yummy-yummy!

that's the name of today's Ayyám-i-Há gift, and it looks like this:



bought three packs to give to my coworkers here, and got to explain a bit about the Fast too. it was very much appreciated :)

how to kill a game

reading - manchester united: 0-3 after 6 minutes.

so much for sitting and watching that game...

who is it?

Baha'i World News tells about 12 Baha'i girls among hundreds others who are going to the UN: Girl delegates will be coming from Baha'i communities in Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Sweden, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and the United States to the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting, which this year will address as its priority theme: "The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child." who the swedish girl is? no idea, gotta find out...

and I need to buy socks...

ouch, ouch, ouch...

it's been a while since I went without feeling any pain in any part of my body. I've had a bad ankle for some time that I aggravated on sunday during shooting practice, did something with my shoulder during the weekend too, have had problems with my knees for a while and am also feeling a bit in my thighs. at least my wrists are getting better...

it doesn't help my body that I'm doing something around 4-5 times a week. I know I should take a long rest from squash, football and gym and all that and let my body recuperate, but it's just so much fun to play. I think I should just get my personal physio/nurse... any takers? :)

Ayyám-i-Há of the day: sent a postcard to a friend and a letter + small prayer book to another, hope they'll enjoy it. also made arrangements for something else on thursday, wait and see ;)

cause you had a ba... great day!

today has been just an excellent day! from the message I got in the morning (refer to my earlier post) to meeting a classmate from highschool whom I hadn't seen for more than 5 years on the subway, continue with things going great at work today and almost everything working out, to squash and gym being really giving, and wrap it up with talking to a dear friend on the phone and preparing some Ayyám-i-Há-gifts for tomorrow, and you can understand that I almost don't want this day to end.

I've been planning and thinking about gifts to give to my friends, and I think I have at least one thing lined up for each day. it's made me really happy all day thinking about how to make my friends happy and what small things I can do for them to surprise them a bit. today's gift was to take two of my friends to the movies. we'll see when we have time and opportunity to do that, but the offer stands for 8 months or so :)

the power of *converting* thought

man is of course the supreme being in the physical realm, and has been endowed with the power of thought. however, just having this ability isn't enough. we must first use it, and after we have done our thinking, it must be converted into actions. I'd like to quote a passage from 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Paris Talks:


THE POWER AND VALUE OF TRUE THOUGHT DEPEND UPON ITS MANIFESTATION IN ACTION
October 18th

The reality of man is his thought, not his material body. The thought force and the animal force are partners. Although man is part of the animal creation, he possesses a power of thought superior to all other created beings.

If a man's thought is constantly aspiring towards heavenly subjects then does he become saintly; if on  18  the other hand his thought does not soar, but is directed downwards to centre itself upon the things of this world, he grows more and more material until he arrives at a state little better than that of a mere animal.

Thoughts may be divided into two classes:

1. Thought that belongs to the world of thought alone.
   
2. Thought that expresses itself in action.

Some men and women glory in their exalted thoughts, but if these thoughts never reach the plane of action they remain useless: the power of thought is dependent on its manifestation in deeds....


- - - - -

I have a very practical example of this, tjuvlyssnat.se, whose start and rise to fame I got to experience quite close-by. it is the swedish version of overheard in new york, and many people must've thought about doing their local version of it (which there are a few of). there was even a swedish one that had registered a site at blogspot and worked on a logo, but they never got far enough.
but the founders of tjuvlyssnat really put their heart and mind to it, and went from the stage of thought ("we should do something like this in swedish") to action. and now almost a year after, they've been on tv, on the radio, in numerous articles in all the major and minor papers in sweden (and one or two abroad, I think), and even released their own book:

I think this is a very practical example of what the conversion of thoughts into action can achieve. an idea, a plan, and the execution of it. it's not enough to just have a lot of thoughts, because no matter how great they are, if you never put them into action they are practically worthless. keep than in mind!

happy Ayyám-i-Há!

Ayyám-i-Há (the Days of Há*) are the intercalary days between the 18th and 19th month in the Baha'i calendar. the Baha'i calendar is made up of 19 months, each with 19 days. 19 * 19 = 361, which means that to complete the solar year we need 4 (or 5, in the case of leap year) extra days. these are the days of Ayyám-i-Há. these days are supposed to be spent in joy and spiritual preparation for the Fast (more on that later). Bahá'u'lláh says: "It behoveth the people of Bahá, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name."

during these days, gifts are exchanged between friends, and there are generally one or two dinners being offered by members of the community. however, there is not the same stress as for example during Christmas, as usually the gifts are of the smaller kind. the joy comes from the shared fellowship and from the pleasure of giving, rather than receiving. and I agree, it's much more fun to see someone be happy by what you have given them, even though the happy Ayyám-i-Há-message I got from a friend in the morning did make me very happy :)


(*The letter 'Há' has been given several spiritual meanings in the Holy Writings, among which is as a symbol of the Essence of God.)

almost...

didn't bring the computer with me to my parents over the weekend, and almost made it the whole weekend without checking my mail. some msn on saturday evening, and just checked my mail on sunday just before going to bed.

it's not often it happens for me, but I must say it was quite a liberating feeling, not having to wonder or care if people were online or not. and not checking/answering my mail either... maybe I'll try and make my weekends like that. at least a little bit :)

google desktop

I have to recommend the google desktop. it's got a nice sidebar with very useful gadgets, such as e-mail, clock with sunrise/sunset times, rss feeds, weather reports/forecasts and picture slideshows, as well as countless others. but what I really like the most is the indexing and quick search box:



the quick search box is really nice. first of all, google desktop indexes all the files and programs on your computer, and should you choose to, you can let it index your mail as well. with the help of it you can instantly find anything you want, without having to wait for windows' long searching process. it's definitely a must-have, I really recommend you to download and try it!

you're all idiots!

that's what happens to luke wilson in idiocracy; he wakes up in the year 2505 where the whole world's average IQ has severely diminished. actually, never mind... the movie is stupid, you're wasting your time even reading about it here. stupid humor, not much of a plot, and no real moral to the story. you're better off reading a book. I'll try to post something useful instead.

my own style

and here's back to my old style... easy to fix, easy to take care of.



was snowing all day yesterday, so I had to do some shoveling in the evening too. luckily got a hold of the keys and got a proper shovel. went quite a lot quicker, I must say :)

can you see a real smile from a fake one?

check out the bbc site and see how good you are at rating smiles. I had 18/20, how many do you get?

my hair

so here are the pictures of me. picked this shirt because it got complimented on sunday, I like it :)

we got two different styles, I only have one (bad) picture of the first one:



and this is the second one. like this one much more, the first one makes me look older:





and since I have absolutely no shame in my body, and got this wax for free, I will naturally recommend it as the best wax I've ever used (which might actually be true) ;)



thoughts/comments?

it's winter-fall...

no red skies gleaming though, but at least a lot of snow... and it turned out to be my turn to shovel the snow today. luck had it however that they've switched the keys to the storage room where the shovels and stuff are and the key I had didn't fit, so I couldn't do anything else but use my shoes. got my feet a little bit cold, took longer than expected, but at least it turned out pretty well:



or what do you think?

exclusive! me!

I just got my hair cut by gustav at sachajuan. if you don't know yet, it's part of a mini makeover thing for aftonbladet. we were three guys with different hair lengths (one guy hadn't cut his hair for *seven* years) who got our hairs cut and a bit of fixing and styling. quite a lot of fun.

I was really impressed by the hairdresser, he almost cut everything by hand. only the sideburns and a little bit in the end was done with machine. he was extremely precise in his cutting, and really used his whole body and put his entire attention into it. it was really interesting to see him, really using all his skill and cunning to do as good of a job as possible. I also asked how long it took him to decide what kind of style to give a person, and he said it came instantly. no thinking or dividing between any options. cool example of using intuition.
he commented that my hair was really thick and curly, so it took almost an hour and a half to get it done. and then some more for the styling. I was just sitting and studying him during almost all that time.

the hairstyle is a "french crop", whatever that means. I like it, it's short and looks kinda cool. I'll have pictures up tomorrow, and I think it'll take around 3-4 weeks until it comes out in the paper. they're going to e-mail me the pics as well.

the pictures we took were also quite interesting. two group pics and two sets of individual pictures (two different hair styles), and they powdered my face before... gotta get it washed away. but the photographer was also very encouraging all the time (and even more so the one who took the before-pics). all the time "that's great", "yes", "just like that". it really made things a lot easier and more pleasant. it's great to see people who take their work really seriously and really try their best all the time at it.

photo shoot and semlor

my picture taken yesterday... about 50 of them. getting my hair cut today, so yesterday it was time for the before pictures. think they turned out quite well, maybe I'll be able to get ahold of one or two of them, otherwise you just have to wait 'til the paper comes out... ;)

we also got semlor (cream buns), as it was the fettisdag ("fat tuesday", or Shrove Tuesday?). tradition brings that the swedish delicacy should be eaten on this day, my third of the year... this is how it looked:



was quite tasty, and luckily not too much of it all.

was all but convinced until this morning that yesterday was wednesday... quite a surprising feeling when I realized that there was one more day left of the week. ah well, fun things are ahead :)

a message

I woke up today and had a message from a friend
it was a heart on msn
it made me happy and I just went yay
I was smiling the entire day :)

whenever you see someone do something wrong...

... remember that they haven't had the same opportunities to learn what's right and wrong that you have. best to teach them perhaps? :)

another thing that was mentioned during the junior youth evening.

football for dummies :)

this has got to be one of the best explanation for how the offside rule works. copied and translated from here:

you're in a shoe store and are in second place in the line. behind the cashier are a pair of shoes that you've seen and absolutely must have.
the female customer ahead of you has also seen the shoes and wants them. both of you have forgotten your purses.
it would be rude to push your way through if you didn't have any money to pay the shoes with.
the cashier is standing and waiting.
your friend is trying on a pair of shoes further into the store and sees your problem.
she prepares to throw her purse to you.
if she does, you can catch the purse and then go past the customer ahead of you and buy the shoes.
your friend can throw the purse in front of the other customer and when the purse is in the air you can run past the customer ahead and catch the purse and buy the shoes.
BUT you must always remember not to be in front of the woman who is ahead of you before the purse is thrown, because then you are OFFSIDE!


easy as that!

a cappella

this is truly beautiful:

sunday training session

so after getting lost and getting picked up, I finally got to the football. since I was the only one of us there (sick/exam), I had to conduct the whole training session by myself, with 15 kids, for two hours. I had one of the former coaches there, who helped me out with different things. very useful.

the training went well, had to come up with a few things on the fly, and of course I don't know them that well yet. there's some quality in the kids, but since they're still young, there's a lot to work on. hopefully they'll keep their enthusiasm, because it's a team with a lot of potential. there was a guy that was thinking of changing teams, but now at least I got him to hesitate. I'm hopeful that he stays :)

had a short talk after the training with them and explained our thoughts and ideas, and that it's up to them how good they want to be. they can cheat as much as they want to during the exercises, but they're the ones losing out in the end. we give them the opportunity to train, but it's only through their own efforts. makes me think of this quotation:

"... All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition. Your own acts testify to this truth."

(Bahá'u'lláh, Gleanings, p. 149)

good thing to remember.

respect?

we had the first meeting with the junior youth yesterday, and it was great fun. we had some charades (nothing better than embarassing yourself in front of people you don't know) where we found some hidden talents, then had a nice talk about respect (I'll get to that), and finally danced some cumbia together. we agreed to try and meet every saturday, and also plan some sort of service project together. they're all going to think about something and then also some artistic thing they want to do. I think it's going to be really fun :)

as for respect, we started talking about it after the charades, since it was on one of the papers and smoothly came into it (well done, juan!). it turned out to be a very interesting discussion about what respect is, how we earn/deserve it, and also how we show it. many good things were said, but what I especially remember is that the amount of respect we give to a person is based on how highly we value that person. and how do we value a person?

the essential value that each person has, comes from our Creator:

O CHILDREN OF MEN!
Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.

(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words, #68)

this of course means that we all have a basic value that is inherent in us from the day we are created. in addition to that, I think it has to do with how well we know a person. but then of course, we show it in different ways. I wouldn't greet my best friend the same way I do a prominent person, regardless of if I respect them equally as much!

phone salesmen

there are a lot of people calling with different offers and whatnot. as I'm renting 2nd hand, I'm not really able to accept any of the deals, but it doesn't mean I can't have fun with them. generally when they call, they're looking for rebecca, and I tell them she's not home at the moment (true). they ask me when she'll be back and I say I don't know (true), though I don't tell them that it might take a couple of months, hehe... so they say they'll call back later, and that's okay with me. more fun for me ;-)

so here are two experiences:

a girl from a phone compan calls and talks about how to lower my phone costs. since I usually have a hard time saying no right from the start (and I don't want to be rude and just hang up on them), I let her talk. she goes on for about 2-3 minutes telling me how it will be cheaper to call to mobiles, to friends, etc etc, and ask me if I'd be interested in changing my current plan. I politely tell her no, and I guess she's used to that. next she asks me if I can tell her why I'm not interested, and I think for a while... and just say no. she sounds a bit surprised, and on top of that I start laughing... did feel a bit mean, but hey, it was fun :)

next one happened just recently. they call from svenska dagbladet (morning paper), and offer it to me for 6 months, for "free". the only cost would be distribution cost, which would be 4 kr a day, a total of somewhere around 750 kr. that's not really what I call for free. after he's done with the offer and asks what I think, I simply tell him I work at aftonbladet and have free access to the paper there. case closed.

don't be evil!

the google story is, as its name says, about the story of google. it tells the whole story from how sergey brin and larry page started it all with the idea of downloading the whole internet to their computers (time estimate: 1 week) up until pretty much today.

the book is very interesting and gives a good insight into how it works, how they think and act. naturally, it's putting google into a very good light, even though it deals some with some of the negative publicity it has gotten during its brief climb up the corporate ladder.

google seems to be a very creative company who claims they don't do or develop their products to make money, but rather because they're necessary tools, and *then* they try to make money out of it, if possible. all employees get one day a week (or if they want to gather it up) to spend on a personal project they want to work on, which potentially can turn into a google product or not. that seems really cool. and free meals doesn't seem too bad either...

would I want to work there in the future? why not? but I will probably need a few more years of working experience first. and I'm not sure how much there is here in sweden... their headquarters, the googleplex, seems like the dream working place with swimming pool, beachvolleyball court, etc etc. who knows? maybe one day?

either way, the book is a really interesting read. and don't be evil is of course google's motto.

statistics

new week, new stats. here's top10 for sweden again:

1. msn.se - 5 962 888
   
2. aftonbladet.se - 4 147 201
   
3. blocket.se - 2 791 878
   
4. eniro.se - 2 141 941
   
5. hitta.se - 1 954 668
   
6. expressen.se - 1 880 303
   
7. svt.se - 1 242 029
   
8. lunarstorm.se - 1 048 623
   
9. dn.se - 996 764
   
10. e24.se - 705 725
    

source: kiaindex

what the #$*! do we know!?

what the bleep do we know (yes, that's the name of it) is the kind of movie that you want to see again right after watching it the first time. it's more a documentary than a movie, even though they do try to involve a bit of a story in it in the middle. and yes, it does get a bit silly then...

but don't despair! it's a really, really interesting movie. it deals with quantum physics, spirituality, and how we can affect our reality. it's interesting to see a bunch of scientists with PhDs, MDs and having written I don't know how many books and articles, talking about God, what reality is and our souls. they say that the most fundamental thing in the world is unity, which is of course what Bahá'u'lláh and the Baha'i Faith explained about 150 years ago.

what impressed me the most were the experiments made on water, and how our thoughts can actually change the crystals in the water. check these links:
http://www.shiftingfrequencies.com/go/sf/ctgy/wrm
http://www.shiftingfrequencies.com/go/sf/ctgy/wcc
http://www.hado.net

if we keep in mind that the human body consists of 70-80% water (depends on who you ask), it gives a slight clue as to how much our thoughts can affect ourselves and others around us.

it's difficult to make this movie justice by trying to write what it wants to convey. I think what I really got out of it is that our thoughts can really affect us and the people around us physically. positive thinking doesn't mean having just a glimmering of hope, but believing with your whole body that things are possible.

I definitely recommend you to see it, and I know I will be watching it again sometime soon.

mona's dream

the extremely touching story about the execution of mona and her companions is on its way of becoming a movie and will be produced this year. they were executed simply for being Baha'is, and the threat in iran is still growing.

information about the movie and her story can be found at www.monasdream.com, together with a video and some music. I can't read this site at work, because it makes me cry...

must... resist... temptation!

I can't... must post cute picture!

it's been a long day...

I did get to sleep in the middle of the day, but today has been quite filled nevertheless, especially as it started at 2am...

at 3 am, we met up and went to one of the printing places to check out the whole process of how the paper gets made and distributed. unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures because the tour was kinda fast-paced, but it gave me a whole new understanding of how it works. it's one of those places where you can just stand the whole day and look at how things work and happen. it's amazingly fast and impressive, they can print about 60000 papers per hour, so it only took them about 2 hours to print the whole edition there. and then of course it's all the packing and distribution, which we got to see too...

I went with one of the trucks up to stockholm (the printer is in södertälje, about 40 mins south, depends on who's driving...), into a garage where they packed it into the delivery cars, and then I went with one of them in a small tour around stockholm. of course the driving around wasn't all too exciting or special, but it definitely helped in getting an understanding in how the whole process works. good learning, I must say.


and then part two of the day - football! we went to see the training today, and even got to hold a small part of the second training session. currently they're split up into two teams who practice right after each other, but we'll probably put them all in a big group and have them all for two hours. the kids are good, I was positively surprised, even though there's a lot to work on. split vision, one-touch, the basic things that make your team better. the board or something has to discuss if it's okay for us to take over, but it should be okay. wednesdays and sundays we'll have training, so it should be interesting. now we just have to come up with all the excercises...

I'm excited, and I think this team can become really good. we're going to look into different types of activities and things that can help them become a more tightly knit group as well. I can promise you that there will be lots more of this in the future :)

back at work

I'm back and alive, but extremely tired. it was very exciting though. I don't expect myself to be writing anything today... gonna be here until lunch and then go home and sleep.

valentine's day

so... what are you doing tomorrow?

personally, I'm getting up at 2 am. to go to work. no, seriously.

3 of us are going to meet up at 3 am to go to the printing rooms, and check how it all happens. after that we'll be going with one of the delivery cars when they deliver the papers to some place. expecting to be back at work somewhere around 9 or so. doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we won't be working too much after that.
I'm looking forward to it though, I think it's going to be interesting to see how the whole thing works. the project that I'm mostly working on now is also related to this, so hopefully I'll be able to ask some questions and get some ideas. I'll try to take some pictures too to put up.


glad I don't have anyone to see in the evening, would expect myself to be quite dead (and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you ;)). though we do have the football practice with the kids to go and see and then talk to the coach. 16.45, hope to be able to get some sleep in between there.

rejected?

so I'm used to getting rejected, but it usually happens more or less right away. during my job hunting spree I sent quite a lot of applications left and right. I got an e-mail today that I didn't get a job I applied to in the beginning of october and didn't hear back from them since then. needless to say, I wasn't hoping too much for it...

in other, slightly related news, I just got a mail from a recruiting company that wanted me to call them up for an interview. tell you the truth, I'm not too interested in that one either, as I'm more than happy about my current job. but it's always fun to be headhunted :)

my hair is long

... so I had to put it backwards. but worry not, your very own bornita is going to be a hair model! I will post pictures when they come up, but for now, here I am:



and while we're at it, my calf still hurts after football a week and a half ago. strange...

my kitchen!

by popular demand, here are pictures of my kitchen as well:

I just talked football with ralf edström!

in tele2's campaign for tele2 champion (a new plan), they have a few celebrities who call around to everyone to talk to them about different things. well, I signed up to get called by ralf edström, a football player, to talk about random football-related stuff. we talked for about 10 minutes about the differences of the big leagues, how to get more swedish youngsters to play in their teams, etc etc. quite fun actually. I'll put the link up to the conversation once it comes online. for now, you can go to tele2.se/champion to check it out.

now afterwards I realized I should've asked him if he had any tips on how to train youngsters...

colors???

somewhere, something went wrong... I'm not sure what happened, but my background color isn't supposed to be like that... gotta check it out later.

the monthly monthly

so here are my thoughts about my time here this far. I guess I'll try to make them periodical (pun intended).

cooking
I made a mean chicken filet today. the rice wasn't equally as good, but still not too bad. I usually cook 2 portions (sometimes 3), so I can cook basically every other day and have enough food to go around. saves me from a lot of trouble and of course gives me more time to do other things. my breakfasts aren't all that varied though... bread, cheese, tuna, sometimes ham, sometimes jam... some more points:

having a rice cooker is cheating (I don't)

gas stove/oven takes a bit time to get used to

I have yet to eat dinner outside due to being too lazy to cook

bringing some food from mom and dad helps a lot

cleaning/dishes
I don't clean nearly as much as I wish I did. I've been keeping myself busy with other things that haven't really been as important as cleaning is. (though I think to myself they are.) dishes haven't been that bad, it doesn't take all that long if I do it regularly. I've taught myself to always rinse my plates, glasses, utensils and whatnot with a bit of water if I don't wash them right away. saves me from a lot of trouble.

living alone
not really that bad. I have my computer(s), I have friends here and there, and I have the phone. silence isn't bad at all, and it's of course a huge advantage being so close to work (7 min walk). though I don't mind ppl visiting :)

laundry
no problem.

money
I'm not really sure yet, but I think I'm within my budget frame. I'm trying to avoid all unnecessary costs for the first two months or so, just to see how much I do spend a month. it's good to keep track for further knowledge.

neighbors
who? I've only seen one or two of them in the stairs... I hear a baby crying every now and then, but that's only if I'm really close to the door and try to listen.


and when it comes to the title of this post, it is of course from one of omid djalili's jokes. you can see it here:

and if you don't think it's funny, I'm sorry, but it's actually very, very funny. ;)

the doctor has spoken!

I just spoke to the terminader about how to train the football kids when it comes to the physical part. since they're so young (11-12), they can't do any workout in the gym or with any sorts of weights, so we have to use their own body as resistance. and since we're dealing with football, the most important thing right now is stamina, they have to be able to run a lot and also be fast. so there will be some warm-up of course before each training session, and then we might have a separate session for just the physical. some running, some interval training, and I suppose also some push-ups and sit-ups... should be good enough for them.

and if you don't like hearing about football-related stuff, well... tough for you. it's an important part of my life :)

when things don't work...

I've been working on this same project for 3-4 weeks now, and it's been going up and down a lot. to begin with, it took me almost a full week to be able to start with the development, as I had problems migrating the whole program to our testing server. turns out I only had to remove four lines of comments...

but then things have been going quite well, until today. suddenly the whole class wouldn't compile. and this is without me touching anything over the weekend or doing anything strange. I tried whatever I could think of without much luck, so I moved on to another part of the whole thing. hopefully we'll be able to find out what's wrong tomorrow...

just frustrating.

the presentation

forgot to link it... here it is: link. it's an swf (flash) file, so if it doesn't work to play, contact me and I'll put up the self-executing file. note that the files are quite big (~70MB), so it might take a while to download...

(press ctrl-enter to start the presentation, ctrl-f if you want it fullscreen)

back to life, back to activity

the reflection meeting went really well, at least from a personal point of view. the presentation was very much appreciated by the attendants, and they said that they had a completely new view on the statistics and what was happening in the cluster. glad to be of help!

activity-wise for me, things are probably starting to happen again. I've had a long break from mostly everything because I haven't been sure where I'm going and what I'll be doing. now that I finally have some sense of stability it is time to get going. our teaching team, gloria, juan and I, have started planning some activities, and hopefully we'll soon get a junior youth group started. of course the football will also bring us in contact with many people, and the plan is to apply many of the Baha'i principles there too. naturally, it is more important to create a united group that has fun and develops than only focusing on winning. it's a challenge, but we're up for it.

finally, it's time for me to start reading, deepening, and studying, different kinds of things. got one course still left in uni, will probably take it some time in the summer. and then of course I want to read loads of books. and also probably go through the Ruhi books by myself, just for refreshment. always good to study the Writings. we'll see what happens...

premiere!

here's the first video of one of my days. I've never seen it done anywhere, so it's a first at least as far as I know. hope you'll enjoy it! there might be more :)

me

here's a 3 days old pic of me at work. it might quickly and drastically change though :)

I <3 crespo

while we're at it, I'll just post a picture and video of one of my absolute favorite players, hernan crespo. he's been scoring endless amounts of goals in every club he's been in (parma, lazio, inter, milan, chelsea), and here's one of the nicest ones. even the commentator loves it:

and a picture:



I love seeing him play, and it makes me really happy when he scores. simply a favorite player, and I can't complain now that he's playing for my favorite team (inter) again :)

football coach!

juan (a good friend) and I just got offered coaching a football team earlier today. the boys are 11-12 years old, and just went over to 11-man teams. it's of course a big challenge, we've never been doing any real coaching, but it's sure going to be a lot of fun. we both love football, we think very much alike, and we love working together. I have no idea how good they are or what kind of kids they are, but our goal is to have fun, make them a good group and good people, and of course try to improve the football skills. maybe we'll get far?

I must say I'm really excited about this, and I think we can make up for our lack of coaching skills by our love and knowledge of football and also our genuine interest in people and their personal development. we have to combine discipline with creativity, order with chaos, and fun with some more fun. it's gonna be great, and I'll probably be writing a lot about this. hope you won't be bored! :)

whover did the dishes...

... didn't do a good job.

good news: I know who it is
bad news: it was me :(

how do you make statistics fun?

presenting something that has been done many times in a new or interesting way is not easy. you don't always have the time, energy, or creativity to come up with something new. and statistics is just the archetype for boring presentations, how fun is it to see a few numbers here, some diagrams there and a pie chart over here?
being faced with such a challenge for the reflection meeting tomorrow (presenting the number of study circles, children's classes and devotional meetings), we took a different approach. with inspiration from new york, the help of google earth and a lot of our own craziness, we've made a different sort of presentation of how things are looking in the stockholm cluster. instead of just seeing a few numbers and a diagram, you now fly over the entire greater stockholm area, and can see where each study circle/devotional/children's class is taking place, accompanied by some music.
not only does this give you a greater understanding of how things are looking, you'll also be able to know where you can invite your friends, because you've seen it on a map. it's much easier remembering when you've seen the actual building than just trying to remember that there was a devotional somewhere in sollentuna.

I'll put the presentation online so you can have a look at it. it's very easy to do, just takes a bit of time and searching, but the results can be quite amazing, and also very helpful for those who really aren't into statistics and numbers.

statistics

here's the list of top 10 most visited sites in sweden this week (unique visitors):

1. msn.se - 5 926 486
   
2. aftonbladet.se - 4 027 838
   
3. blocket.se - 2 776 671
   
4. eniro.se - 2 145 536
   
5. hitta.se - 1 994 636
   
6. expressen.se - 1 814 398
   
7. svt.se - 1 128 838
   
8. lunarstorm.se - 1 056 853
   
9. dn.se - 982 635
   
10. e24.se - 906 153
    

source: kiaindex

ads? am I a sellout?

so I just added some ads from google to my page, small one at the top and a bigger one down right. is it annoying? not really. is it making me any money? not really. I'm not forcing you to click the ads, and I'm not expecting anyone to do it either. but I'm thinking why not try to make a little money while I am doing something I enjoy? I'll be blogging for quite some time, but don't really think this will generate any sort of income. but one cent here, two cents there, and a dollar here might in the end be at least a little bit. we'll see how it goes :)

nordic youth conference

the annual nordic Baha'i youth conference is this year held in lillehammer, norway, between the 5-9th of april. the program looks extremely interesting, and I'm sure it's going to be great. to check out more, go to www.nordicbahaiyouth.com, and don't forget to sign up!

the hostess!

no mention of my home can be complete without the mention of my dear sister/cousin rebecca. her blog can be found here. I'm renting the apartment from her, and she made a more than excellent job in preparing it for me and my arrival. eternal thanks to you rebecca! <3

(no, she's not framed.)

y mi casa...

and here's my place. first, the hallway:



the living room:



and finally, my bedroom:




(yes, that's a double bed)

can't be bothered with the kitchen, it looks like any random kitchen...

game evening pics

here are two pics from the game evening. not the best of quality, but it's action ;-)

a month!

yesterday was a month since I moved in to my own apartment. it's nice and cozy, and I've finally started to make it feel like my place. have had a couple of friends over, and more are welcome. just gimme a message that you're coming :)

what I especially like about it is that it's so close to work. it takes me about 8 minutes to walk, compared to the 50 minutes I had to go by train/subway from my parents' place. of course, there are benefits of staying there too (dinner always ready when you get home), but it's a natural step towards maturity and independence. and I sorta like it.

I'll post a few pics so you can see what it looks like...

-17? who came up with that idea???

it's cold outside. very cold. when I woke up, it said -17 (that's around 0F for you metrically challenged). it's far from any sort of record, but still. it's cold outside. very cold. seems global warming hasn't reached us here. yet.

what am I doing here? I wish I could say it's my last winter, but I'm not too sure about that either...

what makes you go weeee?

wii makes you go weeeee!!! we just had a game evening at work, and even though I came quite late and didn't have much time to play, I'm still hooked. got to play tennis and a little bit of bowling, and it's every bit as good as they say it is. the graphics is far from the best, but the feeling of playing is immense. you're really moving and jumping around, hitting the forehand and backhand, or taking those steps forward when bowling. it's not so difficult to play, but I think it takes a lot of practice to become really good. the wii is really awesome, it's almost a must-have, can be a really fun ice-breaker at social events.

pictures and perhaps a video coming up later!

thank you klem fm!

got my mention, song and greetings to my friends on klem fm today :)
not sure if anyone out there heard it, but at least my workmates here did. was fun!

while we're at it, I also signed up to be called up by ralf edström (former swedish professional football player) here to talk sports. 6 celebrities are going to talk with as many people as possible during a day, and the conversations can be heard live. whoever wins can donate 50000 kr to charity.
so if it happens, it'll be next tuesday. not sure what to talk about yet, of course it'll be football, but not sure exactly what... ;)

listen to klem fm!

klem fm is a norwegian radio station that I quite frequently listen to. why? because it reminds me of my norwegian friends, and in particular when I helped my friends/sisters move in december 2005. we listened to it non-stop. since they play "calm favorites", they don't change around that much and I'm brought back to there, a week of much joy, laughter and craziness.

now, today I wished a song, and got promised by sverre that I'll be hearing it tomorrow. he's the host between 10-12 am (my time), so sometime then I'm hoping to hear my name and a greeting to all my norwegian friends. just click on "klikk for å lytte" down to the right, if you've got nothing better to do... ;)

here are my past few days:

february 2nd

february 3rd

february 4th

february 5th

a few notes and comments:

work, squash and gym will probably be happening and appearing quite a lot

I loved the cinnamon buns

liverpool - everton wasn't really all that fun, unfortunately (but I had good company!)

I love my parents.

work

let's start with what I'm doing. I work at aftonbladet (check link to the right), which is sweden's largest paper, and second most visited site (only msn.se is bigger) in sweden. as one of the employees "just" (mid-december) had a baby, I'm a stand-in for her. she'll be gone for 10 months, so I'll be there for at least that time and then I suppose we'll see what happens afterwards. hopefully they'll want me to stay afterwards as well. during the interview they said the chances are big, as they're continuously growing, so I'm hopeful :)

I'm basically a programmer/developer, and working on different projects here and there, depending on what is most needed. I've already worked on two projects (one finished and another running), and started on another last week. both will probably be ongoing for quite a while...

can't really tell too much about the projects, but they're quite varied, I must say. java and php/mysql, jsp/javascript, etc etc. one has been starting from scratch, the other just a slight modification/addition and the third one refreshing, fixing and updating. it's challenging, but I'm learning a lot.

and I must also say that I really love the people I'm working with. a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, and jokes. the atmosphere is extremely nice and it feels like I've already gotten to know them, even after only being there for two months. Looks promising for the future :)

starting up a brand new blog!

okay, perhaps not so new, as I'll be combining a few of the things I've been blogging about (work/football), but will also add a few new things. I'll even try to be interesting once in a while, but that's not a promise!

here is the idea I was having with the help of Google Earth, a tour of my day. download Google Earth, click my link, and fly and see where I have been. maybe I'll update every day, unless nothing at all happens, we'll see...

let the blogging restart! again!

I think I have an idea...

Google Earth just gave me an idea... I haven't seen anyone else do it, so I might be first. or at least I haven't copied the idea from anyone... give me a few days and I'll see what I can come up with.