Vattenskål och kall kö

I helgen var det dop i Stockholm. Lilla Elsa fick vatten på huvudet. Som faderns bror fick jag också vara fadder. Den andra faddern var tyvärr inte i landet, men jag tror nog att han tar sitt ansvar också. Dopet ägde rum i ett mysigt litet kapell på Kungsholmen, S:t Eriks kapell. Efter dopet var det dopkalas med tårta hos barnets mor o far. Stor succé.

Helgen spenderades sedan på promenader och mat och på söndagens kväll kollade jag, bror och brors fru på Matador med Pierce Brosnan och Greg Kinnear. Mycket underhållande film om vänskap i en skruvad situation. Filmen visades med den fina projektorn. Stort blev det.

På måndag morgon skulle jag infinna mig på amerikanska ambassaden för att gå på intervju för att få traineevisum. Resan började vid rådhuset och 15 minuter senare var det avstigning vid hpl ambassaderna. Utanför ambassaden stod det redan 8 personer och huttrade. Det var väntande i kö som erbjöds vid 8-tiden. Eftersom det var i runda slängar 4 grader och jag hade t-shirt, skjorta och en vindtät jacka blev väntan mindre rolig. Efter ca 15 min var det min tur att gå förbi metalldetektorn och visa upp mitt pass och att jag hade alla papper med mig. Inne på ambassaden lämnades pappren in och efter 45 min väntetid till var det min tur att gå på intervju. Fram till en lucka och hälsa på en tjänsteman.

"Okay, Training Internship."
"Yes."
"What company is it?"
"vmware."
"What will you do?"
"Software testing."
"You've been to the US this year?"
"Yes, for one week, visiting a friend"
"Okay, the papers seems to be in order. Your passport with visa will be sent to you in 5 days. Do you have any other questions?"
"No."
"Okay, then we're done here. Have a nice day"

Sedan var det bara att bege sig hemåt.

Stora trädet och landet i väster

Jag är en skam för alla ordentliga bloggare. Ett inlägg varannan månad är inte mycket att hänga i granen.

Nu är det iallafall dags att göra ett inlägg igen. Dags att avslöja det som många redan vet. Om cirka en månad bär det av till Palo Alto i soliga Kalifornien för att jobba i 6 månader på vmware som testare. Det kommer att bli spännande, roligt och lite pirrigt att ge sig av. Jag känner åtminstone två i krokarna där borta och snart dyker det förmodligen upp två till, så man kommer inte vara ensam.

Var exakt jag ska bo vet jag inte än, för jag tänkte det är bäst att åka över först och leta boplats när man väl är där. Det är ju inte gratis att bo där, men lönen är förstås lite trevligare också.

Innan jag kan åka över måste jag upp till Amerikanska ambassaden i Stockholm och gå på intervju och visa upp en massa dokument och formulär för att få visum. Jag hoppas det går smidigt och inget oförutsett inträffar. Sedan finns problemet med att hyra ut lägenheten och förhoppningsvis bilen också när jag är borta. Lägenheten tror jag inte det blir några problem med, men bilen är en annan femma. I värsta fall får jag parkera den någonstans under vistelsen.

Nästa helg skall jag upp till Stockholm för att gå på brorsdotterns dop och sedan på måndagen blir det ambassadbesök. Det skall bli roligt! Dopet då, ambassadbesöket vet jag inte om det är roligt.

Jag hoppas blogga mer nu under vistelsen så folk får veta vad jag håller på med.

Utmaningen

mrmarpe utmanade mig, så jag känner mig nödgad att svara:

Fyra arbeten jag haft i mitt liv:

• Inventerat i matvarubutik
• Praoat på GP i reproverkstaden
  
• Svarvat hållare på SKF
• Gjort simuleringsverktyg för Volvo Aero

Fyra filmer jag kan se om och om igen:

• Blazing Saddles
• Airplane!
• Some kind of Wonderful
  
• Life of Brian
  

Fyra städer jag bott i:

• Göteborg
• London (på semester)
• Tokyo (på semester)
• Buenos Aires (på semester)
  

Fyra TV-serier jag gärna ser:

• My name is Earl
  
• Gilmore Girls
• Black Books
• The OC
  

Fyra ställen jag vill åka till:

• Island
• Australien
• Barcelona
• New England
  

Fyra webbsidor jag besöker dagligen:

• Ralforolf
• inside
• gizmodo
  
• del.icio.us
  

Fyra favoriträtter:

• Räkor o vitt vin
• Gazpacho
• Créme Brûlée
• Halv special
  

Fyra ställen där jag trivs:

• Hemma
• Kämpersvik
• I skogen (ibland)
• På restaurang
  

Fyra bloggare jag vill utmana att svara på dessa frågor:

• Sammi
• Laserdavid
• Nix
• Truls
  

Beirut

Kanske inte. Det är visst bara i Göteborg.

Sjö o green

Här är det nu varmt så det räcker o blir över. Kanske inte på kontoret, men utomhus. Nästan alla har semester nu, så det surfas otroligt mycket. Långtråkigt, men jag har nu läst det mesta man kan behöva veta om Habsburgarna. Inte för att jag kommer komma ihåg det, men nu har jag iaf förkovrat mig.

I helgen var det discgolf följt av bad i Delsjön. Mycket trevligt. Det var underhållande när Johans disc fastnade i en klyka högt, högt upp i ett träd. Söndagens eftermiddag veks åt golf. Jag och fadern gick 18 hål på Chalmers GK. Det var en besvikelse, men härligt väder. Banan var väl inte så himla dum den heller, men den är oförlåtlig. Jag trodde i min naivitet att det skulle bli rätt lätt att gå ner till 36, men där bedrog jag mig. Skarpa 17 p på 18 hål är inte något att skriva hem till föräldrarna för. Nu slapp jag ju det, för farsan var ju med. Får nog bli lite stabilare på järnslagen på fairway och ruff för att det ska kunna bli något.

Igår spelade vi igen, fast bara 9 hål. Om möjligt ännu sämre. 7p på 9 hål. Usch, usch. Well, jag får ta o fråga storebror vad det är för fel jag gör.

Helgen kommer nog spenderas i K-vik i den proverbiala hängmattan.

Böcker o sving

Igår var det golfdags igen. Jag och mrmarpe tog en runda på Lerjedalens GK's korthålsbana. Vi körde matchspel och det slutade med vinst med tre hål till mig. Hurra! Det var precis lagom varmt för golf. Därefter spisade jag makaroner och falukorv.

Gårdagen avslutades med The Benchwarmers. Inte så himla bra, men vad förväntade jag mig. Läser också en okej bok av Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down, som handlar om fyra personer som ska ta livet av sig. Låter inte så uppmuntrande, men den är inte så mörk som man kan tro. Förresten vill jag rekommendera allt av Erlend Loe, speciellt Naiv.Super., Expedition L och Doppler. Roligt och tokigt.

Musik o båt

Nu är helgen över och det har varit en skön och behaglig sådan. På fredagen körde jag och Johan upp till Stockholm och slöt upp med min lillebror Oscar som hade tagit tåget. En Elias tillkom och sedan tog vi indisk mat och Cobra för de som var ölsugna. Stärkta av maten tågade vi till Stockholms Stadion och lyssnade på Depeche Mode med förband. Muse var förband och några av låtarna var okej, men gitarrerna var något i vassaste laget.

Depeche började något trevande och spretigt. Lite otajt, helt enkelt. Men efter 5-6 låtar hade de värmt upp och blev riktigt bra. 26000 fans viftade med armarna på Never let me down again (tror jag det var) och några coola versioner av låtar förgyller kvällen (bla Shake the Disease). Och när extra numrena startar med en explosiv Photographic är kvällen räddad.

Lördagen spenderades i en motorbåt tuffandes runt i stockholm med singoalla och maryland cookies. Ett dopp från båten blev också pricken över i:t.

Dotter o bil

Jag vet inte riktigt om jag kommer posta mer om jag kör på svenska, men det är ju en gissning. Det är nu solig sommar och det har slagits mycket golf. Min storebror har fått en liten dotter som är två månader och jag har fått en bil som är fem månader.

I helgen ska jag, lillebror och Peson upp till Stockholm för att kolla på Depeche Mode. Det blir nog fina fisken det.

Angels and Moose removers

Only a month since my last post. I guess I'm in the zone. I've gone complete bonkers and bought a PSP. Awesome games, but since I'm not really a gamer, I guess I will be bored soon. I especially like Burnout Legends and X-Men II: Apocalypse. Mercury is cool too. To justify my purchase, I said to myself that I can always sell the PSP when I get bored, but I don't think I will do that. I tend to keep all the electronic thingamagigs I buy. "You never know when you will need that console/MDplayer/electronic moose remover."

On a different note, I've listened quite a lot on the new Depeche Mode album. It might be the best since Songs of faith and devotion. Maybe even better than that. And yesterday an EP from Kent arrived. Quite good that too.

I'm going to visit my brother in Stockholm this weekend and say hello to my friend Elias too. It will be great. Dunno what we will do, though. Always fun anyway.

And me and the Ottocrat will go to Argentière after new years for a week of Off Pist skiing. Very nice. To long since I went skiing. It was almost two years ago the last time, and then it was only in Sweden. It will be great to go to the alps.

6 months and counting

Always far between posts. I had two weeks fun vacation. One week at the summerhouse, taking it easy and slow. Then a short detour to Denmark with a couple of friends. We went to Hven, Odense, Ballen and Copenhagen. Fun and rather cheap too. Then there have been more work.

The two month project is now on 6 months and counting. I don't complain since that makes me valuable for the company. I've also been involved in other stuff at work. Two weeks ago I went with a collegue to Paris for a course. One week in Paris was great. Lovely city. I only wish I knew more french. I might be needed for more contact with France, and that would be great.

I've also taken the "license" for playing golf at real courses. It was not that hard, and now I will have to find a club to join. I've played some golf at a couple of open courses, that means that you can play even if you're not a member of a club. Mainly I've been playing with my dad. I hope there will be some opportunities for some training on the driving range this winter.

Well. Now it's off to the keyboardplayers birthday party.

Vacation and Irons

I'm not that good at regularly update this blog. Well, I blame society. Recently I picked up some golf. I even went as far as purchasing a set. 2 fairwaywoods, 2 hybrids, 7 irons, 1 putter and a bag. A long time ago, maybe 10-15 years ago, my family and I started playing. As my father and my big brother got more competetive and irritated when things didn't go as planned on the course, I lost interest. But since two of my friends started playing for fun, I gripped my clubs again. And since the clubs I used back then isn't quite as modern as I wanted them to be, I got some new ones. I hope to get better and maybe join a club later.

My 2 weeks vacation will begin in little over two weeks from now, and I'm looking forward to it. A week at my family's summerhouse and some canoeing the other week is on the menu. I hope the weather will be agreeable.

It's really boring here at work now. Almost everyone are on vacation. ARRRARGHHH.

Well, I hope there will be a nice weekend.

Daiquiris and laptops

It's been quite a while since I blogged last. There have been much to do at work, and I haven't thought of cool stuff to write. Since I wrote last a number of things has happened.

There have been Valborg, a fun evening of educational humor and booze. My friend Elias who now lives in Stockholm came down to Gothenburg for the day. My day started at my parents apartment with my brother and a few of his friends. My folks were out of town. We had a lovely herring breakfast. Pickled herring, fresh potatoes, snaps and beer. I met up with some friends on the afternoon and we played discgolf with beer in Skatås. At around 6 p.m. we met up with some other friends and we watched the Cortège with around 200000 other people. A quick rendezvous at my place and then we hit Skål for a couple of lovely strawberry daiquiris. A fun evening.

I type this on my new 12" iBook G4 on a wireless network. I like it a lot. Real cool. I wonder how long it will take before I grew tired of it. It's cute and perfect for a laptop with it's quick response from sleep mode and good battery time. I wonder how much I will get for my old PII 350 laptop with 5 Gb hard drive, 128 Mb memory and a lousy battery.

Well, now I might go look for some outdoors furniture for my balcony to enjoy the nice May weather.

Bowling and work

Getting up in the morning still sucks. I just want to remind people who don't get up early. I thought it had been an improvement in the getting up early department, but no. Well. I'm now at my fourth day at the new job, and I think it has potential. Nice people, anyway. But the promised speedmonster computers has been lost to some CAD people. We have to be content with PIII 800. I don't think they will suffice in the long run.

Oscar, Thomas and me were discgolfing this Sunday. It was wonderful weather and I managed to play fairly well. A bit muddy on the course.

And me and a couple of friends were bowling last friday, great fun and some beer.

Ordered List and a Surprise

It's been over a month since my last confession. Well, I guess this isn't really a confession booth.

Since last, I've managed to put together my new computer and upgraded the firewall computer with the old desktop parts. The desktop computer now consists of:

• One (1) Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
  
• One (1) Athlon XP 2500+ Barton overclocked at 2035 MHz
• One (1) 512 Mb TwinMos DDR Ram
• One (1) Matrox Millenium G450 Graphics card
  
• One (1) 80 Gb Western Digital harddrive
• One (1) NEC 3500 DVD Writer
• One (1) Samtron 96P 19" Monitor
• One (1) DVD Drive of unknown calibre

And some crappy keyboard and a good wireless optical mouse. The whole configuration is fast and snappy. The gfx card is at the moment the weakest link. But I don't really play any games, so it's no big deal. As long as it's possible to view movies on the telly from the computer, I'm good.

And now for the big news: I've got a job! Hoooray! It's a project that spans over two months, but I hope there will be a possibility for an extension. The main thing I'm going to do is to code ASP.NET, and I've just began learning it. I'm not going to be an expert when I start working, but I hope I will have somewhat of an idea how to do things with it. I'm really looking forward to a 9 to 5 job so that I will be able to do stuff with my friends in the evenings, if I want. And they want, of course. And that it's a full time job is also good. Mo money! And it's a job that is in my field of competence. I hope. Maybe my incompetence will show.

Deskcrawling and Mice

My piece by piece acquisition of a new computer continues. I now have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard and an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ processor. So what's left? Memory, processor cooler, graphics card (my old one doesn't work on 1.5V AGP ports) and I'm thinking of a new cabinet. I hate crawling under my desk to plug in/out FireWire and USB cables. I hope to get my hands on used memory and graphics card. I don't need a fancy graphics card as long as it got a good TV-Out connection, I don't game on the PC. I'm hoping to get a used G450 graphics card cheap. It's almost the same as my current graphics card, the G400, but it will run on 1.5V.

I find that I've found some good music by watching The OC. The album Good News for People who Likes Bad News by Modest Mouse is great. Quirky, but nice.

Tomorrow is the annual d6 omsits. All of my mates from my year, 1998, will be there. I hope we will have a good time. It's also the first time since the appendix situation I will have more than one beer. Not too much, though.

Motherboards and crowds

Yesterday I was at Charm, a job fair on Chalmers. Since I'm looking for a job, I thought I'd better go there and have a look. As usual when I got there, I wanted to be somewhere else right away. I don't like small talk with strangers and I don't like crowds (not in a phobic way, I just want to be able to move unrestricted.) And these two things are what job fairs are all about. In the end, I ended up checking the place out and had a coffee and a "semla" with my big brother, who was one of the exhibitioners. But at least I started to check for jobs again after my bout with my appendix.

And finally my iPod is here. Three days after I got it, I had it filled with 28 Gb of music. Mostly mp3's. I've also begun ripping my CD collection, but I've only gotten to D. I guess I'll have to delete some of the bad music later.

I've also won an auction for a used motherboard, and I will now have to buy a new processor and memory. I had forgotten I made a bid for it, and when I got the mail that I had won the auction I was a bit flabbergasted. The upgrade is good, though, since my current motherboard was purchased in 1998. And I hope that my CD ripping will go faster with a new processor.

By the way, if anyone know of a good job for me, please don't hesitate to give me a shout.

Disillusioned and bad delivery

I can't believe the crazy guys at TNT Express. They're the ones delivering the iPod (sorry for being too hung up on the iPod). They tried to deliver it yesterday at 12. No calling before, just showing up and trying to deliver at noon on a friday. HELLO!? People do work around here. I thought it would be more sensible business wise, to try to make sure people was there to receive the goods, but I guess I'm wrong there. It's annoying anyway. Well, they called later and said that they would come between 12-14 on monday.

I saw Sideways yesterday. Cool movie with a slow tempo. A lot of wine in it too. I think Paul Giamatti is excellent playing disillusioned middle-aged men. See American Splendor if you haven't, it's a bit strange, but really watchable.

Flutes and work

Almost one week since last post. And I'm back working. As usual, there's not much to do but surfing the web and watch some divx episodes. As long as it pays, I'm happy.

The incision still feels strange, but I'm not wearing bandages anymore. The scar will be quite big and so far, the sensitivity isn't quite back. I can't feel anything but pressure on some places around and on the scar. Imagine when your arm or leg has fallen asleep. Almost like that.

Yesterday I caught a glimpse of American Pie on ZTV. I've seen it before, but some things still cracked me up. "This one time, at band camp..." and "-Finch! Finchie! -Stifler's mom!". Lovely movie. And I got really annoyed when I couldn't remember the name of one of the songs.

I'm still waiting for my iPod, but I hope it will arrive today. I've tagged my mp3 archive in anticipation. ;) So far the iTunes collection is 24 Gb and I've only imported ten of my 450 CDs.

Anyways, I believe the weekend will be relaxing and a lot of movies will be watched.

Retreat and the Digital age

The incision is healing fine, but I can't help thinking it's going to slow. Well, I guess the old proverb: "Time heals all wounds" is applicable here. I will soon be able to do the stuff i used to do.

On a sidenote, I will finally enter the new digital age of music. I've ordered an iPod. A nice 40 Gb iPod with my name engraved on it. Now I only have to rip my 450 CDs too. It will take a while, I imagine. I will probably give up before I've done it, too. But it will at least fit on the iPod.

I've been living at my Mom's for a week and a half now, and the lousy bed here is making me wanting to go home to my own humble abode. I think I will retreat to my apartment this weekend. It has been a good stay, but I think it's time to move on.

A new year and abdominal pain

I haven't blogged for a while, which you will see has a natural explanation. It isn't because of the tsunami in Asia or the storms in Sweden or the Huygens probe on Titan. It's because my (too long) stay at the hospital due to an infected appendix. In the evening of monday, December 20, my stomach began to ache. I thought it was a minor problem, but when tuesday came and I hadn't slept much at all due to pain, I started to worry. I went to the "ER" or what it's called (akuten in swedish) and they thought it might be some flu or something else. They told me to come back if it got worse or if I got a fever. Two days later in agony, I went back and they saw that I had a fever of 39 degrees, they suspected an infected appendix. I went to the big "ER" at Sahlgrenska and they took a lot of tests and the appendix was to be removed. But then they saw some strange readings on one of the tests, so they tried to fight the infection with antibiotics. A week went by and it got a little bit better and then it got worse. They decided to remove it anyway. So they did. When I woke up it felt a little bit better and a little bit worse. Not the same pain. They had to open up quite a bit, because it appeared that the infection had spread a bit in the abdominal cavity. They had also inserted a drainage for getting out pus out of the infected area. Not nice having a bag on the side of your stomach filling up with yellowred liquid. And they couldn't sew me right back together, because bacteria likes tight sutures. My 20 cm incision was held together by 4 sutures. Anyways, a week later they removed the drainage and when I saw it I thought I was lucky not to have known how long the tubes was that had been inside of me, it was close to 20 cm long. Ouch. Two days later they sew me up with 10 more stiches and a day later I got out. 18 days at the hospital. No christmas, no new years. Only bad hospital food.

Well, now I've been at my mom's to recuperate and to regain some weight. Dunno how that's working. I went from 72 kg to 65 kg in the hospital. It still hurts somewhat to straighten out and to walk around. I hope it will be better real soon.

Anyway I saw The Incredibles today. Quite entertaining, but it would have been nice to see Jack Jack more. I still think Shrek is the best animated move with Finding Nemo a close second.