bad joke

for you harry potter-fans out there:
-Knock Knock
-Who's there?
-You know
-You know who?
-That's right, Avada Kedavra!


in other news, I handed in my phone for reparation today. hopefully it's just the software that needs updating, and then it will cost 295 kr. if there're parts that need to be changed, then it will cost more... :-/

I also just noticed that I still have an old maestro card that I hadn't cancelled yet. if I could just remember the code I could get ahold of my money until the other cards come. got the code for one of them today, so the card should hopefully come tomorrow or so. still waiting for the other one... interesting to have money but not being able to use it - it's usually the other way around! ;)

update: the card works, and I remember my code! yay for having money again!

one time is no time

two times is worth reacting to
three times is a problem
four times is catastrophy.


that's how many times my computer decided to shut itself down after being on for 5 minutes. yay.

jetlag?

I don't see the issue people have with jetlag when traveling. both on the way to canada and back, I had absolutely no problems adjusting. already the first night I slept at normal hours. how I did it? simple: little sleep.

going there, I slept 2 hours the night before, and only one hour on the plane. had a full day, and ended up going to sleep at 11.30 pm local canadian time, which meant that I had been up for about 25 hours. woke up at 9.30, and had no problems the rest of the time, though I felt slightly dizzy at times the first two days.

the way back was something similar. slept 3 hours the night before, had quite a full day (going to the House of Worship outside of chicago), and then slept 5h on the plane to london. when I got back home, I slept at 10.30 and got up at 6.30, after this bizarre day. went to work the day after, no problems!

oreos

this is probably the most dangerous cookie in the world. it's absolutely delicious. oreos just have to be experienced - and they don't sell them here in sweden :(

brought two packs with me home :)

read more about oreos here, and if you stick around long enough, you'll read more about the oreo shake I had while in the states ;)

update: a couple of friends have told me that they are available here in sweden. yay! off to help my addiction!

a bizarre day

so I finally got back yesterday, and I thought I'd start by sharing some stuff about this day. the whole trip was great, but surrounded by some unfortunate events (my phone). read on...

as I got into london/heathrow I had to transfer terminals, from 4 to 1, to continue my trip back home. took the shuttle bus, got off, and went up the escalator to keep walk on. felt my pockets to make sure I had everything, and noticed my card holder/"wallet" was gone. it had slipped out of my pants when I sat on the bus (the pockets are a bit bad), so not stolen. got back downstairs and a security woman was standing there and told me I had to go back up. told her what had happened but she just said that I'd have to go back up to the customer service and tell them. and there they just said that there's nothing to do, and that I had to wait at least 24h before calling the lost property and get it back. pfft.
wasn't all too much that I lost though. called my brother to cancel the cards, and besides that I just had my Baha'i identification card, student card and some other pieces of paper. luckily no money, and nothing that can't be replaced.

so I was quite mad at myself. walked around at the airport not knowing which gate to go to (information was really bad), and hoped to run into a friend I'd be on the flight with (more about that later). well, after walking around for about 15-20 minutes, I suddenly see him. he'd forgotten about it, so needless to say, he was quite surprised :)

we talked for a while, found the gate, flew back and got picked up by my brother and went back home. food, relaxing, and then time for basketball, which I had looked forward to for two weeks (since I left).

and then comes the most disgusting thing I have seen in quite some time.

before playing, I wanted to take some dunk pictures as well (the others had done it last week when they played). to do it a bit spectacular, I wanted to dunk by throwing the ball at the board, jump up, grab it and then dunk. kinda like this:

(except for behind the back and one-handed dunk.)

well... I'm not as good as lebron james. I failed. miserably. when I was going to catch the ball on its way back, it hit my left pinky finger, who decided to just snap out. first I thought it was just a sprain, but then I looked at it... and yikes. it was bent the wrong way at the first joint. it didn't hurt (!), but was absolutely disgusting.

so without even getting to play anything, I was off to the hospital. and since we were only 5 people, there was nothing for the others, even though they played for a bit.

after a bit of waiting here and there, this is what happened:
the doctor came and tried to pull my finger back into place. naturally, that thought was extremely repulsive to me, so I instinctively fought back. so I had to have anesthesia. two needle shots (and I'm slightly afraid of needles) just under my finger, which then felt weird, and then he pulled it back. just thinking of it now is absolutely disgusting. I got two painkillers as well.
got sent back to wait, because they wanted to do an x-ray on it to make sure nothing was broken. unfortunetaly I didn't get to see/keep the pictures, would've been a fun memory. the doctor asked me if I had any previous injuries to my finger, because there seemed to be some fragments or something there. well, after playing basketball and volleyball for quite some time, I'm not surprised. but there was nothing from this time at least.

so after taping up my pinky with the ring finger (has to stay like this for two weeks; and then I can't put it under any stress for another two weeks), I got to go home, together with my parents, who'd come back from the airport after being away for a week. good place of meeting them for the first time in two weeks, eh? ;)

a big thank you to everyone who kept me company or called to check up on me. my finger is swollen, red and blue, and hurts a bit. but other than that, it's going to be good. I got the offer of taking a picture of it when it was went backwards, but firmly declined.

yikes, what a day!

home

I'm back. lots of posts and pics to come :)

itinerary

stockholm --> london (6h) --> toronto (6 days) --> cleveland (6 days) --> chicago (10h) --> london (2h) --> stockholm.

bye.

my phone

very randomly decided to die today. so now it's just blinking until I pull the battery out. good timing, eh?

checked up prices in the us/canada for the roaming, it's expensive. really expensive. not gonna send any texts, make any calls or answer any, unless it's extreme emergency. just so you know.

training update

time: 11.30 am

weather: sunshiiiiine, 25 degrees

warmup: 2 km, light jog

sprints: 2 sets of 6*50 meters

long run: 5 km, in just over 25 mins

I'm dead.

GOOOOOOGLE!!!!1one*

I'm off! vacation! two weeks! yay! cya :)


* instead of saying "yahoo" ;)

dance movies

I have now seen three dance movies (bring it on two years ago, honey last week and step up yesterday) that I can remember. one thing they have in common strikes me: the plots leave a lot to wish for.

while the dance scenes are really cool to watch, it seems as if they have forgotten that there needs to be something more to it. I'm surprised that it is possible to make action movies that have good action and good stories, here they only manage to have great dance moves and sequences, but nothing else.

honey seemed to only have jessica alba, and step up had absolutely no moments of intensity or a second of excitement. bring it on I don't remember...

big mac index!

the economist recently update its big mac index. it's an index based on the oh so famous big mac (not the whopper! ;)) and its cost in various countries:

Burgernomics is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Thus in the long run, the exchange rate between two countries should move towards the rate that equalises the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in each country. Our "basket" is a McDonald's Big Mac, which is produced in about 120 countries. The Big Mac PPP is the exchange rate that would mean hamburgers cost the same in America as abroad. Comparing actual exchange rates with PPPs indicates whether a currency is under- or overvalued.

sweden's price is $4.86, compared to the states where it costs $3.41. $6.88 in iceland, $1.45 in china. don't exactly remember how it was in israel, but quite expensive there too...

monthly monthly, part 6

it's now been a little bit more than six months that I've been here, and so the updates continue. a bit shorter, and slightly later than on time, and this time in alphabetical order...

bed
it's dangerous to have a large-sized bed, things easily get transferred there to remain for a while. currently I have a towel, a folder, and a bunch of clothes from last laundry. with a smaller bed one's forced to always keep things tidy and clean. but not so here!

food
I've noticed that when there's food around, I'm quite silent. I eat and let others do the talking. I've got much more important stuff on my mind, and in my mouth! ;)

gym and excercise
I've gotten into a good routine of working out now. there's not so much sports to be made (weather's horrible), so I've been able to do some workout in the gym instead. it used to be a bit of "argh, nothing else to do, I'll go to the gym", but now I'm more looking forward to going. didn't think it'd be that way... and the results are encouraging too!

hair
my hair is short now, with summer coming up (hopefully?)... compensated the shorter hair with a beard, and I must say I kinda like it all :)
however, it's gotten longer now to the degree that I actually have to look at it in the morning to make sure it's not sticking out somewhere. time to go for wax soon...

mornings
it seems regardless of my plans and intentions, it always takes me an hour to get ready to get out. breakfast, prayers, tv and a bit of computer - takes almost exactly an hour.


and yes, this is written at 5 am, after watching argentina lecturing mexico in how to play football. 3-0, and two lovely goals by messi and riquelme. I don't see any other side being close to stopping them. it's going to be a very interesting final on sunday!

a special day, and a Holy Day

the second day of pilgrimage started with a visit to the Holiest of places, the Shrine of Baha'u'llah. as the Guardian wrote: "Public access to the heart of the Qiblih of the Bahá'í World is now made possible through traversing the sacred precincts leading successively to the Holy Court, the outer and inner sanctuaries, the Blessed Threshold and the Holy of Holies."

two pictures, first of the surrounding gardens, and then of the Shrine:

     
(the entire album is here)

entering the Shrine is an indescribable feeling, the sense of calmness and serenity is overwhelming. being so close to the Holiest place on earth just gives a very special feeling in the body. it's as if time completely stops, and there is nothing else that matters the least. and the rose scent in there is also very soothing.

after having the time and opportunity to say prayers in the Shrine, we had a lunch at the pilgrim's center, and then went by bus back to haifa. it was time to meet the members of the Universal House of Justice.

the reception took place in the seat, with all the pilgrims gathered, sitting and waiting. once the members arrived, a prayer was said, and one of the members held a welcoming speech for us all. after that we all stood up as they went around and greeted everyone. we got to talk with mr dunbar (who is half-swedish), got a standing ovation from mr barnes (since we were from sweden), and a short chat as well with mr grossman (from finland).

to give a bit of perspective, these are members of the supreme body of the Faith, they are the ones with the "power". and here they are, walking around among 400 people, without any security, lifeguards, etc. and they are joyously greeting everyone, talking to all the pilgrims and personally welcoming each and every one of us. I don't see that happening anywhere else...


after the welcoming we had some time off, as in the evening/night it was the commemoration of the ascension of Baha'u'llah. it started at around 22, so in the meantime I went to the library and read a bit, took a stroll up the terraces and got ready for the evening. we had a good dinner, where we met up with naysan and nahid. I had a lovely fresh mint drink. then we got a ride back down to the pilgrim center, where the buses were waiting for us.

we got there at around 23, and started by visiting the mansion where Baha'u'llah stayed the last days of His life, and also made a visit to the room where He passed away. a very personal, solemn moment.

the program was scheduled for 3 am, so we had some time to walk around in the gardens, socialize with each other and take pictures. here's one that I took:


in the visitors' center there were both pilgrims and staff members, and some tea and cookies to eat. it was a nice mixture of people from all backgrounds mingling in joyful harmony. and even though it was the night of ascension, there was much laughter to be heard.

at 2.45 we went out, as everyone was asked to be seated no later than 2.55. the program started at 3 am sharp, with hundreds of chairs being put in rows, all facing the Shrine. prayers were read in english, persian and arabic, and it created a very spiritual atmosphere, which only the mosquitoes tried to interfere with.

when the program was done, we got up to circumambulate the Shrine. I tried to take my time and really walk slowly around, meditating upon this very special moment. it felt really wonderful to be able to be out there at 4 am, with no sound being heard, nothing but your own thoughts and footsteps...

the buses were waiting to take us back, and at 5 am I finally crashed in bed, after a long but very special day.

if things don't go your way...

... keep this quotation in mind:

"O My servants! Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes. You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no doubt, attain."

- Baha'u'llah -

IQ test update

remember this post?

well, after a bit of mailing back and forth, nothing's really happened yet. we'll see how it goes.

however, sana and I both made this online IQ test (in swedish).

results?
sana: 130.
me: 131.
hah.

is facebook evil?

long, long time ago, I wrote and said that facebook is evil. after spending some more time facebooking, I came to the conclusion that it really is very evil. but... it can also be used for good. Baha'u'llah says:

"The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men... If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation... All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation."

so it's up to us how we want to use everything that we have. facebook is nothing but a tool, that we can choose to use whichever way we want. if we use it to just waste time and nothing else, then indeed it is "evil". but now recently I've started to use it to promote activities and upcoming events. I've also gotten in touch with people from high school/junior high that I haven't heard from in 5+ years, which is always a great source of joy.

I suppose the best "proof" of facebook's usefulness was when I used it to check if anyone could help me out next week. I'm going on vacation for two weeks (more of that later), and have a 6 hour layover in london. I was hoping to be able to visit the resting place of the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, but have no idea if I will be able to make it there and back (it's quite a trip, and with all the security checks and so, I might need some extra time). so I created an event, and hopefully it'll help me out :)

all the things that we have in this world, are for our use. it's entirely up to us how we choose to use them - if we do it for good purposes, then nothing in this world is evil.

poetry in motion

the wimbledon final this year again was between roger federer and rafael nadal, the two best tennis players in the world. and this final was really excellent, well played from both from beginning to end. it was really beautiful to see, they produced excellent shots all the way through, and just when it seemed as if nadal would be the stronger one in the fifth set, federer managed to break and go on to win the game. can't say it's undeserved; he's won 5 straight wimbledons now (equalled björn borg's record), and is by far the best player in the world.

got talent?

here's an incredible video from britain's got talent:

and it's even more amazing the second time you watch it!

live earth?

if you didn't know, today was the day of live earth, a series of concerts to remind people that our world is in big trouble. I'd say the only trouble we have is that we're listening to them. sure, some of the music was good, so it's not all lost.

I found a very interesting post regarding climate change, looking at the "proofs" of ipcc and pretty much disclaiming all of them. too bad it's in swedish...

this is an interesting quote though, by kevin trenberth, one of the main authors of the ipcc climate report:

"In fact there are no predictions by IPCC at all. And there never have been. The IPCC instead proffers “what if” projections of future climate that correspond to certain emissions scenarios. There are a number of assumptions that go into these emissions scenarios. They are intended to cover a range of possible self consistent “story lines” that then provide decision makers with information about which paths might be more desirable. But they do not consider many things like the recovery of the ozone layer, for instance, or observed trends in forcing agents. There is no estimate, even probabilistically, as to the likelihood of any emissions scenario and no best guess." (source)

I'm in the wrong country

... and quite possibly in the wrong decade/century. went out shopping today to see if there were any good shirts to find. (sale in stockholm, as always I suppose...)

as I said before, I don't wear long-sleeved stuff. and what kind of shirts do they have? 99% long-sleeved. I don't like. and whatever short-sleeved stuff they had were first of all not on sale, and second of all not so nice-looking.

and the colors are horrible as well. I don't know where the idea came from that purple and pink are nice colors for guys to wear, but they're not. just gotta go somewhere else to find stuff...

a little perspective on things

this article written by one of the poker pros of sweden tells about the world series of poker 2007 in vegas. and after buying in for $10000, he says:
"how many dollar bills there are there in total, behind the bars and under control by all the inspectors and armed guards, I don't dare think about. I'm sure it would have been a good addition to the national budget of zimbabwe."

gives you a bit of perspective on things...

quotation on cleanliness

just wanted to share this quotation on cleanliness:

"External cleanliness, although it is but a physical thing, hath a great influence upon spirituality."

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá -

(also read here)

more questions than answers

I was asked a while ago to think about the following quotation:
"The beginning of magnanimity is when man expendeth his wealth on himself, on his family and on the poor among his brethren in his Faith."

- Bahá'u'lláh -

after doing it for a while, I have more questions than answers... the quotation is deceptively simple, but very difficult to grasp.

to start with, it is easy to acknowledge that being magnanimous is good. that also means that expending wealth on oneself, one's family and the poor among one's brethren is also good. that's easy.

however, here comes the hard part. what exactly does "beginning" mean? is there a "continuation" or "end" to it, and what would that be? would it then be expending one's wealth on others? and is it good to spend wealth on oneself? aren't we trying to be selfless and always give to others, or is this perhaps just a first step?

just like unity is achieved in small steps (oneself, family, tribe, city, country, continent, world?), maybe this is the same thing? we take similar steps, start small with ourselves, and then continue?

or what do you think? I don't know...

should we wear black at funerals?

as we leave this physical life, we move on to the countless spiritual realms of God. there our soul "... will continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God, in a state and condition which neither the revolution of ages and centuries, nor the changes and chances of this world, can alter."

so then what's the sad part? of course we are sad for a dear friend/relative of ours has left this earthly life, but shouldn't we be happy for their sake? Baha'u'llah says in the Hidden Words: "I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou grieve?"

since black is the color of sadness, should we really wear black at funerals? should we not instead be happy for our friend? I realize it is not the easiest of cultural conventions to break free from, but maybe we should.

fighting for Baha'i rights

I have previously written about the situation in iran for the Baha'is (see here and here), but a newly started site was really positively surprising to see. The Muslim network in defense of Baha’i rights (!) states that:

"On behalf of all the other Muslims who allowed for this to happen, by either being silent or by directly contributing to this human rights abuse, we would like to apologize. The Baha’i Faith in many ways remains to be a forbidden one in our societies until we officially recognize it as a religion, which its members should be able to practice as a right to religious and individual freedom. We stand by our Baha’i brothers and sisters through this struggle, and demand that this right be recognized by our governments, our people, and our school systems. We would like to see the day that our friends can say “I am Baha’i” with pride without facing any consequences or discriminative behavior. Muslim activists within Iran in particular must help the Baha’is within the country take this much needed step forward."

wow! go to their site and read more, it's a very noble (and possibly dangerous...) cause, and I wish them all the best.

it's been so long! x2!

I played badminton with a friend today... it's been so long I can't even remember when the last time I played was. with squash and football taking so much of my free time, it's not so surprising though...

and on saturday after the gym we played some table tennis, and it's been even longer since I played that. except for just hitting a few balls during lunch once at work, I think it's been easily a couple of years. lost some of the feeling, but it gradually came back. the rackets weren't the best either...

in other news, the previously mentioned problem wasn't solved when we thought it was. we actually worked on it friday afternoon, and then pretty much all day today and yesterday to solve. but now I can finally say that it's solved. thank God, we were getting so tired of it!

cinema fun

how often haven't you seen something and thought "oh, I should have some fun with it", but just haven't dared doing it? well, we decided that we wouldn't let that happen to us.

as simpsons (gotta see it!!!) and the new harry potter-movie are coming out, they have these cardboard figures of the characters standing in the cinema. most people look at them, but don't dare do anything with them. well, we did:

rebecca with the simpsons.

me with our dear little harry...

and also, rush hour 3 is a must-see. if nothing else, for this line:

asian-looking bad guy: (says something)
chris tucker (to jackie chan): what's he doing?
jackie chan: I don't know, he's speaking french.
chris tucker (slaps bad guy): you're asian! stop humiliating yourself!

that's funny :)

TRANSFORMERS!

I just got back from watching transformers, two days before the premiere here in sweden. and I have only one thing to say about it: I don't care who you are, what you like, or how much money you have, you must go see it. it's absolutely kickass beyond any description whatsoever.

time to sleep now, but I'll post a few pics up tomorrow from a little bit of fun we had at the cinema. and perhaps a bit longer review about the movie... :)

any good ideas?

Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

I want to be a great mind.

love, honor and respect...

... your parents. my parents had their 30th anniversary yesterday (!) and my mom's birthday was today, and so it couldn't be any more fitting that these two quotations were in my daily readings yesterday and today:

"It is the bounden duty of parents to rear their children to be staunch in faith, the reason being that a child who removeth himself from the religion of God will not act in such a way as to win the good pleasure of his parents and his Lord. For every praiseworthy deed is born out of the light of religion, and lacking this supreme bestowal the child will not turn away from any evil, nor will he draw nigh unto any good."

- Bahá'u'lláh -

and today:

"... a father and mother endure the greatest troubles and hardships for their children; and often when the children have reached the age of maturity, the parents pass on to the other world. Rarely does it happen that a father and mother in this world see the reward of the care and trouble they have undergone for their children. Therefore, children, in return for this care and trouble, must show forth charity and beneficence, and must implore pardon and forgiveness for their parents. So you ought, in return for  232  the love and kindness shown you by your father, to give to the poor for his sake, with greatest submission and humility implore pardon and remission of sins, and ask for the supreme mercy."

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá -

I don't know what else to say, it feels that these two cover everything there is to say about the relation between parents and children. first the duty of the parents on how to rear their children, and then the thankfulness that the children should show. something I really felt as we were on pilgrimage, where I could completely focus on the pilgrimage, and not have to worry about all the things around, such as food. and I don't think I'll ever be able to express my thankfulness for that...

and here's a prayer for parents:

O Lord! In this Most Great Dispensation Thou dost accept the intercession of children in behalf of their parents. This is one of the special infinite bestowals of this Dispensation. Therefore, O Thou kind Lord, accept the request of this Thy servant at the threshold of Thy singleness and submerge his father in the ocean of Thy grace, because this son hath arisen to render Thee service and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love, Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Forgiver and the Kind!

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá -

I hope my parents feel they have done a good job with me. if not, it's my fault :)

some funny sport-related stuff

I'm not sure if this can even be called a sport, but it's for sure hilarious. one of the pilgrims mentioned a sport similar to rugby that indians play, and so I just had to check it out when I got here. now, I just found it, and it's as funny as I got it explained. the name of the game is kabaddi, and basically makes no sense at all. the teams take turns sending a guy over to the other side, where they have four people linked up in a chain. now, the point is for this guy to "tag" one of those in the chain, and then run back without getting caught. the other team tries every possible mean to wrestle him down and stop him from running back. it's hilarious, check it out:

next, myfootballclub.co.uk gives its members the chance to buy and manage a football club. when they have 50000 members, each is asked to pay £35 (about $70 or €52) and then vote for which club to buy. everything is then voted upon by the members, from how to use the money, which players to buy and sell, which formation to use, who to play, etc. it's like playing football manager, but it's the real thing. and together with 50000 others. it sounds like a really interesting idea I must say.

they're already up to 40279 registrations in only two months, although I expect some to drop out once the request for money comes. almost that I am consider paying just to see how it works out...

and lastly, volleyball just has to be one of the most beautiful sports to watch...

european map

need to study it more... I'm bad with eastern europe, and especially former yugoslavia and the countries around there.


don't even want to think about the rest of the world... I'm good when it comes the general location of the countries, in which continent they are and approximately where, but not to place them out exactly. time to shape up!