers put city dwellers to the test on traditional acts of politeness including willingness to give up their seat on a bus for a pregnant woman or elderly person, punctuality and holding open doors for others.

• Glasgow and Sheffield topped the politeness poll


• About 99% of Glaswegians said they always offered their bus seat to a pregnant woman


• Sheffield residents are the most likely to be punctual


• Londoners are among the least punctual


• The Scots were found to be the most chivalrous

No semla today

Today is Fat Tuesday and here in Sweden every body has a cream bun or semla as it’s called in Swedish. Everybody at work was so waiting for a semla in the afternoon, but we didn’t get any. The assistant who usually orders had totally forgotten about it, and finding a bakery this morning that could deliver 40 no pre-ordered semals, was a bit too hard even for her. So no semla today. Sigh!

Of course I could have bought one myself, but walking home after the gym I felt way too healthy to even think about cream buns. But not now! I can almost feel the taste of cardamom, whipped cream, almond paste and a soft wheat bun. Mmm!

Father of TV remote dies

The man who turned us all in to couch potatoes, the inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler died last Thursday.

But he downplayed his role when asked if he felt his invention helped raise a new generation of couch potatoes.

"People ask me all the time — 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he said. "It seems reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television."

So hit the mute button for a moment of silence. Without that little gadget TV wouldn’t truly be a sedentary pastime.

Second Life

Jeff Jarvis on the hype of Second Life:

Spiegel’s cover this week is about Second Life: “The Digital Masked Ball” and the "millions" who meet there. Millions? No, not even a million, worldwide. So consider how many of those are in Germany and this is a cover that covers a damned small trend. Hype is a virus.

I’m pretty curious though. Especially since Sweden the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world. Something must attract all those people, just like chartrooms and BBS did 10 years ago. Hm, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at it myself.

Babies

Today another one of my friends told me she’s pregnant. That makes her my third friend who is gong to have a baby before the summer is over. We are all born in July and August 1972 and now three of us are going to have a baby in April, June and August. A bit strange I might say, but very exciting of course. My friend joked around saying that I need to get pregnant soon so we will all have children born in the same year. I didn’t think much about it until I got to the gym and hit the treadmill. This really makes me the only one left without babies. Of course I’ve thought about it from time to time, but I’ve always been able to come up with some older friends that don’t have babies, but not anymore. I don’t know if I should feel sad or just establish the fact that yes, I don’t have any children, so what? The real question is do I really want children? Since I just realised that some men might actually find me interesting and attractive enough to get to know me and spend time with me I have never really pictured myself with children. That’s something for other people. Not me.

The sensible part in me knows that the biological clock ticking. I used to say that if I didn’t have any children by 35 I wouldn’t have any. Now I actually say if I don’t have any children by 40… But the question still remains; do I want to have children? The more I think about it the more confused I get. I just don’t know.

Britain worst place for children

A report from UNICEF last week on the welfare of children in the industrialised world put Britain at the bottom end.

Britain lagged behind on key measures of poverty and deprivation, happiness, relationships, and risky or bad behavior, the study showed.

It scored better for health and safety of children but languished in the bottom third for all other measures, giving it the lowest overall placing, just below the United States.

To me it’s an alarming report showing that despite high overall levels of national wealth the countries still have poor levels of public support for families. I usually don’t care much for public support by the government but when it comes to wellbeing of children I can’t argue against it. Every child should have a safe, happy and healthy upbringing no matter where they live. And that especially in the industrialised countries where we do have the money. The saying “Children are our future” might be a tad worn out, but it’s true. The children are our future. We can’t afford to treat them bad in either ways.

Well done!

Robbing a chip shop seemed to be a pretty easy task, but then the thug hadn’t met a couple of old ages pensioners who fought back. With peas and water.

The masked raider struck the 65-year-old male shop owner on the head and shoulder before his 61-year-old partner came into the room with a bowl of peas.

She threw the peas at Naylor causing him to slip over, Bolton Crown Court was told.

Naylor got back to his feet and tried to open the cash till but was stopped in his tracks as the couple picked up a pan of water and launched it at him.

The raider ran out of the shop empty-handed and was later found to have suffered burns to his right arm, chest and neck, which needed hospital treatment.

Last week the criminal was sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to assault with intent to commit robbery.

Via Jackie Danicki

Someone totally lost it

This clip got me laughing so hard. Poor fella! It’s not easy being watched, photographed and videotaped by hundreds of tourists every day.

February blahs

It has been a long week and right know I really don’t look forward to a new one tomorrow. I wouldn’t mind staying inside for week or so just reading and drinking tea or hot chocolate. Even though we haven’t had much of winter this year (thank God) I’m still very tired of grey and dull days with damp and ice cold winds coming from the sea. The days are lot longer than just a month ago, but what I miss and want now is sunshine, green lawns, bright flowers and birds singing. I want to be able to wear a bright spring coat and shoes that don’t have to stand both wet and cold weather. I want spring!!! Unfortunately it will be at least another month and half before that happens here. Ugh!

Women know your limits

The only guy in my team sent this to the other girls and me today. No every man could do something like that, but he knows us pretty well by know. We just found the video hilarious, even though we’ve all (very sadly) been there when a woman should know her limits…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lovely hearts by mojeecat at flickr

Loopy

I’m back from a much dreaded dentist appointment having fixed two small cavities. Being more or less terrified every time going there (but to my credit I do go) I get quite a heavy doses of local anaesthesia when it’s time to do something that might hurt. I don’t know if it’s a sign of an allergic reaction or simply getting too much but I end up getting light-headed and dizzy every single time. It feels like I’m drunk and all I want to do it to lie down, which I have for the last hour or so. So I guess I just have to continue to watch some mindless TV. Boohoo… It's not like I'm feeling sorry for myself tonight... Not at all...

Weird dreams

The last couple of nights I’ve been having very weird dreams. It’s not really nightmares, but when I wake up I’m either angry or frustrated or both. My heart is racing and if I could I would probably hit someone or something.

Most dreams are about me fighting some invisible power. I don’t know if I’m stupid or stubborn but I just keep going and going. I usually wake up when I feel like I can’t do it anymore and feel very frustrated because nothing worked. Another reoccurring dream is I being treated very unfair and it doesn’t matter what I do or say people still try to walk all over me. Usually some person that I think very highly of is watching on without doing anything, which makes me very angry.

So either I’m going nuts or I’m just cooping with some stress and pressure that I’m not really aware of yet. Probably the last since dreams are said to be the mirror of our soul.

Inflation at 1281%

The total collapse of the Zimbabwe economy is getting closer. With the inflation now at 1281% President Robert Mugabe's regime is breaking down. The army and police are disintegrating, waves of strikes; power blackouts and breakdown of every essential service are part of the daily life.

Mr Mugabe finds himself locked in a vicious circle. It takes only a few weeks for the value of every pay rise given to civil servants to be wiped out. But the bankrupt regime can only cover the cost of further wage rises by printing money – which fuels inflation still further and creates pressure for yet more pay increases.

It’s very sad to see what used to be one of Africa’s most prosperous countries being mishandle by one person who believes it all comes down to the legacy of white minority rule.

Love is… new cloths

With Valentine’s Day coming up on Wednesday it seemed appropriate to comment on the fact that women rather go for new cloths than sex.

Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 U.S. cities.

Of course we would. Cloths never walk out on you. They don’t let you down and are always there in rain or shine. But on the other side cloths don’t bring you flowers or chocolate. Cloths don’t make you go nuts yearning or kiss you passionately. So the best way is probably to have it both.

Alsatian wines

The wine tasting on Wednesday was as always very interesting. Since neither of my friends nor I had had any substantial to eat before, the tasting also become a quite giggly one in the end. But I did change my mind about wines from Alsace though. They are not only dry and tart. Some are actually real good.

Gustave Lorentz Riesling Réserve
Pale yellow colour with a scent of apples and citrus. Quite a fresh scent, but still inviting and nice. Both the apple and citrus also comes back in the taste, which is also pretty dry. For me this wine would be perfect to shrimps or any other seafood.

Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Réserve 2005
Golden yellow colour with strong scent of flowers and perfume. The taste is a lot better then expected but still very sweet and artificial. I’ve tried quite a few Gewurztraminers and this one is actually the best one so far. A small glass with some cheese might be real nice.

Pierre Sparr Pinot Blanc Réserve
Light yellow colour with some scents of apples and pears. Quite a dry taste with hints of grapefruit, which makes it a bit tart but still very enjoyable. Would probably go very well with a fish dish in some sort of mild sauce.

Hubert Beck Tokay Pinot Gris Réserve du Chevalier
Yellow colour going a bit to beige. Scents of almonds, spices and some hints of soil. Flowery taste but still dry with an endnote of ripe apples and pears. My favourite in the testing and I think it would be perfect for a nice summer evening watching the sunset.

Posh blog

Victoria Beckham has joined the group of celebrities who keep a blog. At Dvbstyle.com one can read about her and hubby David’s upcoming move to LA.

Interesting?! Nah, I don’t think so, but people’s taste do vary…

Via Bloggers Blog

Thou shall not

Blog under the influence. I’m just back from the first wine tasting of the year and even though it wasn’t much, the wine went all to my head… The theme for tonight was white wines from Alsace. I have always considered wines from Alsace quite tart and way too dry, but tonight I found a new favourite - Tokay Pinot Gris. I will write more about the different wines and its colours and tastes when, hm let's say, I'm not so very much under the influence…

Nap time

Not only do the French people work 35 hrs/week and have 5-6 weeks of holidays every year, now the French Minister of Health want to look into taking a nap at work.

Fifty-six percent of French complain that a poor night's sleep has affected their job performance, according to the ministry.

“Why not a nap at work? It can't be a taboo subject," Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said Monday. He called for further studies and said he would promote on-the-job naps if they prove useful.

Hm, how about not having supper at 10 pm, drinking espresso at midnight and going to bed at 1 o’clock in the morning?! Visiting the Paris office quite office in my former job, I never understood how my colleagues could work until 7-8 in the evening, then go to a bar for drinks and then have dinner at 10 pm. My British colleague and I always stood out from the crowds since we did not want have a espresso at midnight finishing off a three course meal. We had problem enough with just going to bed at 1-2 o'clock in the morning and be bright and alert at the office the next day. Must be that Latin blood or something...

Trade unions entrepreneurs 1-0

I was very sad today to hear that Sofia Applegren has decided to sell her salad bar Wild 'n' Fresh after being blocked by the trade unions for the last two months. My colleagues and I will lose a great place to have lunch at, but mostly this shows how much power the trade unions still have in Sweden.

Either you sign the collective agreement or you close. That’s what I call a threat and threats should not be part of the labour market (or anywhere else.) But the Swedish labour laws say it is OK and so do our Minster of Labour, who says it part of the “Swedish tradition”. He’s wrong. Collective agreements, blockades and threats will never support entrepreneurs and the very much need for new job opportunities.

Modern maladies

With every new media new maldies come along. A New Scienteist article looks at new activities and habits of people in the Internet age like egosurfing, Google-stalking and being a Wikipediholic. I know for sure that I’m a guilty of egosurfing and Google-stalking from time to time. But aren’t we all?!?!

Blog streaking - Revealing secrets or personal information online, which for everybody's sake would be best kept private.
Crackberry - The curse of the modern executive, not being able to stop checking your BlackBerry even at you grandmother's funeral.
Cyberchondria - A headache and a particular rash at the same time? Extensive online research tells you it must be cancer.
Egosurfing - When "just checking" gets out of control
Infornography - You're beyond being a healthy "infovore": acquiring and sharing information has become an addiction for you.
You Tube narcissism - Not even your closest family want to see hours of your holiday videos.
Google-stalking - Snooping online on old friends, colleagues or first dates.
MySpace impersonation - Many of us pretend to be someone we're not when we are online, but some will pretend to be a well-known figure.
Powerpointlessness - One too many flashy slides.
Photolurking - Flicking through a photo album of someone you've never met.
Wikipediholism - Excessive devotion to a certain online collaborative encyclopedia.

Podcasts

Today I finally got around listening to two podcasts (or recoded conversation as Brian Micklethwait calls them himself). One was about the thinking behind Samizdata, the very clever and freethinking blog that has me broaden my views and reflect upon things I never really thought I would ponder about. The other conversation was about intellectual property which got me so caught up I almost missed my stop on the tram this morning. I just love when I learn new things. Very interesting podcasts both of them.

Gherkin sold

Today the iconic office building the Gherkin was sold for £600m making it the highest price paid for an office building in the UK. The buildings quickly became a part of the London skyline when it was built in the early 2000’s. With its spectacular shape and form the building has won the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize for the best new building by a RIBA architect in 2004. The building also won the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award for the best skyscraper in the world completed that year.

The Gherkin has also been voted the most admired new building in the world, in a survey of the world's largest firms of architects. Conversely has also been nominated as one of the five ugliest buildings in London.

So either one loves the Gherkin or hates it. Nobody is left untouched by its looks. Personally I think it’s superb piece of modern architecture. Last week I got a chance to see the building close up and it was a splendid view.

Shirt shopping

I told myself I wasn’t going shopping in London last week and I more or less kept my promise. Probably thanks to working all day on Friday before going out celebrating Australia Day, and on Saturday walking in areas where the shops aren’t open on the weekend. But with the final clearance sale going on at T.M. Lewin I just had to stop by their shop on the Strand. The result three shirts (white, aqua and fuchsia) and a handbag. I’ve been using both the fuchsia one and the aqua one to work and I have gotten so many compliments. Especially on the cufflinks. They are so cool. So it my little shopping spree was really worth it.

Web celebs

Want to make it big? The Internet is the place to do it nowadays. The list of world famous celebrities used to be filled with actors, athletes and musicians, but with Internet anybody can be a star and with some buzz also famous.

Forbes.com has listed the 25 biggest, brightest and most influential people on the Internet. From bloggers to podcasters to YouTube stars. They are the people who are creating the digital world from the bottom up.

1. Jessica Lee Rose
2. Perez Hilton
3. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga
4. Matt Drudge
5. Seth Godin
6. Jeff Jarvis
7. Glenn Reynolds
8. Amanda Congdon
9. Robert Scoble
10. Michael Arrington
11. Hosea Frank
12. Jimmy Wales
13. Harry Knowles
14. Frank Warren
15. Cory Doctorow
16. Xeni Jardin
17. Leo Laporte
18. Merlin Mann
19. John H. Hinderaker
20. Charles Johnson
21. Kevin Sites
22. Mark Lisanti
23. Jason Calacanis
24. Om Malik
25. Violet Blue

Happiness is

Going to sleep in a newly made bed with fresh, crisp and soft satin sheets. Getting woken by the sun peering through the blinds and hearing the birds sing outside.

It did happen

On Thursday I was appointed Global Project Manager for one of the largest projects ever taken on by the company. I’ve been hoping to be part of the project since we started the pre-study during the autumn, but I never really thought that I would become one of three global managers. Actually I was starting to despair since time went on and nothing happened. During last weekend in London I decided that if I wasn’t going to be part of the project it was time to start looking for another job. I will be the only junior manager at this (the highest) level in the project and I’ve been told that it is a recognition of all my hard work during the autumn. The appointment took time since usually don’t juniors get positions like this and it had to go all the way to the Executive Board.

So I’m very happy, excited and honoured, but also a bit scared. A lot more hard work and travels awaits me so naturally I also wonder if I will be able to manage. This is big for me. My wise and wonderful colleague from IT will be one of the other global mangers and already now I feel that he’s right there behind me for support and cheer if needed. Just like he always is. But most of all I’m proud. Proud of myself for whom I am and what I’ve become.

Quote of the day

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

~ Buddha ~