Thinking out loud….(part 1)
The post directly under this one was written by a friend, Howard, whom
I respect even though his thoughts on certain things are quite contrary
to mine. Nonetheless I felt that I wanted some input from someone who
I know to be religious and also who has enough knowledge to point
towards scripture, without falling into the pit-trap of denounciation
without anything to back it up. Thank you Howard, but heres my kick
towards religion. Don’t take it personally, I will only be voicing views
and opinions and they are not in any way aimed towards you but rather
towards the concept of religion.
Lets start.
Christianity is what most westerners are used to, and also in our society
the most common to use to denounciate homosexuality. Fine. Sweden is
mostly comprised of lutherans, since that is the common church of state
here so I am afraid thats the standpoint I will have to take, I do not personally
have enough on my feet regarding different aspects such as catholicism
to voice an opinion.
Now, heres a direct quote from Rev. Michael S. Piazza :
Nowhere does the Bible actually address the idea of persons being lesbian or gay. The statements are, without exception, directed to certain homosexual acts. Early writers had no understanding of homosexuality as a psychosexual orientation. That truth is a relatively recent discovery. The biblical authors were referring to homosexual acts performed by persons they assumed were heterosexuals.
Something commonly used to show God’s reluctance about homosexuality
is Genesis 19:1-29, the story of sodom and Gomorrah, In the story, two angels, in the form of men,
are sent to the home of Lot in Sodom. While they are there, the men of the city “both young and old,
surrounded the house – everyone without exception” and demanded that the visitors be brought out
“so that we might know them.” (Genesis 19: 4-5)
Lot begged the men to leave his guests alone and take his daughters instead.
The men of the city became angry and stormed the door. As a result, they
were all struck blind by the angels.
There are several problems with the traditional interpretation of this passage.
Whether or not the intent of the men of Sodom was sexual, the inhospitality and
injustice coming from the mob, and that generally characterized the community, were
“the sin of Sodom.” (Ezekial 16:49-50, Isaiah 13:19, Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40)Jesus himself refers to the inhospitality of Sodom. (Luke 10:10-13) If the men were indeed
homosexuals, then why would Lot offer them his daughters? What is threatened here is rape.
The significant point, then, is that all rape is considered horrible by God. The story deserves
another reading.
So, still, we have not seen the scripture where homosexuality is a sin punishable by
prosection, assault and so on. Interresting huh?
Now, heres another part of the same article:
Jesus did a great deal to change many social customs and ideas. He elevated the position of women, and, ultimately, they were his best and most faithful disciples. He did this by example and by commandments that were absolutely inclusive of the rights of all people. Yet, in the name of the Christ whose love encompassed all, the Church has been the most homophobic of all institutions. This should not be surprising when we realize that the Church is still the largest institution which is primarily racially segregated.
The final, and central, message of the New Testament is that ALL persons are loved by God so much that God’s Son was sent as a means of redemption from a disease by which we are all afflicted. The cure for this disease cannot be found in any set of actions. Neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality is redemptive. God’s love through Christ was given to all people.
Note. ALL PEOPLE. Isn’t homosexuals people too? Do they deserve the constant scorn of
the society and be projected the guilt that they “should be normal” ? I certainly hope not.
The parts in the bible that has been taken as the strongest suppor to abhor homosexuality
has been Paul’s statements.
Paul’s statement in Romans 1:18-32 has been taken as the strongest New Testament
rejection of homosexuality. He is concerned about the influence of the pagan culture
on the Roman Christians. After giving a detailed description of a world that “exchanged
the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the
Creator,” he continues, “Therefore, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their
women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also
abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lusts for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due
penalty of their perversion.”A complete reading of these passages, in their original context, clearly shows that what Paul was actually referring to was homosexual temple prostitution, which was performed by various cults (though far more cults used heterosexual prostitution). Again, Paul is not referring to same-sex love, and he clearly has no concept of persons for whom this lifestyle is “natural.”
I will end the quoting with this little quote:
If they are excluded from the life of the Christian community, who, then, will tell them of
God’s inclusive love and of Jesus’ reconciling death? Are they left to assume that God is so
narrow-minded as to exclude them for something over which they have no control and
for a choice they did not make? When will the Church finally be brave enough to say with
Paul, “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, gay or straight?
God has enough love for all!
Yes, that is it. God has enough love for all. At least that was what I was taught
the few times I set my foot inside a church. Should that all encompassing
love exclude some people who happens to fall in LOVE with someone of the
same gender? I think not. My own ideas here is that if you are trying to exclude
these people, you are going against what Jesus himself preached. And wouldn’t
that make you into someone who thinks he knows better then Christ? And
in doing so, aren’t you committing a sin greater then loving someone of the
same gender?
Note here that I am not discussing promiscuity, because neither I, the bible or
preachers support that. But what is accepted by christians seems to vary on
wich congregation you ask. Heres a wikipedia excerpt:
Views critical of homosexuality
Many Christians believe that marriage is defined by the union of a man and a woman, and that any sexual act outside of the marriage relationship is inherently sinful. In addition, some Christians interpret biblical verses on homosexuality to mean that the heterosexual family was created by God and that same-sex relationships contradict God’s design for marriage and violate His will. Christians who oppose homosexual behavior sometimes contend that same-gender sexual activity is unnatural. The Association of Politically Active Christians says that it subverts God’s creative intent for human sexuality.
Christian objections to homosexual behavior are often based upon interpretations of the Bible. Some Christians note that the book of Leviticus contains prohibitions against male-male sexuality. Some Biblical scholars interpret Genesis 19:5 as indicating that homosexual behavior led to the destruction of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.[17][21] Other Biblical passages that address the issue of homosexuality include Romans 1, I Corinthians 6:8-10, and Jude 1:7; the relevant portion of Romans 1 reads as follows:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men … For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:18a, 21-27)
Christian author and counselor Joe Dallas notes that the Biblical passages relating to homosexual behavior uniformly prohibit that behavior. Exodus International and others take the view that I Corinthians 6:9-11 offers Christian believers freedom from the sin of homosexual behavior.
Conservative Christians argue that there were denunciations of homosexuality in the writings of the early Christian era. In response to the claim that such passages have been mistranslated due to certain obscure words whose meanings are unclear, conservatives point out that many passages use commonplace words whose meanings are well-known, such as the passage from the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea which condemns “the union of women with women and men with men”, or St. Cyprian‘s denunciation of “men with frenzied lusts rushing upon men”. They are critical of the views that early Christians and Biblical figures had same-sex relationships. Conservatives claim that neither the Bible nor ancient Jewish law records such unions and that the term “son-in-law” at the heart of the Jonathan and David dispute could be used symbolically rather than literally.
In response to claims that even the medieval Church tolerated homosexuality, some cite documents such as the “Summa Theologica“, the cornerstone summary of doctrine in that era, which contains passages denouncing “copulation with an undue sex, male with male, or female with female” (ST: II:II: Q154: Art.11). It is argued that such passages use commonplace terms which are neither obscure nor in dispute.
In response to those who say that the Bible and early/medieval saints condemned homosexuality only due to a misconception that homosexual relationships could not be stable and committed, conservatives counter that this is not the form of sex which God had designed – meaning that the issue here is not “commitment”, but rather God’s purpose for sex: to be practiced as a sacred and good gift in a specific context, i.e., marriage between one man and one woman. According to that position, any deviations from that context are wrong, homosexual or not. Thus homosexuality is condemned along with bestiality, promiscuity, polygamy, extra-marital affairs, and sex outside of marriage. Some Christians not in the Reformation tradition point out that sources such as St. Hildegard’s visions quote God as condemning certain forms of sexual intercourse both in same-sex relationships and also when they are practiced by a husband and wife, to the same conclusion as stated above.
Conservative Christian scholars believe that the original texts must be translated by abiding by the standard definitions of ancient words as defined both by previous generations of scholars and by the people who lived close to the time periods in which the original languages were in active use, such as the early Church Fathers and ancient Christian writers (see examples of their interpretations above).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies … must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.” As an alternative to a school-sponsored Day of Silence supporting homosexuality, conservative Christians organized a Golden Rule Initiative, where they passed out cards saying “As a follower of Christ, I believe that all people are created in the image of God and therefore deserve love and respect.” Some Christians who oppose homosexual behavior have formed organizations that encourage and assist those Christians who seek to overcome same-sex attraction. Exodus International is one such organization. A major ally of Exodus International is Focus on the Family, which sponsors the Love Won Out ministry. One study has shown that 34.3% of participants in such groups self-reported significant change in their sexual attractions.
Views favorable to homosexuality
Liberal Christians believe that Biblical passages have been mistranslated or that these passages do not refer to LGBT orientation as currently understood
Liberal Christian scholars, like conservative Christian scholars, accept earlier versions of the Bible in Hebrew or Greek. However, within these early Bibles there are many terms that liberals have interpreted differently to previous generations of scholars. They are concerned with copying errors, forgery, and biases among the translators of later Bibles. They consider some verses such as those supporting slavery or the inferior treatment of women as not being valid today, and against the will of God present in the context of the Bible. They cite these issues when arguing for a change in theological views on sexual relationships to what they claim is an earlier view. They differentiate among various sexual practices, treating rape, prostitution, or temple sex rituals as immoral and those within committed relationships as positive regardless of sexual orientation. They view certain verses, which they believe refer only to homosexual rape, as not relevant to consensual homosexual relationships.
Some believe that a number of early Christians entered into homosexual relationships, citing the views of John Boswell, or even claim that Biblical figures were homosexual couples, Biblical injunctions against sexual relationships between members of the same sex notwithstanding. Often cited are Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi, Daniel and the court official Ashpenaz, and, most famously, David and King Saul‘s son Jonathan.[31]Writings of later periods deploring homosexuality are discounted by many liberal Christians. They claim that such opinions were formed upon flawed Biblical translations caused by human error or the personal bias of translators.
Modern gay Christian leader Justin R. Cannon promotes what he calls “Inclusive Orthodoxy” (not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox Church). He explains on his ministry website: “Inclusive Orthodoxy is the belief that the Church can and must be inclusive of LGBT individuals without sacrificing the Gospel and the Apostolic teachings of the Christian faith.” Cannon’s ministry takes a unique approach quite distinct from modern liberal Christians, yet which still supports homosexual relations. His ministry affirms the divine inspiration of the Bible, the authority of Tradition, and claims “…that there is a place within the full life and ministry of the Christian Church for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians, both those who are called to lifelong celibacy and those who are partnered.”
Interresting reading? Well, I will do a little summary later on , and really, I apologize
for the LOOOOOONG post, but it is a heavy subject. This is by no means the last I
write on this topic, in fact, i feel this is incomplete, but you will have to wait a while
longer.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Warning: Because of my core beliefs I’ll be using ancient scriptures as a basis for my text here today. If you are offended by such references then please take this as fair warning and stop reading now. I feel compelled to use these scriptures as a basis for discussion out of a sense of obligation to the truth, which I hold to be a concrete and immutable dynamic, not subject to change or corruption.
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8: 1-11
Recently a friend of mine asked me why I thought people on opposite sides of the homosexuality issue treat each other which such vehement contempt. Why was the issue so heated? Why do the feelings run so strongly? I believe that I can speak to that question with a good degree of accuracy.
A human being comprises three parts that make a whole – 1) Spirit 2)Soul 3)Body. The three parts are inexorably intertwined for as long as the person shall have life on this planet. By design a human being has a core identity which is commonly referred to as “the heart”. In the heart a person holds that which is most precious to them. At that deep level of consciousness resides also the persons self concept, or self image. One of the roots of self image is the concept of sexuality. How a person defines himself at the level of sexuality is one of the foundational building blocks of that person’s consciousness, and will have strong influence on that persons perceptions, beliefs and behaviors. A person who is secure in his/her sexual self identity will have a lot of stability and peace in this area of their life; conversely a person who is damaged or insecure in this foundational dynamic of self image will be unstable and troubled in regard to sexual matters.
Because sexuality is such a deep part of our idently the emotions that are attached to it run strong. Even the most open minded people can have trouble keeping a lid on their feeling when it comes to this arena of discussion. I myself from a theological standpoint consider homosexuality to be a practice that is counterproductive to an indivual’s well being, as well as counterproductive to a healty society. However, I have learned that the highest principles of morality require that mercy be shown to all. In the above passage of scripture we see an excellent example of 1)Morally depraived people (who thought that they were the moral standard of their society) acting from an attitude of self-righteousness, and 2) a morally perfect being showing kindness and mercy to someone who was caught dead to rights breaking the law of the land.
Who is right?
Should we be killing each other because we are uncomfortable with other people’s social behavior? Or should we follow the example of love and mercy, and let the power of God’s love work in the situation? This is of course a personal choice.
I’ll close with an illustration that I heard some years ago that helps me to keep moving in what I consider to be the right direction in life. The analogy focuses on the dual nature of good/evil and brings to light our role in how we are to be responsible for our actions and choices in this life: All people have two natures – 1) A higher spiritually orientated nature that reflects the nature of the one who gives us the breath of life, and 2) a lower base nature that relfects the earth from which our mortal bodies have been formed. We are free to pursue either or both natures, however these natures are diametrically opposed to each other. The one we feed the most will be the stronger of the two and will have dominant influence over our attitudes, perceptions, and behaivors. Be careful to make good choices in this. The base nature tends to give itself over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. The higher nature tends to bring out the noble qualities in a person and results in selfless acts of love and the pursuit of peacefull living.
Scratch and Win
or rather… DONT SCRATCH!
Do you know how hard it is to NOT scratch a new tattoo?
its DAMN hard.. but heres how it came out:
…by any stretch of imagination
What is wrong with people today? Do we have to be derogative and obusive
just because there is something that we do not understand, or something
that we just dont like? I dont like my neighbours, that doesnt mean that
I try to insult them as harsh as possible.
The reason I am writing this is that im actually quite fed up with certain
peoples crusade FOR and AGAINST homosexuality. You like it? Well,
Good for you, that means that you are accepting a lot more then the
general population and has understood that it isnt the midsection in
a person that you fall in love with.
If you shun homosexuality and think its an abomination well, what
ever your motives may be, let me tell you. You, my dear reader,
are most likely a person either hidebound by religion, or, locked
in ways of thinking that doesnt accept the actions of your fellow
humans.
What caused this outburst then? Well, you know that I read
“Bruno the bandit” A webcomic that contains modern day technology
mixed in with medieval society, add a huge pinch of humor, a dollop
of sarcasm and a healthy spoonful of irony and you start to get something
resembling the comic.
I have been an avid reader for a few years now and the writer. Ian McDonald
managed to surprise and entertain me and many more people with his strips.
His latest arc, is called Tito The Thief. Where Bruno’s cousin comes paying
a call. It appears that Tito, is not the standard heterosexual bloke, but, I wont
spoil too much for you. What Ian does is poke a lot of fun at the stereotypes
and exaggerate these to extreme. I find it hilarious, and a newsflash, my
brother who, by some, would be labeled “a flaming homosexual” and
on top of that, -OPENLY- HIV positive, and frankly, he didn’t take offense
to the strip. He simply said “Well, playing with stereotypes like that actually
makes it amusing, since I am pretty sure i he doesnt think gay people are
like that.”
So why did Ian get a hatemail?
My guess its either A: an extreme homophobe with own homosexual tendencies
that has to try to find faults in others instead of accepting themselves. Or B:
A homosexual who cant stand that someone makes fun, even if with extreme
sarcasm and irony, of the gay culture.
So, wich one are ya? Come out come out wherever you are.
Every once in a while…
you surf around looking for pretty much nothing at all and find something
that is wonderful. I love music and I admire good artists a lot, some more then
others of course, but there are a few thats dear to me even though they dont
even know that I exist. I want to show you one of those clips that goes over
and over here on my screen. Mainly because the song is a personal favourite.
White Lion – When the children cry.
Wonderful song really, both in regards to the arrangement and the lyrics,
but by pete, I think this kid almost beats the original.
Good night. Sleep Tight
The power of blogs or…..lack thereof
How much power does the average blogger have? What can I as
a blogger do about situations in the world and what political goals
can I achieve simply by writing? Very good questions really and it
really isn’t the blogger that changes things. It is his readers.
I dont aspire to be a great thinker, however I am a FREE thinker,
in the effect that I ventilate what I feel and think and if people read
it and agrees, well, that really only generates a sense of satisfaction
in me, not a powertrip. I am not going to give you a “Hey, look at me
im one of the most read blogs on the net” because A: that would be
pure lying, and B: That would be neither here nor there because
I dont create opinions that matters that much. What I write, I
write as much for my own amusement as that of my readers.
I could go on for hours about bloggers that gets invited to this
and that show, as if simply by reflecting opinions and gossip makes
them into great political leaders. I honestly dont think so. I would
rather read about personal issues then Perez Hiltons latest drivel
or blondinbellas favourite makeup. Am I alone in this opinion or
is it really something that people want?
Blog systems
So, you want to blog huh? What do you need to know? Well, there are all those
standard responses about your content, butnot that many go into detail about
the different systems and hosts that you have available. Do a search for “free blog”
and you get up a veritable ocean of services that offers you access to “your very
own weblog/blog” But is it really “your own”. I have to say no to that one.
You can change the look and feel to an extent, but really, you cant upload new
templates to most, and neither can you do much regarding images and music.
So. What do I prefer? Well, I have tried blogger and blogspot, and well, they are good
no doubt about it, but I want to be able to customize it more, not just poking about
with standard templates. I want to be able to go to sites that offers templates and
see what would be just right for me and then upload it to my very own site.
How does one go about doing such a thing? Well, there are a few ways really.
You can A: get your own webhotel and upload to that one.
B: Set up your very own webhost and host it there.
C: ask someone who has a webserver and a little knowhow to set up a blog
for you.
I have tried a few and the one that suits _my_ needs best, is WordPress.
Wordpress is a php based blogging system that never seems to amaze me.
One day you can find some very nice themes, the next you see a plug in
that simply rocks.
WordPress.org hosts the sourcecode if you want to download that, and
wordpress.com is actually a host for wordpress blogs. Albeit not as
“free” as the source code, you still have a lot of options to play about with.
Also, If you are a kind person that just wants to write and experiment
well, I could host one for you. Even if you dont have the tech knowhow
I could help you set one up and even create a custom theme for your
blog so its a “one of a kind” as i did with Zombified.
Oh well .. time to get back into the real world.
Sticky corporate fingers
Apparently, something is rotten in the state of sweden. 
seeing as this man, Thomas Norström, who was the
judge in the TPB case has pretty close connections to
the media industry.
Close enough to be called challenge. Close enough
to be challenged. According to Aftonbladet, one of the
larger swedish newspapers he is a member of SFU,
Svenska Föreningen för upphovsrätt wich translates to
Swedish association for copyright. Other prominent
members there are Henrik Ponte’n, the laywer for
swedish anti piracy bureau and Monique Wadsted
the laywer for thecopyrightowners in the case.
Furthermore, Tomas is a member of SFIR wich is
Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättskydd, translated to
Swedish Association for industrial justiceprotection
(i know this isnt entirely correct, sorry in advance) wich works
for strenghtened copyright rules.
Rikard Falkvinge, The president of the pirate party states: ” This is corruption
on an intolerable level” in a press release.
Now, The lawyer for Peter Sunde, Peter Althin
is demandingthe trial be either discarded or
redone due to these facts.
Of course, Tomas Nordström states that he
did not think there was a challenge in his
positions in these places.
So, did we, once again, we find the sticky
fingerprints of greedy companies in the
justice system?
What do you think?
WordPress themes
I have got a very flattering question recently. “Where did you find that theme that you are using?”
Well, frankly I didn’t. I created it. And that question alone is really important to me as I try to
create things that pleases my eye aswell as readers eyes, and to have someone think that a
professional made my theme, well, it is really heartwarming. So, I figured id make a few of my
own themes available to the public. Here are the latest four I made for myself. If you like them
and use them, leave a comment so I can read your blog.
First up, BlueMoon and Blueeyes:
And here comes Galaxy and Troll:
Spam Sandwich
Ok, I host my own blog, and a few others to be honest just because I want to
and to tell the truth, my users do not demand much from me. It’s really a good
way of getting connections, setting their blog up and trick it out some with
a custom theme, but you know what. There is a dark cloud behind blogging
that I want to talk about. The spammers. You know who they are, they are
the equivalent of the shifty guy in the ally that goes “psst, hey buddy, you looking
for some stuff?”
Today alone, heres what I am offered:
Rimonabant, Ativan, Ciprofloxacin, Atorvastatin, Adipex, Finasteride, Viagra and Anavar.
Now, the ONLY substance there that I recognize is Viagra, and frankly, Im not interrested.
If I get some cancer form that hinders me to perform or, in 25-30 years or more, then come
back, but right now, just leave me alone please. The spammers are kind of like locusts really.
They find a URL, add it to a list so that all their other little friends can come and shower us
with things that we dont want or need, just to make us go to this or that URL.
Now, IF I needed Viagra, I would go see a doctor. Now that I dont, well, lets face it, I
have a hard time to picture viagra as a recreational drug or whatever they call cannabis
on the other side of the atlantic.
In a way, the spammers also amuse me. I have never ever gone to one of the URLs that they
have left behind, either as link hidden in their name, or even one thats waaay out in the
open. I see no point in them because if I click that link, I justify their way if leaving
manure in my comment box. And I have of course, never ever approved their comments
to be visible on the blog. So why do they persist? Well, the explanation to that is pretty
much the same as the compulsive gambling. If I gamble enough, I might get the money
back. The problem with the spammers are, They do. Gullible people click their links
and voila, the circle starts again. Someone, we have to get rid of this pest, dont you think.
Oh my.. now im also offered breast implants in the mail … …. tempting but.. no thank you.
-edit-
Maybe I shouldnt have written this post, because now, the spammers are really
taking it up another notch. Oh well .. installing captcha might help 😛
Social and economical politics.
Sounds like a heavy, brooding subject, does it not? Well, it’s really not that hard thing
in this case. I just want make you think for yourself as usual. Today, the internet is
a fairy free thing and we can surf pretty much where we want, and it doesnt cost
us more then the subscription. That might change and according to some people, that
is a good thing. You should have to pay for everything. Funny, I thought I already did
but thats beside the point. Now, in sweden we have the FRA scanning all datatraffic going
abroad, meaning MOST of all the internet traffic. So, no privacy there. Then, we have
the media companies sniffing around the internet trying to pick up potential pirates
regardless of where im surfing, since, to get to the point where they can indentify me
they have to have read my datatraffic. Interresting? Where will this end?
Anyhow, back on track some. Sweden has a political freedom and a freedom of speech
that has been moderated and are more and more getting torn asunder from companies
greed, and the need to “keep a proper face” seems to override the fact that it is every
mans right to be politically active in WHATEVER POLITICAL PARTY HE FANCIES. That goes
for both LEFT AND RIGHT wings. Im not saying either side deserves a bigger break, im stating
that they should BOTH have rights. I may not enjoy the policies, but according to swedish
laws, they have a right to voice them, at least to an extent.
Now, people are starting to be afraid to mention their political branch. Why? Well, its
pure and simple economy and social status. There was a good example a few months
back of what companies can do. Some it guy in Örebro got FIRED for having discussions
about his sympaties with the pirate party. Now, the company stated “his views was not good for
the company’s image. Now, hows that for job security. So what will happen? With this
open neglect for the personal integrity that has walked all over us? Well, if you can stand
to read some Swedish, here’s a treat. Lisa Magnusson at Aftonbladet has picked together
a little story of what might happen when “the taliban law of telecom” gets passed. Trust me
it wont make a lick of difference what we, the actual people want, since the politicians
are either A: watching their own asses, or B: taking “gift” money from the record industry.
Here is the link to the story in any case :
Lisa Magnusson om EU:s telekompaket och framtidens internet
Now, really.. Can someone stop the hysteria train, because I for one dont want to voice my political
views, because at the rate things are going now, In a few years I will most likely be arrested by the RIAAPTF
(Recording industries association of america’s Police Task Force) and hauled to the deepest dungeon
until I agree to write their propaganda instead of protesting against laws in one of the few ways I can.
Too all you other critics of the Telecom law.. We can all sing kubayah together in our cell in 10-20 years.
Ok, this is going to be a swedish post about tech support
Igår nångång fick jag ett svar på en kommentar jag lämnat på en blogg.
Posten i sig handlade om ett nätverksproblem och att hon fick en begränsad
anslutning via sitt trådlösa nätverk. Jag föreslog att hon skulle kolla upp WEP nyckel
alternativt WPA nyckel. Då kom frågan vart man gör det. Jo, det beror lite granna på
vilket operativsystem man har, men i Windows XP så kan man dubbelklicka på
ikonen för det trådlösa nätverket: 
Ibland kan det vara en annan ikon där, oftast om man använder drivrutiner som ersätter
delar av windows XPs egna system (tack för påpekandet natalie).
Finns det inget alls kan det vara så här: På vissa laptops finns det en knapp som
stänger av eller startar trådlöst nätverk. lokalisera den och tryck en gång.
då bör man se denna:
Om du trycker på knappen “Se trådlösa nätverk” så borde
en ny ruta komma upp som ser ut så här:
Det vi ser här är att dels finns Nätverket “Partyhost” som är mitt, och det är skyddat, Vi ser att en av
mina grannar inte har skyddat sitt nätverk alls, och vi kan se att leverantören SatCom har en router
ståendes nånstans i huset. I alla fall, Jag markerar nätverket “partyhost” (mitt) som jag är kopplad
till, oavsett om jag har det klassiska “begränsad anslutning” och trycker på Koppla från knappen
längst nere i hörnet.
Då frågar den om jag vill koppla ifrån, och givetvis vill jag det. Nätverket kommer
fortfarande att vara markerat, och knappen “Koppla från” har blivit till en “Anslut”
Så, jag trycker på Anslut, och får fram denna:
Här fyller man i nätverksnyckeln som man har på första raden, när man
gjort det, fyller man in exakt samma nyckel i andra raden, och trycker på Anslut.
Det kan vara så att man missar ett tecken här och där om man inte är väldigt van att
skriva på tangentbord, så man kan få försöka ett par ggr.
Vart finns nyckeln? Ja, det varierar. Men vissa leverantörer har tagit till vana
att skicka ut routrar som redan har en WEP kryptering satt, och då brukar WEP
nyckeln sitta på undersidan av routern på en liten klisterlapp. Både Bredbandsbolaget
och Tele2 vet jag gör så.
Jag ska ta och skriva en guide för Xandros linux så fort jag läst in mig lite.
Xandros är den linuxdistro som bland annat Asus EEE PC använder sig av
och jag antar att många kanske anser sig ha lite problem med dom.
I allafall, Nathalie, jag hoppas att du använder XP så att detta hjälper, I annat
fall så hojta till lite så skriver jag ihop en guide for Xandros så fort det bara går.
-z-
just for kicks
found a nice vocal group .. heres a video
Verdict: Pirate Bay founders found guilty
According to Aftonbadet: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article4927256.ab
And Expressen: http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1536837/alla-fyra-atalade-doms-till-fangelse
In the first instance, the TPB guys was found guilty.
Now, you know what standpoint i have on these things and its really
not hard to see why. Ok, maybe these guys pushed it, but really. Did they push it?
Lets make it very hypothetical.
I start a service to host text files. Text files are generally not that large
and I feel that I can host them on my private server without too much of a problem.
I create the application for upload and indexing of the text files and people
upload them. Now, I may or may not be responsible for what users post
on that server, but i am hosting them, so that might be a crime right?
Ok, lets take the perspective of torrents then.
I create a service, that lets users upload a minimal file, that tells
others where to find stuff. Nothing but the files that are made
by the users are stored on that server. Simple? Ok, lets push it.
My users finds out that hey … if i make that minimal file tell people
where to download movie X or song Y, we can share with the world.
Now, I am pretty much not doing anything myself. Its just my users
that are giving out the copyrighted material. Should I be held accountable
for what thousands of other people have done? If so, can I please file a case
against Fredrik Reinfeldt, Tomas Bodström and Beatrice Ask for what
stasi and the kgb has done to the citizens in their respective country please?
I can even go to those countries and file the claim if that helps.
Someone please give me a sign that stupidity isnt that spread.
7 minutes and counting
I dont think the world has listened to sweden this much EVER
but now, the pirate bay trial is about to get the first verdict.
Of course there will be at least 2 more, but hey.. its a start 😛
Immigration issues
Lets discuss immigration, thats one of those things
that generally creates a nice buzz around the block.
Are you for or against?
Well, personally im neither really. I just dont care.
Because, if someone comes into my country and says
Hello, I need help. I am poor, im being abused
by my government, and under constant threat of
death/assault/torture if i ever return, I really
cant see any chance of saying no.
Its a humanitarian thing i guess, but more and more
these days people have been drawn to the racism side
of things and frankly, I think its ugly. Sure, here
and there, there are more then enough immigrants
and not everyone of them good, but reflect on this
one for a second before you go grab your combat
boots and shave your head. There are many of those
immigrants that are used to work long hours for
short pay even though they have a very high level
of education. I have a few examples, but the best
one I have had sofar is actually that of a cleaner
at one of my old schools.
He came from Iran in the time when ayatollah(sic?)
khomeini was in power in Iran and was having a pretty
nasty bone he felt he had to pick with Saddam Hussein.
Ok, so, most people did at those days, but most people
cant force thousands of people to join the army.
This man, who walked around the school swinging his
mop was actually a surgeon. Hello! He took the
cleaning job to support his family and to get out
of the welfare system. Doing just the opposite
thing that most neo-nazis claim ALL immigrants
do. Sit at home collecting welfare while laughing
at the system.
Lets take a little time to think here. How many
of you know a caucasian friend that was born and
raised in the country that you are in, who more
or less always is out of a job and constantly lives
on welfare, using and abusing the system because
its easy to do so, and takes no effort.
Come on, raise your hands please.
I am raising both…..
Very often immigrants are removed as applicants
to a job, motivation: We are not sure they speak
our language well enough, or simlpy, we want a
person who has habits that we know and understand.
Ok, that is discriminating, and both me and those
bosses know it, but if we are not forced to meet
the person eye to eye, it can never be proven.
Here comes the kicker. I am positive that some
of the bad apple immigrants will file a report
to the discrimination offices, just because
they didnt get the job. Do you see the irony here
folks?
We are doing to them, exactly what we claim not
to be doing, and they are in extent furtering
the racism and discrimination agains their own
kind by not accepting a rejection.
Im guessing that its about now that people will
ask “Are you one of those racists that isnt
open with it, but goes around like a hypocrite?”
To be honest. That is not my call, I would
like to hope not though.
Anyhoo, many of those rotten apples that destroy
the reputation fur the hard working and upright
immigrants gets to stay, but then, some who really
really needs to stay gets forced out of the country.
Why? Because something in the “big book of rules”
say so.
Current example: Lollo. A girl with mixed heritage.
Croatian and Gypsy (sorry people, I dont know the
correct term for “romer” in english, please leave
a comment and ill correct it. She is 17 years old
has spent 12 of those in sweden waiting for an
arbitrator to decide if she can stay or not. During
this time she has recieved death threats from her
father VIA her boyfriend!! Why the deaththreats?
Well, she has been under constant physical abuse
from above mentioned father and she wont go into
a forced marriage that her father arranged.
To me, its a right to choose whoever I wish to be
with. I dont want to be shoved towards someone
and say here, heres your new spouse. What the
hell?
Her father has stated that since she wont agree
to his terms, he will beat her to death or at least
kill her. And swedens government is gonna oblige
HIM by willingly sending her daughter back to him.
Hows that for a welcoming society?
I am skipping about quite a lot here, but its
morning and I am tired.
One of the reasons that immigrants and others dont
interract as much as they could, is the languagebarrier.
Some people here will debate endlessly that there
are “Swedish For Immigrants” and if they only paid
attention in that class, they would learn. Lets make
a few parallels here. How many YEARS have you spent
learning english? I spent at least 12 years doing that.
Are you confident enough in your skills to move to
an english speaking country now and interract with
the locals? Some of you are, but there is a huge
difference between one of the largest languages
in the world and, lets say, swahili. Wich is not taught
at schools as a regular thing. On top of that, have
you actually BEEN to an SFI class…. I have.
I cant say that I am impressed. Here we have these
people that have all the chances in the world to be
learning and what are they doing? They are having
a goddamned coffeeparty in the classroom while they
alternate between their native language and tries
to talk swedish.
On top of that, we bunch them together in different
areas, but those areas are generally shunned by the
swedes. Örebro has some good examples.
Varberga, Vivalla, Baronbackarna and Brickebacken.
All four areas have a very high immigrant percentage
and of course they wont develop their swedish skills
when they dont have to, or, are not integrated into
the society we have, but are forced to more or less
create their own.
We need to start thinking how to get everyone on the
boat, not how to build one man rafts just to get over
the stream.
Ill stop right here. I could go on forever about this
but it seems kind of pointless, most of you already
know the hopeless situation by heart. At least we can
do something about the situation in our country by
simply voting. What are the refugees gonna do?
Numbness of mind
The world is constantly in a state of change and we know that.
Question is, is it for the better or not?
I am sure you all remember your childhood, I certainly
remember large portions of mine, and frankly, I miss
those days, especially now that I am a parent. See,
when I was a kid around 7-10 first of all I had no
worries about child molesters and similar things and
neither did I have a home that spotted physical abuse.
But it seems that these days, all you read is that
this and that child has been kidnapped, raped, killed
in various and horrible ways. Had this always been
happening? And if so, do I really want to know about
it or would I want to stay in a bliss thinking all
is as good in the world as my childhood memories led
me to think? I could be out by myself after dark without
my parents calling the police in hysteria. Does
that make them bad parents or tolerant parents?
Yes, childabuse is a horrible thing in all its guises
and there is no excuses for it. Let me give you an
example. Right now, there is a 20 year old woman
on trial, for helping to beat her own child to death.
Why? Because her new husband didn’t think that this
little 2 year old was saying Thank you! and Please!
as often as he would like. What the hell is that about
at age 2, not all kids have developed a good speech
yet and they put a demand on the kid to behave as an
adult, and if the demand is not followed, the child
is beaten with belts, gets its head held under cold
water, and the assault doesnt even stop even tho at
one point the little girl tells her mom “I love you”
DURING the beating. How heartless can you become?
I have had my share of despair when there has been
sleepless nights and you just wanted to throw the
baby out the window, but thats just it, when those
thoughts occur, at the same time you are horrified
with yourself. How could I even think that. This
is my child that I am carrying.
Is there anything that warrants physically and mentally
scar a child just because it cant meet standards of
adults? Isn’t childhood to prepare you for adulthood
and to train your body and mind while it grows?
At least that was what I thought.
Let me change the subject slightly.
They say that todays news and the information flood numbs
human emotions. Ok, I can agree with that, but what’s to
say that it is a permanent state? I will give you a pretty
good example.
Before David came along, I could read the news without any
emotional attachment, even really serious famine, war,
natural disasters, it didnt really make any large impact
on me. I simply stated that OK, its happened, lets see
if someone can help out. I try to do my share with donations
to various purposes, such as AIDS research and Child Cancer
Fund, and so on and so forth, but nowadays something has
happened.
Since David was born it seems that the thick shell
that the news bounced upon was has cracked and
there are some pretty large gaping holes in it. Whenever
the news are about children that in one way or another
is mistreated, threatened, killed etc etc etc, my first
thought is, who would do such a thing. The second thought
is “What if it was David?” I am not a professional shrink,
nor will I state that I am one, but my theory here has
is that when you become a parent, you get more sensitive
when it comes to children, even if the child isnt yours
and you have no emotional attachmen to the child in question.
So, parenthood is a mixture of aches, bruises and smiles.
You get to see your child develop and turn into a new
individual that will learn, laugh, smile and love, while
at the same time you will have sleepless nights, high
screaming and tears shoved at you as a parent.
Like I have it right now. When I get home from work,
my little toddler comes stomping in as high a pace
as his little chubby legs can carry him, and he then
attaches himself to my legs until I try to sit down
and at wich point I have to take him up into my lap
as to not get a sonic blast at me. My goodness those
small things has big lungs and high strung larynxes.
Oh well, thats parenthood for you.
Blogger fired for blogging on his free time
Lets talk a little about consequences.
The blogosphere has every once in a while been put
into an uproar by a blogger getting fired from his
work do to his or her writings on a blog. Ok, we all
have a freedom of speech, we can agree on that. But
what is acceptable? Take this for instance. I am writing
this in a notepad in between calls because nothing is
happening, I am not taking any bandwidth from the
company i work for until I am mailing this to myself
and posting it from home. I am not being effective,
I will admit to that, but I am keeping myself alert
by this monologue. Does this warrant me getting
fired? I say no to that one.
However, very recently a co-worker got fired for.. you
guessed it. Blogging. Hold your horses. It is not
unjustified this time. This is highly unlike me, but
I will in this case actually defend the company in question.
Let me start from the beginning.
Today the buzz at work was that one of the co-workers
was fired due to his blog. Well, to be honest I felt
the classical rage and felt the bile rise, until I,
as I usually do, started to ask around to get to the
core of the matter. One said thus, and one said so.
Long story short. I dont have the official story
or everything on it, but I have the gist of it,
and heres what the buzz is all about.
It appears that this person wrote, ON HIS BLOG,
sensitive corporate information that wasn’t even
close to official yet.
Now, I dont know what you think, but personally
that shows a disloyalty to the company and it also
is a violation of trust for the clients. So I say
it again. He shouldnt have gone out with the information
and the company was in its right to fire him because
he outed sensitive information that may or may not
have damaged the company and its reputation and
certainly have damaged the reputation of the clients.
Now, I am firm in my belief that the company I work for
isnt using my potential neither my technical knowledge
to the extent I would like, but thats beside the point.
I work for this company and when bought, I stay bought, so
to speak.
Ok, they may not have the need for an sqladmin, neither
a webdesigner or a linux user manager or pherhaps
a pretty good allround tech when it comes to computers
or digital tv, but still, I dont feel that gives me
the right to reveal clients strategies and actions.
Was the layoff justified, I think so. Whats your take?
M.I.A
Well, once again it has been some time since I wrote
anything noteworthy or rather, anything that I cared
to post. The reason? Well, frankly I have had a nice
hellish christmas and new year. Let me share it with
you.
It all started 2 or 3 days before christmas really.
David got this “mark” on his back, sort of looked
like he had stood up close to something and scratched
the back, so we didnt really think it was a big deal.
Thing is, that indescribable thing grew! Not that fast
but fast enough that we started to notice it.
On the morning of christmas eve while doing the morning
routine, IE changing diapers and washing up for the
day, we notice that his lil’ belly button is all
goey and inflamed. So, we called a doctor who said
that it was most likely impetigo, but we should
come in the the hospital just to check.
Said and done. We spent a few hours on christmas eve
at the hospital, then we had to get antibiotics.
Well, lo and behold, things went to pot there aswell.
The computer system used for sending prescriptions was
down so we couldnt use the pharmacy in town while it
was open, we had to go to Västerås to get the medicin.
Finally we came home, in time for the traditional “donald”
here in sweden.
Not sure what kind of tradition you guys have, but here
at 3 o’clock they broadcast an old christmas special
made by disney. That, and “Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton”
is a swedish tradition for some reason.
Anyhow, back to the topic.
So, this impetigo is highly contagious, so you have to
be careful, but you also need to wash the poxes, remove
the scabs and disinfect the surface beneath the scabs
with alcohol. Now, imagine that on a 15 month old kid.
First off, the pox itches and stings. Second,
alcohol on a semi open wound? He screams and
cries like you where torturing him and actually, I feel
like I am, and I really really really dont feel
comfortable with that.
Fine, New Years Eve and New years day, I was at work.
Since I was free for christmas i opted to let the
other guys party in the new year as I usually dont.
Few days into january. The impetigo is back with
a vengeance. From going to large pox on Davids
back and bellybutton, down to virtually nothing
it suddenly flared up and covered most of his abdomen.
Now, I can see that those things itch, its not
that hard either. So, David is really really
cranky and wakes up all the time during the
nights. Now, that makes me one tired dad, but I
can only ride it out.
In case you are wondering what Davids mother are doing
let me tell you this, she is pulling the heaviest
loads during the nightshift, so I can manage my job.
How was your christmas?
Push my buttons
Go right on ahead and do it why dont you?
Have you ever had someone that was fairly close
to you who actually seemed to enjoy trying to
make you feel bad, tried to push the blame
for pretty much everything that is wrong with that
persons life onto you? I do. Let me give you a little
story.
I have a 1 year old kid. If you ever read this
blog before you should know about that already
if not, well, shame on you. Anyhow, someone
close to me recently stated that “you have to
go there and there before X-mas” Fine, I told
the person that I will try.
I dont know how other people do it, but for us
when we go somewhere its pretty much the spur
of the moment thing. If David is OK, and we
have leisure time wich frankly, is very seldom
we can go somewhere, but we cant plan ahead.
Especially not when I work evening shifts followed
by a weekend and christmas being what it is, you
have a million things that needs to be attended.
Now, this person who managed to tick me off
is someone who knows everything about what makes
me tick and today, I came to the insight that
the person really uses it to the utmost.
Let me give you an explanation. Here is what happened.
XXXXXX: you have to come here before christmas.
XXXXXX: at least give me a date when you come here.
Me: I am not sure I will be able to. I work nights this
week, then I am free friday, then I work over the
weekend and all towards christmas.
Me: You are however welcome here friday if you want to.
XXXXXX: I cant. I have too much to do.
XXXXXX: Besides, I am sick.
Me: Then you are in pretty much the same position I am.
XXXXXX: Ok. Have a nice holiday.
And there the conversation ended.
Heres the funny part. I live about 1 and a half hour
from this person. It’s really not that far and that
person doesnt have toddlers that needs to be checked
upon and made sure that they are alright all the time.
Last wednesday the person went to gothenburg.
No big deal in that. BUT I went to their place on saturday
and guess what. The person was still not home from the
gothenburg trip.
So, a five day trip to gothenburg isnt as stressing as
a total of 3 hours to drive to get to me?
What gives?
And since I CANT budge seeing as I have work AND the child
to mind, its safe to assume that I WILL be offended by a
flippant “have a nice holiday” and the person knows this
I have TOLD the person how I react to that sort of behaviour.
Pherhaps that was the mistake I made.
Oh well. I guess some people never learn that I can be
as stubborn and tough as a brick wall if I need to be.
They have my invitation. If they care to take it up
that is THEIR responsibility, not mine.
Ta Ta…
-Z-
Hold the phone!
Thats just it. It is what they want us to do.
Obviously the governments have gone on one hell
of a bender, and its not on booze, its on power.
And believe me its a powertrip waaaay out of proportion
and its making lucy in the sky with diamonds seem like
Lisa on the yard with marbles. Store ALL types of communication
traffic?!? What are people on about? Ok, they wont store
the ACTUAL conversations, always a small plus, I guess
but they will save who talked to whom on what occasion
and this information will be saved and readily accessible
for the police and the security police.
How about we paint a little scenario that actually MIGHT happen
seeing how things are right going right now.
Its 20 years into the future and the large political parties
that once was, has been run over by xenophobic rightwing
racist parties and they are now confident that since they
can please the masses with trinkets, they will stay in power.
Of course the left wing people will try to organize meetings
and some form or resistance, passive or otherwise. Lets face
it. There are extremist in both factions, neither one better
then the other in my opinion.
But, the rascists decides that since there is actually a LAW
that states all traffic going between persons will be saved
they will use it to do something about the whole thing.
They find someone who is a known leftwing sympathizer and
starts to trace his calls, they sort through their contacts
and sift away numbers that goes to customer services and
such, they remove the numbers for various government instances
such as social services. They also remove all numbers that goes
to “legit” companies. Whats left is investigated. Like a spider
in the web, they gain more and more names that can be put
under surveillance without those people even knowing what is
going on, and as the leaders grow more and more terrified
of their populace, they decide to take action.
Thousands of people becomes charged with Conspiration to
damage the nations interrests and its citizens.
Since the jails are already full and that sentance is
already close enough to treason, the fastest option
is to pass the sentance for treason, and revitalize
the capital punishment. Problem solved.
Now, people dont know why this happened, why their loved
ones was taken away and put down, so naturally a new
leftwing is born, to avenge their loved ones, and
the circle starts again.
This is a worst case scenario, but what our “dearest leaders”
(Yes, im using the north-korean meaning) fail to see, is that
you HAVE TO DO IT THAT WAY!
You cant sit around and say “that can never happen” because
it can. Noone in their right mind believed that a few germans
would be guilty of genocide when they let Adolf Hitler play
into politics.
Noone belived that MILLIONS would be killed just because
a friendly looking man was set into the chairman position
in the russian communist party. And before you even think
to open your mouth about me being biased, let me tell you
where I stand.
I have no political direction. I am not leftwing, nor
am I rightwing. I vote for the party that has most stand
points that I can stand for and at the same time
has the LEAST amounts of points that I dislike.
You want to hear the sad part? The sad part is that
right now, the only party that has more standpoints
FOR then AGAINST is a minority party that I do hope
can make a difference, but sadly, still is too small
to make a major impact. Of course the example above
could be exactly the opposite factions and it would still
gall me that such a possibility has come to pass.
I might not be a great thinker like Voltaire, but really
this WILL suppress the free speech. Not by brute force but
by fear. People will fear talking openly using communications
channels that up until now has been remotely free.
There has to be a way to unseat this sitting government in
a way that has a lawful support. Demanding a new election
pherhaps? But is there anyone around here that knows how
to get that come to pass in sweden? If so, please
share so we can start a movement.
Oh, a sidenote, since all datatraffic is being monitored
once it goes abroad, I know that big brother is reading
this everytime someone reads my blog and I am pretty sure
that the text I publish are amusing at most to those that
sift through that traffic, I hope you have some happy
reading.
For those that feel that you want to know what the new
law entails, here it is, translated to english for you:
This information will be stored:
Regarding telephony:
Calling number
The number that has been dialed and who the the call was routed
Information regarding subscriber and registered user
Date and traceable time when the communication started and ended
the service that has been used and endingpoints.
Regarding Cellular Telephony, on top of above mentioned,
this will be stored:
Dialers subscribing identity and phoneidentity
Recievers subscribing indentity and phoneidentity
localizationinformation for the communications start and and,
aswell as date, traceable time and localization information for
the first activation of prepaid anonymous service
Regarding internet telephony, on top of the parts of regular
telephony this will be stored:
Callers IP adresses
Receivers IP adresses
Regarding message handling (such as e-mail and SMS) the
following will be stored:
Senders and receivers message adresses
Subscriber information and registered user
Date and time for logon and logoff in the messaging system
Date and traceable time for send and recieve of the message aswell
as the type of service used and traceable time for the usage.
Regarding internet access, the following will be stored:
users IP-adresses
Subscribers identity and registered user
Date and traceable time for logon and logoff in the internet service
Type of connection used aswell as endpoints.
Regarding services that supply capacity for transferring IP packets to gain
internet access, the following will be stored:
Subscribers information
Wich type of capacity that has been used aswell as traceable time for
usage aswell as endpoints.
So….. anyone else getting KGB and STASI vibes from this?
I sure as hell do.
-z-
Am I a terrorist?
Why do you have to ask?
Everything I do when it regards the united states
evolves around 2 simple questions, that pops up
again, and again, and again, and again.
These questions really are redundant but they HAVE
to be put into the light anyway.
Lets play a scenario.
LAX, border control.
– Hello Sir, May I ask you some questions?
– Why certainly sir, please be my guest.
– What is your business here in the United States?
– I am here to learn how to fly a plane, then crash
that plane into some very high buildings, causing
havoc and despair and pretty close to a third world
war just because you are all infidels.
– Are you a part of, or know any affiliate of any
known terrorist groups?
– Oh yes, I am a member of the Football Tigers!
who fight to rename American Football to American Kevlar
testing game.
WHAT IS WRONG HERE?!?
I dont see that discussion taking place in the
customs, do you?
Seriously, If I was a terrorist, do you think I would
admit it when I am right in the face of doing my deed?
I would keep my mouth shut so tight you would need a crowbar
to find the words, or smile, and lie through my teeth
and I am pretty sure that the 9/11 group told the customs
exactly what they where in the states to accomplish.
I dont support terrorists in any way, I can see that
they have an opinion, they are entitled to have one
but they try to enforce it the wrong way. If something
upsets you and a larger group of people, fine, do
a demonstration, a violent one in a pacifist way.
With a violent demonstration I dont mean “blow shit
up and take some people with you” but I mean a massive
gathering of people, that in an ordered way shouts
out to the governments or whatever to make their point.
You want America out of whereever? Fine, demonstrate
about it, and if enough numbers shows that standpoint
without causing havoc, you really can accomplish a lot.
I know how I would react if I get singled out at the
border. I heard something about a sign that states
“dont joke about these things, we will take it seriously”
and really, when I am nervous, I am like a stand up comedian.
If its there, I WILL joke about it, so when they ask
if I know any terrorist, I am pretty sure that I will
answer “does a 1 year old kid count as a terrorist?”
Well, off to guantanamo with my sorry butt.
On a good note tho, I know have it confirmed that
the woman I live with isnt a terrorist.
Sverige är en diktatur! (sorry for the swedish)
just because I am so lazy that I cant be bothered translating all the “borrowed”
sections from Wikipedia. Lets get on with it. To the english readers, I will give
a little explanation later on.
=================================================
Sverige är en diktatur! Ja, du hörde rätt, jag säger att detta avlånga
land som vi en gång antingen älskat eller föraktat, och troligen
numera likgiltigt bor i, har förvandlats. Dom stolta människorna
i bergslagen som kämpade för arbetarnas rättigheter är för länge
sedan glömda, landsfadern Gustaf Vasa har ur tidens dimma tittat
på och suckat djupt. Den frihet han gav oss från en styrande auktoritär
utländsk makt glider sakta bort.
Frågan är egentligen vart det hela tar vägen? Vi kan titta lite på begreppet
diktatur. Här är vad wikipedia säger, och innan nån säger nått, ja, jag vet att
wikipedia inte är den bästa källan till information, men, det är en av dom
snabbaste.
“Diktatur (av latin dictatura, “en diktators ämbete; en diktators makt och myndighet”)
är en stat som är totalitär, styrd av en diktator.
Diktaturen kännetecknas av maktkoncentration, men till skillnad från absolutism,
envälde och tyranni betraktas diktaturen som regel som provisorisk. Ofta uppstår
diktaturen i demokratier, samlar makten till en liten grupp, och upphäver den
personliga friheten.”
Vänta lite här nu. “Diktaturen kännetecknas av maktkoncentration”
Ok där har vi vad som brukar definieras som diktatur, och i det här
fallet är det koncentrerat till regering och riksdag.
Ja, politikerna är “valda” och jag sätter valda inom situationstecken
för att egentligen är det inte folket som väljer dom. Det är det egna
partiet samt media. Det hela är ett spel för gallerierna. Det finns
buntvis med nationalekonomer som har ett bättre begrepp om
makroekonomi än någon av våra politiker, med dom sitter inte i riksdagen
för att ingen vet vem dom är. Samma sak när det gäller socialpolitik.
Notera också att jag inte lägger till någon form av block eller parti
tillhörighet här då i dagens läge, så på högersidan sitter Allsmäktige
Reinfeldt och till vänster sitter Sneglande Sahlin. Vad som hänt
med den distinkta partipolitiken är svårt att definiera men jag
gissar att lobbyister och annat pack har en hel del med utsuddandet
av gränser att göra.
Jag vill att ni läser följande:
“Diktatur är i lexikalisk mening detsamma som regering utövad av en
diktator. I sin moderna innebörd innefattar diktaturen även regering
av ett totalitärt eller auktoritärt kollektiv, som exempelvis en
militärjunta eller politbyrå.
Diktaturen anses, framför allt enligt en liberal diskurs,
som demokratins motsats. Det är också vanligt att likställa
diktaturen med polisstaten, det vill säga samhällsförhållanden
med stark repression från myndigheternas sida.
Definitionsmässigt är detta dock ej nödvändigt för att
diktatur ska anses föreligga.
Somliga diktatorer har nämligen åtnjutit ett sådant folkligt
stöd att någon repression inte varit nödvändig för dem i syfte
att behålla makten. I sin mera inskränkta mening, är diktaturen
en stat där fria, allmänna och lika val av politiska beslutsfattare
inte förekommer. Inslagen av repression är alltså däremot inte
oväsentliga. En diktaturs kännetecken är en totalitär statsmakt
med en auktoritär repession av befolkningen med militära,
polisiära och administrativa medel, vari ingår övervakning,
inspärrning och tortyr.
Ett typexempel på en sådan diktatur
finns i George Orwells roman “1984” med det berömda uttrycket
“En fot som trampar på ett ansikte. I evighet”.”
Kan Sverige sammanfattas så illa? Nja, det vet jag väl inte, men titta här:
“Med marknadsdiktatur menas en totalitär kapitalism, där marknadskrafterna
helt dominerar samhällslivet, ekonomin och politiken.”
Oj då. Nu börjar det se lite illa ut för våran “valda” regering, för säga vad dom vill
men tyvärr, dom bestämmer inte så mycket som de styrande vill påskina.
Tyvärr verkar det som om makten på något sätt glidit våra valda ur händerna
för att hamna i som en del av USA’s lydstater. Men tyvärr verkar det
inte vara de styrande i USA som våra förtroendevalda dansar åt, utan
amerikanska monetära organisationer, som nu mer och mer vill diktera
vad vi ska tänka, se, höra, lyssna på.
Inte nog med det. Snart görs det en omröstning på om vi ska låta
dessa organisationer som redan meddelst hot och andra otillbörliga
metoder vill stävja både kreativitet, personlig integritet och kulturflöde
ha en polisiär makt i vårat avlånga land.
Dom ska kunna läsa av våran datatrafik, och kunna fakturera oss ifall
vi mot förmodan skulle dela med oss av material som kan vara skyddat
av deras upphovsrätt. Detta helt utan inblandning av någon myndighet.
Vi vill alltså att organisationer som kräver ersättning för fildelning av personer
som inte äger en dator, och en del som aldrig varit ute på nätet eller ens
vet vad en fil är, om man inte syftar på verktyget dvs, ska ha laglig rätt
att kräva pengar av en privatperson?
Nej tack.
Till råga på allt, så bryter det hela mot en del andra lagar, lyssna på den här:
“Regeringsformen 2 kap. paragraf 6″
Så här lyder den:
Varje medborgare är gentemot det allmänna skyddad mot påtvingat
kroppsligt ingrepp även i annat fall än som avses i 4&5 paragrafen.
Han är därjämte skyddad mot kroppsvisitation, husrannsakan och
liknande intrång samt mot undersökning av brev eller annan
förtrolig försändelse och mot hemlig avlyssning, eller upptagning av telefonsamtal eller annat förtroligt meddelande”
Oj oj oj. Min förtroliga trafik över ALLA protokoll kommer alltså att avlyssnas
ifall “någon” _MISSTÄNKER_ att jag fildelar.
Nej, jag undrar om det finns nått land där jag kan få politisk asyl pga att
jag och alla andra medborgare i mitt land snart kommer att avlyssnas.
A letter
This will be a two parted post, mainly because the second part is
blatantly stolen from one of the blogs I usually read, and its in
swedish. It is an open letter to artist Per Gessle, one of those that is
FOR the IPRED law, wich pretty much give the record companies the RIGHT
to sniff your data traffic, decide that you are sharing THEIR files and fine
you for it. In essence, Police, Judge and Executioner in one.
It has basically everything that I feel aswell regarding whats going
in in sweden right now, I give the floor to “the free thinking artist”
===========================================
Öppet brev till Per Gessle
Hej Per
Du känner inte mig, men jag känner till dig, framförallt så känner jag
till vad du och somliga av dina kollegor är beredda att göra mot och med
människors liv och integritet.
Nu är det så här Per att jag vill tala om några saker för dig.
Du spelade med i ett band som hette Gyllene Tider en gång,
jag gillade dig och Gyllene en gång så till den grad att jag faktiskt
var på en konsert med er en gång.
Jag till och med köpte era skivor, flera stycken faktiskt.
Det är något jag bittert ångrar idag, att man kunde vara en sån dum jävel.
Fast det kanske å andra sidan kan ursäktas med att jag var mycket
yngre än nu, ännu inte hade den livserfarenhet jag har idag, ännu inte
skaffat mig den blick som är nödvändig för att kunna “se igenom”
vissa saker, en gång i tiden var jag ung, dum och väldigt naiv.
En gång i tiden var musik (hur otroligt nog det än kan verka idag, även
sådant som du gjorde) magi, drömmar, något stort, något fint, något bra..
Något man satsade sina “sista slantar på” magin är idag så gott som helt
borta Per, och detta är inte fildelningen eller samtidens förtjänst, nej Per,
det är din och dina kollegors förtjänst…
Du och dom andra, NI har bestulit mig på min illusion om musik och
artister som nåt magiskt, DU och dom andra, ni har gjort det nödvändigt
att ha med sig en “shit-list” då man går till skivbutiken så man av misstag
inte råkar få med sig nåt därifrån där du eller någon av dom andra som är
för Ipred är involverade…
Sen Per är det också så här att du har fått begreppet kultur helt och hållet
om bakfoten. Och nu talar jag inte till dig i egenskap av “sur pirat” utan
som en genuint kultur/konstintresserad före detta konstskoleelev som
ibland även skapar själv…
Kulturen eller konsten förstår du käre Per Gessle är inte den där plastbiten
där din s.k musik ligger som digitala ettor och nollor, kulturen eller konsten
är självklart inte heller dom billiga dukar jag ibland skvätter ner med färg på
klumpigt vis. Nej, käre Per, det är INTE kultur, eller konst, kultur eller
konst uppstår i själva mötet med betraktaren, och det är vad som händer
i detta möte som är kulturen eller konsten.
Sen Per, vilken planet är du och dom andra egentligen födda på?
Hur onykter verklighetsbild och samtidsuppfattning har ni egentligen?
Du får ursäkta mig Per om jag är en smula spydig, men man måste ju
faktiskt undra, om du och dom andra tror ni kan göra vad ni gör och
räkna med att dom gamla fansen kommer och vara fortsatt pigga på att
köpa er musik, eller gå på era konserter?
Eftersom ni gör det ni gör du och dom andra så tolkar jag det som så Per,
att du och dom andra har en redlöst berusad och oklar verklighetsuppfattning
och kulturell samtidsförståelse.
Mina sista ord till dig Per…
Ingens upphovsrätt “In absurdum” inte din, inte Niklas och självklart
inte heller min egen är värd det 1984-samhälle som du, Niklas och
“dom andra” utan tvekan, utan att blinka tycker vi ska ha. Min intellektuellt
baserade tolkning av det är att du Per och dom andra helt enkelt anser att
ni är det centrum runt vilket Universum snurrar, men vet du vad Per?
Det är faktiskt inte så…
Per, tack så mycket för mindre än ingenting alls…
http://blogg.idg.se/free_thinking/entry.jsp?messid=6423
IPRED, dollars, businessmodel, feel free to steal the idea
Now, you remember the gripes about letting the government
sniff the net traffic, well, its just getting worse.
I am not sure how much you have heard or know about
IPRED, but in essence, heres what it means:
The directives essential part is to let copyrightholders
(taste the word, copyrightholders, pretentious, isnt it?)
wich by extension means record companies and movie companies
trace and log ip adresses and tie those with a physical
person by demanding information from the internet service
providers. When the information about the person behind
the IP number is found, the companies can use that information
to demand that the person cease and desist his filesharing
OR send out a demand for payment. Lets face it, im pretty
sure that the figures will be something like this:
1x shared random record company product/one hit wonder
multiply that by instances found on a google search
for ANY and ALL words by themselves from the artists name
and the songs title. (hint, do a google search on the word
“and” and take 1 beer for each search hit.. you’ll be on
a one year bender before you die of liver cirrosis)
This is just an example, but just for the sake of argument
i’ll show you some real events and facts:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3096340.stm
See the line that says this:
Each copyrighted song carries a maximum penalty of $150,000 (£94,260)
WHAT THE HELL?!?
150,000 dollars? For one song? It better come on a disc thats
made from platina, then gilded using 24 carat gold and THEN
studded with real diamonds from some african mine.
“It is however, quite funny to see some official person that has
a sense of humor. From the same article:
During a Senate judiciary hearing, Senator Dick Durbin questioned
RIAA president Cary Sherman on the tactics being used.
“Are you headed to junior high schools to round up the usual suspects?”
Mr Durbin asked.
Mr Sherman defended the stance, saying the RIAA was trying to
spread the message that file-sharing is illegal.
“Yes, there are going to be some kids caught in this, but you’d be
surprised at how many adults are engaged in this activity,” he said.”
Really? I didn’t know. But since people are being sued left and
right, regardless of them being in possession of a computer or not
and even regardless if they are DEAD OR ALIVE!
(see this link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050204-4587.html )
And while you are at it, read this aswell
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060424-6662.html
Is this the people want to be able to read our internet traffic
and give them the ability to request information about us from
our internet service provider?
Seriously. The record companies can all go to hell in their
little gilded chariot while chanting “cash cash cash” for
all I care.
So, what do I want to say with all this? Well, im merely
making a comment on what I think.
Do I have a solution for all this? Well, not a solution
thats watertight, but let me give you a hint:
WHY should I pay for a piece of plastic when I dont have
a cd player out side of my PC, Why should I consider
buying same said piece of plastic and put it in my PC
when I actually risk infecting it with various types
or rootkit and other spyware?
I could think of a subscription service model.
Lets think for a while, shall we?
Music doesnt have to be of the utmost quality for it to be
good for casual listening, webradio is a good example, and
to be honest, even in some cases thats higher quality then
what it needs to be. Lets say that some large music company,
lets take SonyBMG (rootkit anyone?)
They build a subscription service for wich you pay, lets
say 10-20$ a month, I personally think that 20$ is where
the limit is at, but thats because I dont listen to music
that often. As I said before, I dont have a CD player
and its kinda hard to get download things and play
on a vinyl disc player (maybe i should check if that actually
works before i mention it though) anyhow, im digressing
and rambling, back to the point.
They build this subscription service that contains their
ENTIRE catalog, reason for capitalization is that i dont
want Christina Aguilera and the rest of this gang, I dont
even want to limit myself to older music or metal I want
to see it all there. What happens is that I get access
to the catalog, and I can build a playlist in their player
a player that is tied to the account naturally, And I
can play whatever I have in that playlist, I can add
and remove whatever songs I want in that playlist.
Now.. wheres the need for downloading songs except for
mp3 player use? I can still see some issues there, but
combine the playlist items with a “digital purchase”
lets play with the idea that greed gets toned down.
I have my little playlist that displays the songs I
want, it displays the songs artist, songname, runtime
and a purchase link. This opens a new window that gives
me the option of purchasing this song lets say somewhere
along the lines of 50 to 75 cents. Tag these songs
digitally, not with any DRM, but with a simple digital
label stating where the file originated from, wich
user it originated from and date of purchase. Shouldn’t
be too hard to do would it? Ok, lets expand this a little.
Lets say that someone wanted to have this little piece
of plastic. There shouldnt be too hard to pick together
another playlist and have that sent to some of all the
myriad of cd burner software out there. Cd gets burned
and lightscribe or similar is used to put the subscribers
Name, Adress etc etc on the actual disc or on a potential
cover. This alone would make such a service interresting
to me. Naturally this disc would be a little more expensive
then buying the tunes alone, because you have the material
costs for the discs, the covers (wich needs no artwork
or, let the customers design their own, after all, they
are the only ones that will see the disc) so lets say
another 10 dollars to get a cd.
Ok, I might have to search for a while to find
the songs id like from a single companies stock, but
what if the companies went together into this using
an external organisation like the RIAA to assemble
their collective catalogs? Ok, there will ALWAYS be
those that feel that they would rather have the mp3
for free. There is no getting around that, but also
many of what today is counted as pirates are also stating
give us a viable alternative. Well, heres my 2 cents.
or …. 50 if you please
Could you accept this, or do you have another solution
please feel free to leave it in the comments section.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
Lets take a view on software and software piracy for a while.
Companies state that they are loosing money on software piracy,
but what some of them (not, SOME, not all) doesnt tell the
media is that they are in a way also benefiting from the
piracy that flourishes on the web. This is where the
stalwart exclaim “THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE, IT IS LOST REVENUE”
But hear me out please.
Lets take an example in a product that we all KNOW
is being copied high and low and you can find on
almost every torrent site and DC hub there is.
Adobe xxxxxxx. I will be using it just because
it is named as the standard DTP program and most
people know an inkling of what it is.
No harm on Adobe, quite the
contrary, they have developed both a marvellous
piece of software (the thousands of downloads confirm that)
and they have also built a reputation for being the
leading software engineer for desktop publishing.
Companies that are keeping their own designers
and illustrators generally have xxxxxxx as a stock
application installed, why is that? Well, to some
extent it is that the company knows that the software
is good, BUT here comes the kicker, usually those
types of firms wants someone with experience WITH
those types of software. So, how does a teenager
afford to learn the type of xxxxxxx techniques that
companies today require without having very rich
parents that can buy a license for xxxxxxx?
Ok, you say there is a demo version? Yes there
might be, but demo is a nasty word to younger
generations, to an extent they mean “incomplete
and lacking functions” wich means that the young,
aspiring designer doesnt want to touch it, much
less use it for learning purposes.
There are also student licenses, of course, correct
me if I am wrong here, but arent those also to an
extent time limited and lacking functions?
What do we have left?
Well, theres always the internet, and trust me
its not even hard, heres a tip for you.
http://www.google.se/search?hl=sv&q=softwarename+torrent&meta=
See? That was really really really hard, wasnt it?
I mean, everyone these days uses google or a different
search engine, and just by putting in the words xxxxxxx torrent
in google, I found where I can download it.
Ok, that was a little on how to find it, lets get back on
track. We have this talented teen who manages to download
a copy of xxxxxxx and more or less perfects is technique
and skill in using it. There are always more tricks, but
at this stage he has earned enough of a name online that
companies are starting to notice what he does. So, they
want to hire him. Fine, they hire him for design purposes.
I will give you 1 guess at what his first question will be.
Will I be able to use XXXXX?
If the company already owns a license, fine. If not
they will either A: buy a license or B: see the
guy walk off to another company, or C: wich is the worst.
Tell the guy that he can use another software in the
meantime while they wait for a xxxxxxx license.
What that will accomplish is that they will get a worker
that doesnt have the knowledge that they expected because
he will be operating out of his comfort zone, things that
normally take just a day will take a week because he simply
doesnt know how to do certain operations in the new software.
So, the company that hires him better either HAVE or should
be purchasing a license. In the extension, what will follow
is that when new versions comes out, this young man will
want to try new versions and hopefully the company will listen
to him and purchase more licenses.
That might generate a pretty steady income. The company
will also notice that adobe products keep a high class
and are easy to introduce to new co workers, wich in
turn might generate more license.
What is my standpoint on software piracy?
Well, I dont play that many games, I play Starwars galaxies
wich is a pay per month MMORPG, I play DiabloII online
on battlenet wich requires a purchased set of discs,
and I play a MUD, wich is free to play. So games isnt
really my cup of tea so to speak.
Regarding production software my philosophy is simple
and I tell anyone who asks me. I will gladly download
a piece of software to learn the basics of it, and if
i like it, I might keep it. I will also be letting
people know what I think about it, good aswell as
bad comments. If I ever make something WITH the software
that I make money on, I will purchase it.
It is as simple as that.
Now, here’s something that not many standard computer
users know about. If there is a popular software, chances
are very high that there are open source software that
does and behaves almost exactly the same. Case in point:
Adobe xxxxxxx -> The Gimp
Microsoft Office -> Open Office.org
Ok, the programs capabilities and behaviour isnt exactly
identical, but what you use the most is similar enough that
the transistion is close to seamless.
But really, if some companies have their way, copying
and using open source will soon be considered piracy
aswell.
Rambling Revised
There really needs to be a clinical term for the moods
people have in the mornings. I mean, think about it.
Those that knows me would probably describe me is fully
comparable to the old Scrooge combined with a bear that
woke up too early from hibernation. Im gruffy, cranky
and every other negative description you can think
of without going into the aggressive types. I want
everything to be smooth and fast. No troubles because if
there is, ill go into sulk/mope mode.
This morning was not an exception sadly. I got up
and knowing that I didnt have any cigarettes I sped
up the process of making myself ready so as to get
to the store before we usually pass it, in time to
get a cigarette to stem the worst of my crankyness.
Well. The kids carseat wasnt attached to the front
seat, my girl took longer to get ready and getting
my kid into his overall was like trying to put an
(sorry Dr Phil, its not personal, you are just the
only comparison that comes to mind) angry, drunk
Dr. Phil in a 4 sizes to small wetsuit. And naturally
this all took enough time that once again, once
we actually had acquired the cigarettes in question
there was no time for smoking. So off to work I went
and since I was getting in a more and more foul
mood, my girl noticed, naturally, and I vented
myself, and of course, she took it as an accusation
and set of on the quest for the holy argument.
Thats when I gave up and just walked into the complex
and logged on for work.
Now, lets get back on track.
What would someone call the behaviour if they observed
me in that state without knowing what had caused the
heat to flare? Im guessing I would be labeled into
a narcissistic chauvinist with an anger management
problem, possibly even a domestic abuser.
Now, lets get one thing straight before anyone even
THINKS the thought that I know some people will have.
I do not support domestic violence, if you cant
keep it on an acceptable level in the heat of
argument, let your partner know you are going outside
for a while, then go out for a walk, or just sit
down outside so that you can cool off somewhat.
In an argument, most people tend to loop their arguments
around 2 or 3 things and then the parties throw of
those arguments and loop and loop around those and always
wind up right where they started, using accusations
to prove a point. Why not instead of using “why did you”
try to use “can you please do this instead”?
Oh well, I am guessing I will be having a discussion
regarding all this when I get home, but hey, ill
try to cheer up some during the day.
On a funnier note, I have a reader that actually works in
the same complex as me, just works at another department.
He is a WoW player with a sense of humor, and the humor
he has is leaning towards the same sarcastic and ironic
humor that is my own aswell, so when we are out taking
a cigarette the conversations can be quite weird to
the person listening.
Anyhow, he read, and liked, my post “roleplaying retards”
from the 19th of August and yesterday, he felled a
comment that was quite hillarious to me at the time.
“Soon people will think that Blizzard invented zombies
aswell!”
What really galls me tho, is the fact that to an
extent, his statement is true….
If you are gonna bitch, bitch about whats right
I really dont know what type of situation that you people
comes from, but those of you that work in customer support
in various ways knows that the old device “The customer
is always right” is dead wrong. Personally, I would like
to go to the hardware store that invented the expression
and force the boss there to eat the damn plaque without
softener or salt.
Todays world is customer driven, we know that to be a fact
but it appears that the general consensus is that because
of the above mentioned statement, the clients can request..
let me rephrase that, DEMAND that things are done his
way or .. and no highway option supplied. So lets take this
in an internet support perspective and in a perspective
that I myself am very familiar with. I host a Multi User
Dungeon, MUD for short. and I have players from Canada
USA, Japan, Sweden, Portugal and Croatia. I may have more
contries, but those are the ones I am certain of, and
from a techs point of view, we all know that the
routes that they take to get to my server is a little
different based on where they are located.
Now, one of the more recurring things I see is this:
(names withheld of course)
<i116> XXXXXXXX chats ‘Too much lag, can some imm restart the server?’
Ok, this in itself isnt a problem, I can see why someone
would think that the server needs a reboot, as they most
likely use windows that gets sluggy after a few days uptime,
but my server very much isnt. What is even funnier is the
reply that usually comes directly afterwards.
<i116> YYYYYYY chats ‘No, dont! I am not lagging and I am waiting for
tynstri repop’
Seriously. The fact that I am not lagging is easy to see if you check
what IP adress I connect from. For your info, in case some numbskull
wants to try to hack it, is 127.0.0.1 (go ahead punk, try to blast
that IPnumber off the net) but the conversation above very often
is followed by a mail to me stating that “i am lagging, player x
is not, it has to be either your connection or a codeflaw”
I dont know what dimension you are from, but in THIS one, if
there are 15 people that things works perfectly for and 1
that has trouble, it usually isnt the server or the 15 other
people that is the issue.
Even more hilarious is when I try to explain about routing
and how things pass through different places, they demand that
either A: FIX THIS! or B: TALK TO YOUR ISP SO THEY FIX THAT!
Now… if the problem isnt in my gear, or in the ISPs gear
what can they do?
It is something like a manufacturer makes a car, using
a second vendors parts. basically buys the engine, drive
shaft etc etc and suddenly a customer decides that it would
be smarter to have a different drivetrain to that engine
and demands that the manufacturer suddenly switch drivetrain
on all cars just because in the customers way to see things
the second drivetrain would be better because its another
brand.
— sheesh
Politics without solutions
On what does one base an application for political
asylum? Think about it. Even globally, software and
hardware downloads are increasing, and the companies
that hunts them are being more and more ruthless
What REALLY scares me is that the governments makes
more and more laws that are digging in deep into
the integrity of their citizens just because of one
single thing. Money. The RIAA has got more funding
then a lot of countries has BNP, and still they are
claiming that they are not making enough. Fine.
Now just to make you a little view on why I am
fuming about money and the record industry.
This month, there was a court session regarding
a very well known artist. Björn Ulvaeus, one of
the men in the once HUGE band ABBA. Now, he
has on numerous occasions thundered in media regarding
the shameful acts of downloading songs, because that
is stealing money from him. Ok, I can see why
he would be a little miffed. Im not sure that he
gets that much per song, but seeing how big
ABBA used to be, there has to have been a lot
of downloads that he hasnt gotten the royalties
for. That might be a few 100 thousand SEK.
BUT here comes the kicker. He got an 85 MILLION
SEK TAX REFUND! 85 frigging millions is a lot more
then he would ever be able to spend if he just
saved it. I mean, seriously. The interrest alone
is a lot more from any bank then what a standard
student/wageslave does in a year.
So, ok. jealousy is not a commendable trait, I know
that but I will never ever even get HALF of what
this man got as a tax refund, much less in savings.
Is it so wrong of me to enjoy art in various ways,
to be able to listen, hear and feel the feelings
that he once tried to give the world anew?
Musicians starts with music for pretty much 3 reasons
1. The money
2. Share the art
3. Become famous.
But for some reason, when they achieved number 3
the first takes precedence and becomes all compassing.
They are famous and richer then trolls sleeping on troves
of gold, yet they grasp for more. Jealousy isn’t a commendable
trait, but Greed is one of the seven deadly sins.
Now the world is coming to : You want beauty, you need cash
You aint got cash, you aint getting art.
So now I want to ask political asylum from whatever nation
doesnt dance to the tunes of the lobbyists that wants to
restrain entertainment and art so hard that it chokes
on the money that they cant digest.
Free Friday Felonies
Today, its friday again, the day that all my
colleagues adore, and for me, only marks the
end of the week and usually a few days spent
at home.
I am trying to analyze myself slightly in comparison
to what I see around me and the result is quite
startling. I am old and grey. Not on paper, but
let me explain.
This morning one of the colleagues exclaimed:
“It’s Friday, its drinking night”
That little sentence sparked my introvert side
into motion and I tried to figure out why I never
exclaimed the same thing. Well, It kinda starts
with me being more or less a social hermit I guess
and I dont go out of my way to create new friends.
Those that I do make, tend to stay thus and all
is well.
Now, I dont like large gatherings of people in a
normal state, and in an alcohol filled environment
it gets even worse. Regardless if I am the one drinking
or if it is the crowd around me.
Pub life here in Sweden isn’t the same as it is abroad
mainly because of taxes. Around here, you pay about
7 USD for a beer. To you english blokes, I guess
its about 4 quid, and to those that handles euros
its in the range of 5-8 euros. I dont know the conversions
out of heart, so i cant be that exact.
Needless to say, getting yourself hammered at the pub
is a lot more expensive then getting some att the offlicense.
Oh, I forgot. We have government controlled alcoholdistribution.
Theres only 1 brand of store that sells alcohol, no competition
= higher pricing. Just because there’s nowhere else to go.
Anyhow, what USUALLY happens with people my age on a friday
is that they go to the offlicense, buy some beer and hard
licquer, sit at home and get more or less intoxicated, then
walk or take a cab to the pub, drink some, maybe throw
those furry legs about and then go home, unless you manage
for some reason to get hammered enough not to care while
you are at home, at wich point you will be in serious
financial difficulties if you bring your VISA with you.
So, usually when you get to a pub, you actually have the
staggering people that pretends to be sober enough to get
another beer, you have the troublemakers and those that
cant handle their drinking and then you always have the
panic pickups.
The reason I feel old is that I cant really see the reason
to cram myself into that sloppy alcohol mixed mess.
Im guessing you can see my point.
-z-
Morning Glory
How do people do it? I just dont understand what its
all about and how they can have a smile on their face
when the majority of people agree with me that it should
be against the law to be out of your apartment before
10 am.
I come to work, its empty besides me and my coworkers,
the other people that comes in later are shining with
their abscense, and lo and behold, someone actually
smiles and hollers a good natured “Good morning”
Naturally I respond in the nature of my intelligence
in the morning. I grunt and go to the coffee maker.
I cannnot cite sources in this because I cant remember
where I saw it, but there are 2 types of people in the
world. Type A and Type B.
Type A is the one that jumps out of bed at 5 am and is
ready to face any challenge, having a great mood
and feeling generally all to good just because a
new day is here. Im pretty sure those were the ones
minting the expression “the early bird catches the worm”
Well, go ahead. Catch your worm. I’ll catch some more
sleep thank you.
Then we have the Type B people. Now, a type B person
is the classical nightowl. They stay up till waaaaay
to late a’clock and are at their most efficcient and
productive state somewhere between 21 and 03. These
individuals loathe mornings and all that it implies.
When they are forced to wake up at 6 am they move
they talk, but they really arent functioning until
they had 2 cups of coffee and the time spent out
of bed exceeds 2 hours at least.
Now, lets parallel that to the work climate of today.
Lets face it, work really is a flexible thing these
days. A good example is the CRM industry and technology
sector. Customers doesnt cease to exist just because its
5 o’clock, neither does technological problems or
morons trying to solve those same problems.
(I quote Three dead trolls in a baggie here, twelve o’clock
flashers. Ill explain that one later on)
Naturally these individuals want to get some help.
Nothing wrong with that, I actually think its a smart
move to call the support. However, lets do a small
simulation, or rather, two. It’s 8 AM, some guy
wants to check his mail before going to work.
His internet connection doesnt work, so he calls the support.
Taaadaaaaaa. Enter the type B person. Note that its
waaaaay out of the type b persons comfortzone timewise
so, what happens, well, the type b person has to force
his brain to get a semblance of working thought processes
and the customer might just aswell be talking to the
fax machine, because the type B person is only
following his own thought patterns, not those of the
client, and hence fails to adapt his language to the
customers level of tech savvyness.
This little scenario is also true in reverse. Some
customer supports really do have 24 hour support
to their customers.
Imagine a type A person, that has been up since 5 am
trying to handle a difficult case at 1 in the morning?
I smell disaster.
Now, lets dig a little bit deeper shall we?
The reasons that we have the standard work hours
that we have, is a remnant of the old farmer society
when you HAD to be up with the dawn to utilize the
daylight in the most efficient manner. I can understand
that since when you dont have electricity and street
lights, its hard to do any manual labour in the dark.
What also was good in those days was that EVERY DAY
WAS NOT A WORK DAY. You had a few things that you had
to do, and that was it. You had to milk some of the
animals, muck out and feed em. If you had crops
they pretty much took care of themselves except
in harvest time and when planting the seeds.
We dont really need to do that anymore.
We dont have to chase the sun to maximize our hours.
Our clients are working normal hours, and how
to do an errortracking on something thats not
accessible to the needing client, since usually
the problems are in his home, and he is sitting
in his office.
I dont know, maybe im just bitter at mornings.
-z-
The Radiocontrolled human
The Radio Controlled Human.
What? Who? What scientific breakthrough is this?
Well .. nothing really. I have existed for more
then thirty years. Let me explain.
I am definetly not a morning person. Mornings is what has
started my very very very very VERY slow takeover of the
world (ive got about 82 square meters in 30 years, but hey
its more then what I had from scratch right?) and make
it a capital offense, comparable with high treason
to force people out of bed before 10.
Anyhow, my girlfriend has some very soothing tune on
her phone to wake me up, I dont know whats up with that
thing, because if theres a goddamn airstrike sound
like on my phone, I dont even register it before
the neighbours are pounding on the door yelling
to stop the effing noise. So, this morning sometime
too early to be lawful, the thing rang. I did
the same thing as I do every morning.
This, is a morning ritual for me. At least when I work
the day shift.
I get up out of the bed, I go to the bathroom,
I stumble out on the balcony to get a smoke,
I wander to the fridge to get something to drink.
After this, I usually start my trip to work.
As always, I did this, but a colleague was driving
today instead of my girlfriend, so Linda was quite
happily snoozing in the bed, david sprawling on my
still warm side of the bed.
I look at my own phone, and its not frigging 5 am yet.
What the hell? It’s more then an hour left before
I usually get up. I poke linda, tell her what time it
is, while im standing there wearing both jacket and shoes
holding my lunch in one hand. She looks at me and tells
me “Oh, im supposed to call dad and wake him up”.
This was the time where I started grinding my teeth.
Oh well. At least I can get some REST if not sleep.
Hows this for Radiocontrolled?
People who have seen me in the mornings KNOW that before
I had coffee and a smoke, you can tell me very important
things that may or may not affect me, it really doesnt
matter because I might look like im listening, and
I probably am, I honestly dont know because I am
sure as hell not registering any of it and storing
it in memory.
Todays picture is:
The Future Geek
I am not sure if I am supposed
to be proud, or disturbed.
My son shows all signs of
becoming a future techie.
A.K.A “Geek”
I mean. just look at this image.
this is where he found my PS2.
Anyhow, for a while now we have just discarded his grasping for remotes and his
pushing of various blinking
buttons to the standard baby
curiosity. All well and fine. but
I have one of those chassis
that require you to press AND
hold the powerbutton for it to
shut down. Well, the first version of this post is floating around the voidweb somewhere
because he has now managed to figure out that if he holds the button on the computer in
long enough, the lights within
the chassis goes black.
Then we have the fact that he absolutely adores remote controls. He has a little
collection of them already. One from the brand Sagem. A french company, one
Samsung and one Centrum. The centrum is actually an exact version of the
one that we use for the television set. Now, HIS centrum remote isnt HALF
as fun as the one that flips the channels. Well. He just turned 1 and its going
downhill fast.
Yesterday was his first birthday (unless you count the one where he made a
mess coming out of his mother of course) And now his room has gone from
tidy to looking like someone threw a handgrenade inside and closed the door
Heres a little view: 
Not so neat now heh grandma?
kvasi-philosophy
Time to get a little philosophical I think. Or what do you say?
Time and time again people have meditated the large mysteries in
the world, like “how do they get the toothpaste in to the tube” and
“if you choke a smurf, what color does it turn”
Well, thanks to Discovery Channel, one of those
mysteries is solved….. The smurf turns black.
Another question or rather, prejudice filled notion
has been floating around for a while aswell. How do
you tell who is gay?
Well, I think I may have deviced a pretty good test.
Now, hear me out on this one (and if you cant see
that this is irony and sarcasm, get the hell out
right away. I cant stand people with no humor.)
At work, we are a few guys and one woman in our department.
Now, this woman gives as good as she gets so she is
in no way to be pitied to be among those levels of
testosterone, but rather feel priviliged. Not to be
“working with a few excellent examples of the male
species or any other thing like that, but rather,
she has a lot of guys she can boss around because
we all want to be nice to her.
Anyhoo, out of a whim I asked her “whats inside your
handbag?” And whew .. she was like any other woman,
she was carrying a few different lipsticks, a pacifier
for the kid etc etc etc .. I mean.. it was easy over
30 different items in there.
Now, lets sidetrack a bit here. On my former blog
I had a post regarding a theory about womens handbags.
I will repeat that in brief here so you understand.
The major designer companies for handbags all gathered
together and summoned a minor demon from the netherplane
and bribed that demon with human greed to get access
to a dimensional portal. They combined that with
modern science to lock the dimensional portal to human
chromosomes. If the hand that comes into the bag
has a set with X-X the dimensional portal “reads”
the hand and the item that the hand is looking for
pops right into the hand. However, if the hand
is carrying X-Y chromosomes, the dimensional portal
opens, but shoves tons and tons of miscellania into
the hand, making it pointless to even try to find
anything in it for a male.
However, as scientists of today have discovered that some
people have extended Y chromosomes, pretty much an X with a
half lower-right leg, this might also work for certain males.
The same scientist insists that because of that half lower leg
some males turn gay and feminine. I am guessing that this
is why so many gay men actually carries a handbag and can
get the portal to work.
Now, when this woman in our team had replaced all her
items in that gaping maw that was her handbag. I asked
a male collegue to locate the silvery lipstick.
I now suspect i have a gay co worker.
A take on webcomics part II
yesterday a colleague at work had a pleasant surprise.
I directed him to one of the posts in my blog that
mentions a webcomic, and he decided to check it out.
Now, we are not sitting on the same side of the wall
so to speak, but I could still hear him laugh a lot
on the other side. I mean, having fun at work? Isn’t
that some sort of paradox? Work isn’t supposed to be
fun is it?
Honestly, if webcomics brings joy, fine, ill spread it.
So, this co worker asked if If I could list a few comics
that I read, and well, sure I can. Here you go.
These are the ones I read most frequently but in
no particular order.
Looking for group
Bruno the bandit
User friendly
The devil’s panties
The Noob Comic
Sorcery 101
Ctrl Alt Del
GU comics
Two Lumps
Nukees
God Mode
Striptease
Now, seriously, some of these arent easy to follow unless
you start from the beginning, so, give them a try at least,
im guessing at least 1 or 2 should grab your fancy…
And well, have a fun time.
One of those …
Yesterday was one of those days… literally. I have been working evenings
this weeknd and well, frankly, evenings are the worst if you think about
the workload, but for me, being a nightperson, its good to sleep in.
However, the day really started off wrong. My girlfriend was in a prissy mood
when she woke me up, and well, that hardly put a smile on my face. Normally
when I wake up I have my little routine. Normally I get out of bed, go outside
for a smoke, then in to the bathroom and then, I sit down in my chair to clear
my foggy head. It usually takes somewhere between 30 minutes til 1 hour
to get control of my brains and my hands. Before that is done, I cant basically
hold anything fragile because I would either break it or drop it.
Now, I get my son more or less shoved onto me. Oh well. deal with it i guess.
While holding the kid, I somehow, manage to make myself a pot of coffee.
So, When I give David back to his mother for my little morning coffee, I sit down
and start to read the news. When I reach out to grab the mouse for the computer
my coffeecup gets turned over .. right over my keyboard. So now, I have a
nice black, logitech keyboard filled with almost an entire cup of coffee.
Well, you can imagine the rest of the day.
Roleplaying Retards
Offensive title ey? Well, it really has a purpose. Im starting to feel
the bile rise again and its time for another rant. This time its against
WoW players with less brain then a slug. I dont really know how many
of you that reads the comic “Looking for group” I highly recommend it.
You can find it here: Looking for Group
Anyhow, everytime I mention this comic, the reply is in 95% of the time
“Oh! That WoW comic with an elf and a minotaur and an undead warlock”
And everytime I hear that or something similar it sets my teeth on edge
and i start to grind em. Now, Blizzard may be a good company, but seriously
lets take a step back and analyze some.
Ok. There’s an elf in the comic, there are elfs in WoW, hence Blizzard created
elfs. Sound bad? To me it does. Heres an excerpt of Wikipedia.
=================================================
Elf
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the small mythical creature.
For other uses, see Elf (disambiguation).
An elf is a creature of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally
imagined as a race of minor nature and fertility gods, who are often
pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in
forests and underground places and caves, or in wells and springs.
They have been portrayed to be long-lived or immortal and as beings of m
agical powers.
Following J. R. R. Tolkien’s influential The Lord of the Rings, wherein
a wise, immortal people named Elves have a significant role, elves
became staple characters of modern fantasy.
[edit] Etymology and Germanic origins
The English word elf is from Old English ælf (also ylf), from a
Proto-Germanic *albo-z, *albi-z, whence also Old Norse álfr, Middle
High German elbe. In Middle English, until the 14th century,
elf was the masculine, while the corresponding feminine was elven
(Old English ælfen, from *albinnja).
=======================================================
You see that? 14th century?! I dare you to prove to me that blizzard was
doing business back then, and I am NOT talking about the natural one
where you get minimum 3 feet of snow (To all you brits, 3 inches is NOT
a lot of snow) So, we now know that blizzard didnt create elfs. Whats funny
is that Dungeons and Dragons, wich was as big or bigger hit then WoW
contained elfs, but still, the comic isnt called “DnD comic”
Lets move on.
In the comic you have Crush who is a minotaur.
This is where I raise my hand and say “Shut the hell up and let me finish”
Ok, I am not entirely sure when the first mentioning of a minotaur
surfaced, but i do lknow that it was in greece. Heres some wikipedia info again.
After he ascended the throne of Crete, Minos struggled with his
brothers for the right to rule. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send
him a snow-white bull, as a sign of approval. He was to sacrifice
the bull in honor of Poseidon but decided to keep it instead
because of its beauty. To punish Minos, Poseidon caused Pasiphaë,
Minos’ wife, to fall madly in love with the bull from the sea, the
Cretan Bull.
She had Daedalus, the famous architect, make a wooden cow for her.
Pasiphaë climbed into the decoy in order to copulate with the white
bull. The offspring of their coupling was a monster called the Minotaur.
Nowhere has the essence of the myth been expressed more succinctly
than in the Heroides attributed to Ovid, where Pasiphaë’s daughter
complains of the curse of her unrequited love: “the bull’s form
disguised the god, Pasiphaë, my mother, a victim of the deluded
bull, brought forth in travail her reproach and burden.” Literalist
and prurient readings that emphasize the machinery of literal
copulation may intentionally obscure the mystic marriage of the
god in bull form, a Minoan mythos alien to the Greeks.
The Minotaur, as the Greeks imagined him, had the body of a man
and the head and tail of a bull. Pasiphaë nursed him in his
infancy, but he grew and became ferocious. Minos, after getting
advice from the Oracle at Delphi, had Daedalus construct a gigantic
labyrinth to hold the Minotaur. Its location was near Minos’
palace in Knossos.
So we established that Blizzard didnt create elfs. Will anyone
dispute me if I say that Blizzard isnt the creators of greek mythology?
I sure as hell hope not, because IF you do, go back to school, tell them
that you are not at the average level in history and have them enroll you
as a freshman again. What are you waiting for. Go!
Lets dissect the undead warlock then.
What is an undead. Well, simply put, its an animated corpse.
In this case, a corpse imbued with magical powers.
Lets turn again, to wikipedia for some knowledge (Hey, I know it might not
be correct at all times, but its correct in more cases then most single humans)
Undead is a collective name for beings that the superstitious
believe are deceased yet behave as if alive. Undead may be spiritual,
such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies.
Undead are featured in the legends of most cultures and in many
works of fantasy and horror fiction.
Bram Stoker considered the term “The Un-Dead” for the original
title for his novel Dracula (1897), and its use in the novel
is mostly responsible for the modern sense of the word. The
word does appear in English before Stoker but with the more
literal sense of “alive” or “not dead,” for which citations
can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Stoker’s use of the term refers only to vampires, and the
extension to other types of supernatural beings arose later.
Most commonly, it is now taken to refer to supernatural beings
which had at one time been alive and continue to display some
aspects of life after death, but the usage is highly variable.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or the
Modern Prometheus introduced a new variant of undead,
the dead brought back to “life” by science, though Frankenstein’s
creature bears some similarity to a golem.
Similar works include H. P. Lovecraft’s short story
“Herbert West—Reanimator” and the Re-Animator film franchise
inspired by the story.
Both legend and popular culture discuss various methods for creating
undead creatures. Most involve the reanimation of a corpse, as with
zombies, skeletons, and ghouls. Regarding ghosts, the spirit
lives on after death, forming an intangible physical body that
often mirrors the one the spirit had in life. Rituals propitiating
the uneasy spirits of the dead were a feature of ancient Greek religion
(keres) and ancient Roman religion (lemures).
In some cases, the undead, especially skeletons and zombies, are under
the control of a necromancer. In other cases, such as zombies as
depicted in film and vampires, the undead existence is passed on like
a curse or disease. With liches, the powers of undead are sought after
by the participant of a magical ritual that turns them from a living
being to a lich. Ghosts are said to be kept in their undead state
by willpower, either from a keen desire to remain with the living or
from a wish to see something completed that they could not do during
their lifetime.
Creation of Zombies
Zombies are a part of Voodoo, a religion which originated in Haiti
and Western Africa. The necromancer — known as a Bokor — selects a
victim. The Bokor placed a cocktail of poisonous substances, most
notably pufferfish. Over a course of a couple weeks, the victim would
assume a death-like state, and be buried, only to be dug up by the Bokor.
The victim, suffering from brain damage, would seem to many to be a
reanimated corpse. This process is assumed to work because of the
brain damaging properties of the poison. However, a substantial
specimen has yet to be found.
What? Blizzard didn’t create the undead ?!? I didnt know that, or rather
i did, but it seems that the rest of the world dont.
I could do this all day, but you get the picture.
Now, lets sum this up in as few words as possible.
If World Of Warcraft is your only reference, read some frigging books
-z-
(for once, in the service of knowledge)
Monday morning, and not much
In the news that is. So, not that much to comment on really.
I guess I could fire off some random rant that would be funny
for some, or sad for others, but naw. Ill do like the TV networks do.
Ill run a re-run.
On my first attempt at wordpress I had a post called “nice guys finishes last”
that was a pure ripoff, but the text in itself was so good. So, here it is again.
“Where are all the nice guys?”
I see this question posted with some regularity in the personals section, so I thought I’d take a minute to explain things to the ladies out there that haven’t figured it out.
What happened to all the nice guys?
The answer is simple: you did.
See, if you think back, really hard, you might vaguely remember a Platonic guy pal who always seemed to want to spend time with you. He’d tag along with you when you went shopping, stop by your place for a movie when you were lonely but didn’t feel like going out, or even sit there and hold you while you sobbed and told him about how horribly the (other) guy that you were fucking treated you.
At the time, you probably joked with your girlfriends about how he was a little puppy dog, always following you around, trying to do things to get you to pay attention to him. They probably teased you because they thought he had a crush on you. Given that his behavior was, admittedly, a little pathetic, you vehemently denied having any romantic feelings for him, and buttressed your position by claiming that you were “just friends.” Besides, he totally wasn’t your type. I mean, he was a little too short, or too bald, or too fat, or too poor, or didn’t know how to dress himself, or basically be or do any of the things that your tall, good-looking, fit, rich, stylish boyfriend at the time pulled off with such ease.
Eventually, your Platonic buddy drifted away, as your relationship with the boyfriend got more serious and spending time with this other guy was, admittedly, a little weird, if you werent dating him. More time passed, and the boyfriend eventually cheated on you, or became boring, or you realized that the things that attracted you to him weren’t the kinds of things that make for a good, long-term relationship. So, now, you’re single again, and after having tried the bar scene for several months having only encountered players and douche bags, you wonder, “What happened to all the nice guys?”
Well, once again, you did.
You ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy. You laughed at his consideration and resented his devotion. You valued the aloof boyfriend more than the attentive “just-a-” friend. Eventually, he took the hint and moved on with his life. He probably came to realize, one day, that women aren’t really attracted to guys who hold doors open; or make dinners just because; or buy you a Christmas gift that you mentioned, in passing, that you really wanted five months ago; or listen when you’re upset; or hold you when you cry. He came to realize that, if he wanted a woman like you, he’d have to act more like the boyfriend that you had. He probably cleaned up his look, started making some money, and generally acted like more of an asshole than he ever wanted to be.
Fact is, now, he’s probably getting laid, and in a way, your ultimate rejection of him is to thank for that. And I’m sorry that it took the complete absence of “nice guys” in your life for you to realize that you missed them and wanted them. Most women will only have a handful of nice guys stumble into their lives, if that.
So, if you’re looking for a nice guy, here’s what you do:
1.) Build a time machine.
2.) Go back a few years and pull your head out of your ass.
3.) Take a look at what’s right in front of you and grab ahold of it.
I suppose the other possibility is that you STILL don’t really want a nice guy, but you feel the social pressure to at least appear to have matured beyond your infantile taste in men. In which case, you might be in luck, because the nice guy you claim to want has, in reality, shed his nice guy mantle and is out there looking to unleash his cynicism and resentment onto someone just like you.
If you were five years younger.
So, please: either stop misrepresenting what you want, or own up to the fact that you’ve fucked yourself over. You’re getting older, after all. It’s time to excise the bullshit and deal with reality. You didn’t want a nice guy then, and he certainly doesn’t fucking want you, now.
Sincerely,
A Recovering Nice Guy
Callcenters of the world, UNITE
Imagine if tomorrow morning, you see a very blatant headline on
your morning paper stating “All call centers in the world decided to go
on a strike at midnight”
Can you imagine the confusion in the world?
You cant? Well, let let get you thinking then. You finish
reading your paper, you put it down, and decide to check your mail,
nothing odd with that, I do it every day. But this time, you cant
even get out on the internet. So, what do you do? Well, I know what
I would do. Check the connection, check and restart the router
and the modem. Nothing happens. I cant get a connection.
So, I call my ISP… who has their support on a call center. Whoopee, no reply
due to the strike.
So, I call a friend that work at that company. He is kind, but since his
workplace is on strike, he doesnt have access to the systems and hence
cant help me.
During the day, I get the invoice from my phone company where there
suddenly is a HUGE figure for some service that I never signed up for.
So, I call the phone company, and get met with a black strike wall again,
even tho the invoice is due to be paid in just a few days.
Ok, then. Ill wait I guess .. so now i dont have any internet, and neither
will my phone work in a few days time. And frankly, you get more and more
isolated.
Later, after a few days of strike, my car gets a block on it, so I cant drive
my car, its effectively locked in position. So I call up the parking company
that predictably enough has their customer service at … you guess it.
A call center.
So you see, in a certain degree, the call centers are driving a large part
of our global world. Without them we can pretty fast get blind and mute
and alone.
And yet, people who call customer service act like they own said world
treating the support personell like dirt, not worthy of the time talking to
them, and god forbid, let them help you.
The only call center that has happy customers is the one that is calling
from the lottery companies to report that you won.
Is that the way its supposed to be? Is it? In my book, the men and women
who does the support work are worth gold medals and if they ask you to
wait while they check something up, you bloody well wait.
Oh well, I guess im biased, but wouldnt a world wide strike be fun?
Blizzard in my mind
Right now there is a lot going on in my life, not so much on the outside
but inside. I have a thousand and one things that I have to consider all
the time, although some of them might not be necessary, they still intrude
upon me and usurp my thought processes and frankly, its close to driving
me mad. I really haven’t got time to deal with all ideas at once, there just
isnt time enough on the day. I have a job that I enjoy, and I want to keep it
so id better be a good little working bee and do my job as much as I
can. But still.
The mud really requires extra thoughts on to where to go from
here with the remort system. The initial plan wont really work that
good, so I need to sit down and talk with the coder on what to do
and how to do it.
My personal life needs some attentions since for sometime now
it has been put on hold for work and for David. I would not put David
second any time, but right now everything else intrudes.
So the best I can do right now is keep on the raging horse, franticly, I
might add, and ride this horse til it drops from exhaustion and then
pick up the pieces and puzzle it together again and go for another ride.
Some tip on music now for a change. You know that I am quite eclectic in my
taste of music, but I tend to lean towards the electric guitars and and banging
drums, so here is a tip from me, to you. Even if you might not like metal
in general, you might actually like this one. Listen to the message.
The song is “Letter to Dana” from the band “Sonata Arctica”.
A really beautiful song. Here is the lyrics for you:
Dana, my darling, I’m writing to you.
Cause your father passed away, it was a beautiful day
And I don’t want to bother You anymore,
I used to hope you’d come back
But not anymore Dana.
My eyes might have betrayed me, but I have seen
your picture on the cover of a filthy magazine
And I think my heart just cannot handle that
Dana, my darling, would be so bad.
Dana my darling I’m writing to you
Cause your mother passed away it was a really rainy day
And I didn’t mean to bother you anymore
Your mother wished: Come visit your father’s grave, Dana
Your father disowned you ’cause you have sinned
But he did forgive you in condition he was in
And I hope you won’t do those things anymore
Dana My darling I’m waiting for
Little Dana O’Hara oh, Dana my dear,
How I wish that my Dana was here
Little Dana O’Hara decided one day
to travel away, faraway
No, you can’t surprise me anymore
I’ve seen it all before
But it seems I cannot let you go
Dana, Dana, Dana, Dana
And I think that I told you, I’d wait for you forever
Now I know someone else’s holding you,
so, for the first time in my life – I must lie
Lie’s a sin, mess that I am in,
Love is not the thing I feel now
I promise you: I won’t write again ’til the sun sets
behind your grave
Dana, oh, Dana I’m writing to you
I heard you passed away, it was a beautiful day
I’m old and I feel time will come for me
My diary’s pages are full of thee
Little Dana O’Hara oh, Dana my dear,
How I wish that my Dana was here
Little Dana O’Hara decided one day
to travel away, faraway
Little Dana O’Hara oh, Dana my dear,
How I wish that my Dana was here
Little Dana O’Hara decided one day
to travel away, faraway
Little Dana O’Hara oh, Dana my dear,
How I wish that my Dana was here
Little Dana O’Hara decided one day
to travel away, faraway
A take on webcomics
Ok, in the previous post I mentioned a webcomic. Bruno the bandit. I have been a follower
of that one for quite a while and it still havent bored me, wich sadly, happens quite
easy. So, I scour the web for more to read.
For a while I followed Scott Abrams “Sluggy Freelance” quite funny and surreal
having a little rabbit with a switchblade knife, and said bunny has a hatred
towards telemarketers that is unrivaled.
www.sluggy.net
Another of the comics I follow is User friendly. A techie comic
about a small ISP and its weird denizens, including the wannabe
evil genious Pitr (really named Peter) who has adapted a fake slavic
accent to appear more evil. To show HOW evil he is, he manages
to merge pepsi and coca cola under the name Pitr Cola wich consists
of 98% caffeeine. The old Tech Relic Sid who knows how to play
quake on an abacus. The timid and shy designer A.J, The bitter
support guy Greg. The slimy marketer Stef and of course, the female distractions,
Miranda, a sysadmin and Pearl, Sids daughter.
And here comes the odd men out. You have Cthulhu
and Hastur (hastur was found by distilling usenet bitterness) and
a walking ball of dust called Dustpuppy, who by accident codes
a super intelligent AI using Cobol. Satire is waiting to happen.
www.userfriendly.org
Ill keep posting more interresting webcomics here in a while.
-z-
How you know that you are being read (SPAMMERS!)
I guess, a measurement on IF you are being read is the amount of spam
you catch in your filters. Luckily I am one of those that moderate my comments
so the spammers doesnt really get to see their comments live in the search
engines and neither will I ever go to the URLs they supply since its
quite obvious its only there for one reason and one alone. To try to entice
me to buy something that I A: Dont need. B: Dont want C: Wont work or D: All
of the above.
There really has to be a lot of money in spam, what could possibly
be the other explanation? I mean, there isn’t a lot of computer geeks
sitting around thinking “Hmm, I think I’ll waste my own bandwidth
massively, sending out crap advertisements to the entire world
that they dont want. Thats a really good idea, because the emails
are all going too fast.” Can you imagine that? I didn’t think so either.
Now, we get to the new type of scourge that has hit the online world.
Facebook spam. Not facebook in itself, It has a function, so its valid
in my book, but seriously, you add one application and voila, you
will get TONS of spam from that application. I expect to read
from the facebook fanbois right here (“But you can disable that there and there!”)
Yes I CAN disable it. That is not the point. Id like it disabled by default.
I would cut down my mailtraffic with one third instantly if that was the case.
It would also be a fairly easy thing for the facebook crew to place into the agreement
that I HOPE that application developers have to sign or approve.
A little note on facebook tho. And to be quite frank, this is shameless
namedropping of someone that I actually admire for his competence
in his field. I managed to find the creator of one of my favourite webcomics.
You can see that here: 
So, lets change track a bit and talk about the comic in question, and for once, without
the dripping sarcasm and scorn, since I actually like it.
Bruno is, as the name of the comic supplies, a bandit in the fictive land
of rothland, ruled by the incompentent and ignorant half-dwarf Xerxes.
Bruno and his oddball family (consisiting of the one armed father “Ambrose”
The former famevampire and warrior-hottie Eunice, and of course Bruno’s
sidekick microdragon Fiona. Then theres uncle Lucius of course…
Anyhow, the story is somewhat set in a mashup between todays world
and a dungeons and dragons world, so, TV’s are common, but so is the
use of chain and platemail.
If you like twisted humor and satire, this is a good one for you and
really, read it from the start.
If you like to see progress and personal development you will do what I
do. Sit around and analyze how the artist’s skilled has been used and
honed through all those nights spent over the drawingboard, and how the
humour has gone from being a broadsword to become a scalpell, cutting
precise slizes out of society. Please, Enjoy.
-Z-
Where do I go from here.
Wich way to go and where to turn?
Well, with a LOT of help we now have the mud
up and running, we have an enthusiastic coder
and we have someone who is familiar with world
and who has the files needed.
However a pretty large dilemma still looms around
the corner. Elite has gone through many changes and
the one that is personally most appealing to me
is where you can have three different classes.
However, in a later stage you could only have 1
class, retaining a few aspects of your previous
one.
I guess both sides has their pros and cons really
for naming a few, the completed eq contra redo the
eq, the mobs balance contra player abilities.
It’s not a small project either way. And tonight
I will try one last time to get the playerfiles
from the older system. I could if course talk to the
previous implementor regarding the playerfiles, but those
would be for the new single class system, or hope
that Tim pulls through and hands over some player files
that are compatible with the system we now use.
I can understand people wanting their old characters
back, seeing as there is a lot of time invested in them
and with the games that are around these days, most likely
elite will be more of a nostalgic chatroom with game
capabilities. But who knows really.
I have been thinking on what I wanted this to
be really, and there are a few changes that
I want to make regardless of what type of system
I get inserted, and wether or not I get the player
files, and I will get to that later.
The biggest hurdle really is, what system to choose.
I keep coming back to side issues that would need
to be adressed regardless of the system I choose
and its sort of tearing me apart really.
I guess I will have to think about it when I get home
today.
Take care peeps
-z-
Addiction revisited
A few years back I was an avid Mudplayer. I frequented a place called Elitemud
and I enjoyed it immensely. But for one reason or another, i got burned out
and when i’ve managed to pick up the pieces of me, the MUD was gone.
Now, two years after the mud’s downfall its back up again. Albeit using
older code, but its working. And I am once again playing. Even though I
had to start from scratch. I find its a good thing. I am reliving the old
days when you had to work for something instead of just killing everything
in a single go.
In case you want to give it a shot, just get a client or telnet to
elitemud.game-host.org on port 4500 and log on.
Enjoy
Depressing thought
A thought occured to me a few days ago, and its a real depressing one.
A friend of mine from portugal pointed this out, a little tauntingly, I admit
but, what the hell guys .. We really need to work on getting some GOOD
things to put sweden on the map. When you talk sweden with foreigners
usually what springs into their mind is this: ABBA, IKEA (these are the lesser
evils really) and here comes the shivers. Gunther and the Sunshine girls,
Dr. Bombay and Basshunter.
Someone please change this?
Look before you leap
It appears that the right wing parties has understood that they have
put both the left AND the right foot into their mouth with voting through
this FRA law, and now, Sten Tolgfors has jumped up on top of his soap
box and is claiming that since the vote is done, he is now the new alphamale.
or in light of this discussion, is that AlphaMail? Anyhoo, he is standing there
like another short little man did in the 1940s, and declaring that he will
take no alternatives. Doesn’t ring close to “Ich have das gemacht” to you?
Im just waiting for him to draw up an own little banner to hand out to
his employees that they are supposed to wear around their arms and
salute as if it was a flag. Ok, I am taking this to the extreme, I know I am
but seriously. If you cant take a debate wich is one of the foundations
of democracy, do you really deserve to have a post in the corridors of power,
should you really have the power to handpick your ex-wifes mailtraffic
just for the hell of it? Or, if someone is paranoid enough, expose peoples
sexual preferences due to your own homophobia?
Seriously, someone needs to keep this debate going.
War on terror
That phrase has been around for quite a while, dont you think?
But, here’s the kicker. Aren’t the western world acting like terrorists
when we invade other peoples lands? I would think so. Think about
it for a while, some country who has a different belief, and those that
are fanatics in your land decides that god, leader or whoever should
be “punished” and commands his followers to commit a random atrocity
and of course, that atrocity is carried out, there are always morons who
will go along with just about anything if its in the right mix of religion,
glory and fanaticism.
Now that country decides that the act has to be punished, so we take over
their land, damaging property, civilians and the like, placing it in the “collateral
damage” folder. It is after all a justified war, a war justified by “they shot first”.
Correct me if I am wrong, but we never accepted that as an apology from
our kids when they have been in a scuffle.
So, what is the deal with all this fighting?
Ok, I am not that well versed in the Qur’an and neither am I a die hard christian
to say the least. BUT here’s a little kicker, and please correct me if I am wrong.
Both The Qu’ran and the Bible states that you should go out and spread the message
and try to convert the belief into everyone you meet. Now, It’s very hard to accept
a new faith when it was placed in you together with a 5.56 slug.
I believe that Marx was partially right when he said “Religion is the Opiate for the people”
but I think it is also the biggest excuse man has ever had to wage war that in the
bottom line was about land, power, money or plain and simple spite.
I do not believe that ANY deity stated “Those who dont believe in me should be
brutally murdered, and oh, while you are doing that, get as many bystanders
as you can.” So in my view of the world, that would make most religious leaders
into hypocrites, or “Munafiq”, if that is your preferrence. I am aware that some
people will regard this little post as proof that I am one aswell, and maybe I am
but neither you nor I have the right to decide that. That is to the powers that
be.
I am a secular man. I do not actively support ANY religion. And I guess that
makes me into a sinner, an infidel and whatnot, but at least I am so with
an open heart. I do not hide the fact that I dont actively believe or practice
but I let whatever diety in existance judge me when the time comes. If indeed
there is a god, he will judge me as is probably his right to do, be his or her name
Jahve, Allah, Kali or whatever!
We cant abolish ALL religions, and we sure as hell cant force a religion
into our fellow men, because as almost ALL religions state, we have a soul
that cant be touched by others then the deity of choice. And if that deity
havent touched the soul of the fellow man, who are we to force that man
or woman to become a liar in the eyes of the following deity?
Aren’t the perpetrators of the forcing really sinners in the eyes of the deity
for trying to say that the deity isnt good enough? Or is it once again, the
struggle to gain power, wealth and recognition?
You be the judge of it all.
-Z-
P.S No alarm words this time.
I usually dont write in swedish but..
I really cant be arsed to translate both of these articles.
So, heres what Expressen has to say today.
Tolgfors: Inga kompromisser
Det blir inga fler kompromisser när tilläggen till
FRA-lagen ska klubbas i höst. Det beskedet ger
försvarsminister Sten Tolgfors till Expressen. Därmed
nobbar han centerpartisternas ansträngningar för att
begränsa spionlagen.
– Det har gjorts en uppgörelse mellan fyra partiledare,
säger Sten Tolgfors.
I går berättade Expressen att en majoritet av svenska folket
vill riva upp FRA-lagen, enligt en färsk undersökning från Demoskop.
Statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt tänker inte lyssna på den opinionen.
Han hävdar att integritetsfrågorna får tillräckligt skydd när
tilläggspropositionen om signalspaningslagen tas i riksdagen i höst.
Filar på kravlista
En rad centerpartistiska FRA-kritiker – med riksdagsledamoten
Fredrick Federley och Stockholmscenterns ordförande Per Ankersjö
i spetsen – filar nu på en kravlista med kompletteringar till
höstens propositionen.
Men försvarsminister Sten Tolgfors gör klart att han har kompromissat
färdigt.
– Det har gjorts en uppgörelse mellan fyra partier och fyra
partiledare om vad de kompletteringarna ska innehålla. D
et är det som är grunden för vad som kommer att ske i höst, s
äger han.
Dumheter, hävdar Per Ankersjö:
– Det är ett tag kvar, så jag tror att det är dumt att på
förhand låsa in sig i ett hörn på det sättet. Man måste
till hänsyn till den massiva folkstorm som har varit, säger han.
Ödmjuk och lyssnande
Han tillägger att han möter en ödmjuk och lyssnande inställning
från sin egen partiledning. Centerledaren Maud Olofsson har de
senaste dagarna hållit en låg profil i FRA-frågan, och var i
går inte tillgänglig för kommentarer.
Partisekreteraren Anders Flanking tillbringade kvällen i ett
möte med rebellerna i centeruppropet, som kräver att hela
signalspaningen ska bort.
– Vi tycker att man ska ta dialogen, och det är det som vi gör,
säger han till Expressen.
Tiefensee avfärdar expertens kritik
Expressen gör fel i att använda begreppet “avlyssna”,
hävdar riksdagsledamoten Roger Tiefensee (c).
Därför skickade han ut ett svar till alla väljare som
mejlat honom.
– Att använda begreppet avlyssning leder tanken fel, säger han.
Mer än sex miljoner protestmelj skickades via Expressen.se:s
formulär till de riksdagsledamöter som röstade ja till nya
FRA-lagen, Roger Tiefensee (c) svarade de som mejlade honom
och hävdade att ett påstående inte stämmer.
Han säger att begreppet avlyssning är fel att använda.
– Trafiken kommer att passera genom ett filter och scannas
av, men inte avlyssnas om det handlar om två svenska användare.
Då kommer det att raderas och därmed inte avlyssnas, säger
Roger Tiefensee.
Experter påstår att det är svårt att sortera ut trafiken utan
att öppna den. – Man scannar av flödet, men det är fysiskt
omöjligt att öppna alla mejlen, utan det blir som en fartkamera.
Att använda begreppet avlyssning leder tanken fel.
Men är det inte bara vetskapen av att sina mejl kan öppnas
som inskränker på integriteten?
– Det är en avvägning. Det är klart att det här innebär en
inskränkning i den personliga integriteten, men att det sedan även
handlar om vår säkerhetspolitik.
===============================================
intressant eller inte?
Edit: Bomb, Fire, Anthrax, Jihad, Allah, Palestine, Jews, Fist of Allah, tower, subway, gas,
chemicals, acid.
Better get to remember to place my alarmwords here, Im getting good stats from them 😛
Here we go again.
Once again, Camilla Lindberg is seen in the
news. And to be honest, I dont envy her, I
may not like her partys decisions much
when it comes to politics but Camilla
deservs respect. Respect for standing
up to things she doesnt feel are right,
respect for trying to protect the small mans
integrity and privacy and most of all, respect
for facing a battle head on even though it
may cost her a lot of what she holds
dear. My hat (if i had one that is) is off for
you.
She is a little taken aback by her fellow party members for acting
infantile and stating that If she does vote no, she wont have any friends left.
Now, I really hoped that the people that got elected was more mature then
that, but I guess I was dead wrong.
Maybe it’s time to give the people a BETTER chance to remove single persons that
are generally held “not doing a good job” I know Sweden isnt known for actions,
but how about this for an idea.
After a vote for parliament, we let the new guys settle in, and after half the election time
there could be a new election that doesnt concern the parties, but concerns the PERSONS
that are sitting in the parliament. Im not really sure what percentage would be counted
as grounds for dismissal, but still .. could be fun.
Now, this is just going overboard.
And not in a small way. For you swedish people, heres a something to read, you others, skip to the end.
(removed due to removed article)
Interresting huh?
Anyhow, heres for you english readers, in a very dieted version.
The European Parliament wants to start registering blogs, the people
behind them and their opinion because they feel that “the anonymity is
threatening the democracy, and in knowing who the bloggers are
they will have a better way to communicate”
Now, im sorry, but…. have you ever seen the “comment” buttons?
Ill comment this more when I get back home.
Hold the phone!
Thats just it. It is what they want us to do. Obviously the governments have gone on one hell of a bender, and its not on booze, its on power. And believe me its a powertrip waaaay out of proportion and its making lucy in the sky with diamonds seem like Lisa on the...
Am I a terrorist?
Why do you have to ask? Everything I do when it regards the united states evolves around 2 simple questions, that pops up again, and again, and again, and again. These questions really are redundant but they HAVE to be put into the light anyway. Lets play a scenario....
Sverige är en diktatur! (sorry for the swedish)
just because I am so lazy that I cant be bothered translating all the "borrowed" sections from Wikipedia. Lets get on with it. To the english readers, I will give a little explanation later on. ================================================= Sverige är en diktatur!...
A letter
This will be a two parted post, mainly because the second part is blatantly stolen from one of the blogs I usually read, and its in swedish. It is an open letter to artist Per Gessle, one of those that is FOR the IPRED law, wich pretty much give the record companies...
IPRED, dollars, businessmodel, feel free to steal the idea
Now, you remember the gripes about letting the government sniff the net traffic, well, its just getting worse. I am not sure how much you have heard or know about IPRED, but in essence, heres what it means: The directives essential part is to let copyrightholders...
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?
Lets take a view on software and software piracy for a while. Companies state that they are loosing money on software piracy, but what some of them (not, SOME, not all) doesnt tell the media is that they are in a way also benefiting from the piracy that flourishes on...
Rambling Revised
There really needs to be a clinical term for the moods people have in the mornings. I mean, think about it. Those that knows me would probably describe me is fully comparable to the old Scrooge combined with a bear that woke up too early from hibernation. Im gruffy,...
If you are gonna bitch, bitch about whats right
I really dont know what type of situation that you people comes from, but those of you that work in customer support in various ways knows that the old device "The customer is always right" is dead wrong. Personally, I would like to go to the hardware store that...
Politics without solutions
On what does one base an application for political asylum? Think about it. Even globally, software and hardware downloads are increasing, and the companies that hunts them are being more and more ruthless What REALLY scares me is that the governments makes more and...
Free Friday Felonies
Today, its friday again, the day that all my colleagues adore, and for me, only marks the end of the week and usually a few days spent at home. I am trying to analyze myself slightly in comparison to what I see around me and the result is quite startling. I am old and...
Morning Glory
How do people do it? I just dont understand what its all about and how they can have a smile on their face when the majority of people agree with me that it should be against the law to be out of your apartment before 10 am. I come to work, its empty besides me and my...
The Radiocontrolled human
The Radio Controlled Human. What? Who? What scientific breakthrough is this? Well .. nothing really. I have existed for more then thirty years. Let me explain. I am definetly not a morning person. Mornings is what has started my very very very very VERY slow takeover...
The Future Geek
I am not sure if I am supposed to be proud, or disturbed. My son shows all signs of becoming a future techie. A.K.A "Geek" I mean. just look at this image. this is where he found my PS2. Anyhow, for a while now we have just discarded his grasping for remotes and his...
A take on webcomics part II
yesterday a colleague at work had a pleasant surprise. I directed him to one of the posts in my blog that mentions a webcomic, and he decided to check it out. Now, we are not sitting on the same side of the wall so to speak, but I could still hear him laugh a lot on...
Roleplaying Retards
Offensive title ey? Well, it really has a purpose. Im starting to feel the bile rise again and its time for another rant. This time its against WoW players with less brain then a slug. I dont really know how many of you that reads the comic "Looking for group" I...
Monday morning, and not much
In the news that is. So, not that much to comment on really. I guess I could fire off some random rant that would be funny for some, or sad for others, but naw. Ill do like the TV networks do. Ill run a re-run. On my first attempt at wordpress I had a post called...
Callcenters of the world, UNITE
Imagine if tomorrow morning, you see a very blatant headline on your morning paper stating "All call centers in the world decided to go on a strike at midnight" Can you imagine the confusion in the world? You cant? Well, let let get you thinking then. You finish...
Blizzard in my mind
Right now there is a lot going on in my life, not so much on the outside but inside. I have a thousand and one things that I have to consider all the time, although some of them might not be necessary, they still intrude upon me and usurp my thought processes and...
How you know that you are being read (SPAMMERS!)
I guess, a measurement on IF you are being read is the amount of spam you catch in your filters. Luckily I am one of those that moderate my comments so the spammers doesnt really get to see their comments live in the search engines and neither will I ever go to the...
Addiction revisited
A few years back I was an avid Mudplayer. I frequented a place called Elitemud and I enjoyed it immensely. But for one reason or another, i got burned out and when i've managed to pick up the pieces of me, the MUD was gone. Now, two years after the mud's downfall its...
Depressing thought
A thought occured to me a few days ago, and its a real depressing one. A friend of mine from portugal pointed this out, a little tauntingly, I admit but, what the hell guys .. We really need to work on getting some GOOD things to put sweden on the map. When you talk...
Look before you leap
It appears that the right wing parties has understood that they have put both the left AND the right foot into their mouth with voting through this FRA law, and now, Sten Tolgfors has jumped up on top of his soap box and is claiming that since the vote is done, he is...
War on terror
That phrase has been around for quite a while, dont you think? But, here's the kicker. Aren't the western world acting like terrorists when we invade other peoples lands? I would think so. Think about it for a while, some country who has a different belief, and those...
I usually dont write in swedish but..
I really cant be arsed to translate both of these articles. So, heres what Expressen has to say today. Tolgfors: Inga kompromisser Det blir inga fler kompromisser när tilläggen till FRA-lagen ska klubbas i höst. Det beskedet ger försvarsminister Sten Tolgfors till...
Here we go again.
Once again, Camilla Lindberg is seen in the news. And to be honest, I dont envy her, I may not like her partys decisions much when it comes to politics but Camilla deservs respect. Respect for standing up to things she doesnt feel are right, respect for trying to...
Now, this is just going overboard.
And not in a small way. For you swedish people, heres a something to read, you others, skip to the end. (removed due to removed article) Interresting huh? Anyhow, heres for you english readers, in a very dieted version. The European Parliament wants to start...
Teething and tithing
Well, those of you who are parents either have (please tell me how to survive) or will (you poor poor poor POOR bastards) live through the phenomena of teething. Ok, so little David has 1 tooth. Or rather, half of one. The other part is still below the gums, so right...
Who pays for the governments mistake?
It is another day in the reich of sweden. Fuhrer Reinfeldt is still at the helm of this vessel and from what I can judge, he wont go down with his ship, he will shackle the rest of us to it and then get into the only lifeboat there is to laugh while the rest of us...
Do you know who this is?
This my friends is a new fav of mine. Her name is Camilla Lindberg And she was one of those who voted No on the FRA proposal. Sadly, the scores to the right of her tells us a story of defeat for the personal integrity and a victory for the swedish government to snoop...
safe.. for the time being
Apparently the swedish government balked a little regarding that FRA law. My guess the sight of all those people protesting by wearing white shirts kinda made an impact on the little people runs this little banana republic. However, the idiocy hasn't been revoked,...
For what its worth (note the sarcasm and irony)
I am not sure that you know whats going around in sweden these days but it appears that now encryption software is going to be a must to keep even the semblance of privacy. Personally i have installed Tor and I am running it 100% of the time. Not due to the fact that...
Good morning everyone
Isn't it odd how ones perception of a job can change? I mean, you rarely know how tough a job is until you have tried it for a period. Now, I am gonna talk about Customer Support since thats the area I know most about to be honest, and truth to be told its an area...
Weekend worker
Ok, I am soooo tired right now but im trying to do good at work anyhow. I have someone to ask if theres something in the issues that I am not used seeing, but still, i guess it could be worse. Last place I worked is still bleeding people and yesterday, another of the...
