Five minutes or so...

Hi everyone!

I've decided to take a small break from my studies. It's not healthy to bury one's head into books ALL the time, is it?

We've had a couple of days of really nice weather here but that ended this morning as we got up and out of bed. Heavy rain, that luckily took a small brake as CartoonBoy went out to his school bus. And as my wife went to day care with our youngest the faucets opened up again. RedHead looked like a drowned cat when she returned.

Last Sunday I helped a couple of friends to move their stuff into their new house. Although I envy those who can afford to buy a house, I realized that my friends might have taken on a bit more than they can chew. The house was cheap, by southern Sweden standards, and believe me, it looked cheap too. It was probably built some time around the 1910's and never got a real overhaul.

Sure, there was a pretty nice interior but the exterior looked like it came from some horror story. The garden hadn't been done for the last ten years and all the small sheds ( five of them!) looked like they were to crumble in the next storm. Well, they're both pretty good with tools and stuff, so I might just envy them because of they actually might pull it off.

Sorry, I have to leave you. Maybe next week as I have a couple of days off then. See ya!

Snowstorm galore

I've been complaining about the lack of a proper swedish winter for the better part of December, January and February. Well, no more... It started snowing about halfway through last week. We've received all the normal winters snowfall during a couple of days! Complete disaster for the infrastructure. Most of southern Sweden came to a complete halt. Might I remind you that I live in a country that lies closer to the North Pole than the Equator...

In spite of media warning people about driving to work some idiots still took their chances. The result was more than two-hundred separate accidents. Luckily very few fatal ones. And yesterday, when things started to clear up a bit, it started to rain sub-zero. This means it rained, but the ground (and everything else) was so cold the raindrops froze instantly on impact. People still went out to drive. The insurance companies will have a hard time.


I haven't been following what goes on in the US lately, but I read an article about US soldiers coming back injured from Iraq, often handicapped, back to a life where they're supposed to fend for themselves, by themselves. At the same time some people are getting richer and richer, especially the people around President Bush.

I must say I'm amazed that american media, once among the freest in the world, now seems to be very quiet?

Hi guys!

No, my wife hasn't killed me and yes, we're still married. Both of these might change in the near future but so far everything continues in it's old tracks.

These last weeks have been INTENSE! We're only in the fifth week of the semester and I've already taken two tests; one in literature about authors in ancient Greece and one in cultural history about the development of art and ideas between the first signs of humanity and up to the start of the Middle Ages. That last one was TOUGH! I had a really hard time remembering which greek philosopher who said what and what the hell he meant by it. And then there was the art itself. The questions covered everything from Venus from Willendorff and Lascaux via ancient Greece and the Roman empire all the way up to the start of The Middle Ages in Europe. At that time, in Sweden, the Wikings had recently started to explore the known world.

Next week we have a test in Philosophy. That's going to be really tough. Me and one of my fellow students, a very nice girl of Chilean descent, have a paper on prostitution to finish too. Luckily we have a week off after that. But I still have to do four different papers in four different classes during that week.

As you can see my days are stuffed with things to do, hence not much of blogging on my part and even less time to catch up all those blogs I usually read. I suspected this semester to be tough but not this tough. The good part is that I love it.

Winter finally hit us in these southern parts of Sweden. Well, at least we had almost ½" of snow the last few days of January, then some rain, sun and then some colder weather and today it was cold and sunny. I still think it would be a good idea to move Christmas to the end of January.

I'm starting to wonder if the climate change is all to blame on us humans. Don't misunderstand me, I still think we have to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases but I think that it's even more important to reduce all kinds of pollution. Not to mention how important it is to care about how we use our resources. When the oil resources are depleted, they're not going to regenerate themselves in a couple of years. It'll take billions of years. The same can be said about the very soil we grow our food in. Once we've destroyed it, we're in for a rough time. A very rough time.

Anyone willing to bet against that our great grandchildren might be back in a new Stone Age unless we start acting now?

Christmas...

... is upon us and I am truly sorry I haven't been blogging since Nov. 6.... Actually I haven't even read any blogs since then.

On the other hand, there's not been anything worth to write about.

Except for the fact that we've experienced the warmest December in many, many years. Most of Sweden should be covered in snow by now and it isn't. If I was worried about the enviroment before I don't know what I should call my feelings now.

The thing is that I think it's too late now. We won't be able to turn everything around any longer. The snowball is rolling and it's grown to the point where it's momentum, speed and size makes it impossible to stop. We might be able to slow it down but we won't be able to stop it.

Isn't it strange that we are able to send people to space but not to come up with a better energy source to transport ourselves around the globe?

I've heard claims that this is just a natural cycle that's been going on for billions of years but those cycles usually take thousands of years with small increments in the global average temperature. We've seen a global rise in the average temperature in just sixty years, very much coinciding with the end of WWII and the great numbers of transportation/industry depending on fossil fuels. I think Mother Nature's had enough and she's coming down hard on us in the next ten years.

Tsunami? Katrina? That's just childs play compared to the things we have ahead of us. Closing our eyes won't make it go away.

This brings up the latest stupidity from our government. Our new PM recently said that it won't help the globe if Sweden takes the lead in decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases. He said we should concentrate on trying to influence the US and Brazil instead. He might have a point when it comes to the US but Brazil? Honestly, how can a PM be so ignorant? Brazil has been taken the forefront on using bio-fuel since 1975! Next year, the brazilian government plans to be totally independent from oil! Now there's a lead to follow...

It's all about jobs, of course. In a short term view, that is. If Sweden acts NOW we could create new high-tech jobs in the enviromental area instead of pointing our fingers at others and telling them what to do. If Sweden is going to be a country to be counted with in the future, we have to THINK about the future. That future doesn't lie in telling others what to do and not to do. And that goes for a lot of governments around the world...


Anyway, I actually just wanted to wish you all a very

Merry Christmas.