I have a life!

Just found this and did it. I might be a bit off with some, but I think it's accurate. I seem to have a life, but intend to do something about it...

SUPPOSEDLY if you've seen over 85 films, you have no life. Mark the ones you've seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x's next to the films you've seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click post at the bottom. Have fun.

() Rocky Horror Picture Show
() Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest
(x) Boondock Saints
() Fight Club
() Starsky and Hutch
() Neverending Story
(x) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
Total: 5

() The Princess Bride
(x) AnchorMan
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
() Labyrinth
() Saw
() Saw II
() White Noise
() White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
() 50 First Dates
() The Princess Diaries
() The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 8

() Scream
() Scream 2
() Scream 3
(x) Scary Movie
() Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
() Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
() American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 10

(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
() Harry Potter 4
() Resident Evil 1
() Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
() Little Black Book
() The Village
(x) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 14

(x) Finding Nemo
() Finding Neverland
() Signs
() The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
() White Chicks
() Butterfly Effect
() 13 Going on 30
() I, Robot
() Robots
Total so far: 15

() Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
() Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
() Along Came Polly
() Deep Impact
(x) KingPin
() Never Been Kissed
() Meet The Parents
() Meet the Fockers
() Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
(x) KING KONG
Total so far: 18

() A Cinderella Story
() The Terminal
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Passport to Paris
(x) Dumb & Dumber
() Dumber & Dumberer
() Final Destination
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
() Halloween
() The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Surviving X-MAS
() Flubber
Total so far: 19

() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
() Chicago
() Ghost Ship
() From Hell
() Hellboy
() Secret Window
() I Am Sam
() The Whole Nine Yards
() The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 19

(x) The Day After Tomorrow
() Child's Play
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
() Sixteen Candles
(x) Remember the Titans
() Coach Carter
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
() Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 23

(x) Bad Boys
(x) Bad Boys 2
() Joy Ride
() Lucky Number Seven
(x) Ocean's Eleven
(x) Ocean's Twelve
() Bourne Identity
() Bourne Supremecy
() Lone Star
() Bedazzled
() Predator I
() Predator II
() The Fog
(x) Ice Age
(x) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
() Curious George
Total so far: 29


(x) Independence Day
() Cujo
() A Bronx Tale
() Darkness Falls
() Christine
() ET
() Children of the Corn
() My Bosses Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
() War of the Worlds
(x) Rush Hour
(x) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 32

() Best Bet
(x) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
() She's All That
() Calendar Girls
() Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
() Ever After
() Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
() Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 38

(x) X-Men
() X-2
() X-3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
() Sky High
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
() Catch Me If You Can
() The Little Mermaid
() Freaky Friday
() Reign of Fire
() The Skulls
() Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(x) Shrek
(x) Shrek 2
Total so far: 43

() Swimfan
() Miracle on 34th street
() Old School
() The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
() Krippendorf's Tribe
() A Walk to Remember
() Ice Castles
() Boogeyman
() The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 44

(x) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 50

(x) Baseketball
() Hostel
() Waiting for Guffman
() House of 1000 Corpses
() Devils Rejects
() Elf
(x) Highlander
() Mothman Prophecies
(x) American History X
() Three
Total so Far: 53

() The Jacket
(x) Kung Fu Hustle
(x) Shaolin Soccer
() Night Watch
(x) Monsters Inc.
(x) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
() Shaun Of the Dead
() Willard
Total so far: 58

() High Tension
() Club Dread
() Hulk
() Dawn Of the Dead
() Hook
(x) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
() 28 days later
() Orgazmo
() Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
Total so far: 60

(x) Kill Bill vol 1
(x) Kill Bill vol 2
() Mortal Kombat
() Wolf Creek
(x) Kingdom of Heaven
() the Hills Have Eyes
() I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
() The Last House on the Left
() Re-Animator
() Army of Darkness
Total so far: 63

(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
() Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
() Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 69

(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix Reloaded
(x) The Matrix Revolutions
() Animatrix
() Evil Dead
() Evil Dead 2
() Team America: World Police
() Red Dragon
() Silence of the Lambs
() Hannibal
Total so far: 72

beware, I'm dangerous!

googling yourself is always fun, especially when you find out that you are really dangerous. there apparently is a borna virus, that seems to be affecting mostly animals. however, if you're feeling depressed, it might be because of me: "They have claimed that up to 50% of cases of depression could be attributable to infection with borna virus.", even though it's not fully verified yet.

so if you're feeling down and low, you might want to stay away from me for a while... ;-)

problem solving 101

in the computer world, the basic idea behind every sort of problem solving when it comes to bugs, after of course finding/identifying the problem, is reproducing it. if you can't reproduce an error, it's very difficult to be able to solve it. that's why it's very important to have "competent" users, that can properly report when something's wrong, and how they go about in creating the problem.

the past few days I've been sitting and trying to solve a problem that is extremely random. I have a (somewhat accurate) description of how to produce it. the only problem is that it only seems to occur every now and then. I have been able to reproduce it myself, but then some other times it seems to work as it should. and the logs don't show anything strange...

this is quite frustrating to say the least. I don't know how to attack the problem, and the thoughts for solutions I've had have been quite a bit off. one idea I had did solve the problem, but created some other problems. so it wasn't really a solution :)

meanwhile I've been working on some other things have that been going well. it always feels good to solve problems or fix things, especially when you know right from the start what you're going to do.

we had ice cream at work today again, this time it was on me. three or four days in a row that I've had ice cream, love the spring =D

one of these days...

... I'll stop watching football. it's just so frustrating to see people play, when you know they can play so much better than they do. today it was sweden who lost against northern ireland, which is quite an achievement in itself... it's just sad.

in other football related news, I read this book called "så funkar fotboll" (sorta "how football works"):



quite an interesting book to read. it's very simple, so not too advanced theories or explanations, but goes through the basics. good thing to read in case I'll want to teach the kids anything from that. and also some interesting statistics and notes of things to look at during gameplay. helps me analyze :)

the joy of shopping

this is how happy I was after the shopping spree...

ice cream!

we had ice cream at work today! a lovely initiative by a coworker... he wanted some ice cream, so we went down to the store and got some. then out in the sun to enjoy it, was really nice! :)

I got served in squash today... hadn't played for four weeks, and I guess it showed. won one set, but it was mostly due to luck and bad play by my competitor. well well, gotta shake off the rust and come back again. it's a lot of fun though.

and finally I bought myself some football shoes as well. 450 kr, but I suppose it's needed... first day of outdoor practice tomorrow, and then there's gonna be a new series with aftonbladet against some other companies. football's always fun :)

evil prison break!

I *almost* got stuck watching it! luckily there was a commercial break, so I managed to walk away... it's really well done, I'm afraid of getting stuck...

me, a song writer?

just heard from a friend that she thought I could be good at composing lyrics... I'm not all too convinced myself, but I'm sure it would be fun to give it a try. requires a lot of creativity, and probably a lot of help too. but why not? now I just need the music and a theme... :)

... and the videos...

let's hope this works:

our solution

referring to my post about the evening at accenture, here's how we had solved the problem:


quite sexy, I must say...

when you haven't *really* woken up

got up in the morning with the intention of going to the gym. got out of the door, and realized I had forgotten the apple I was going to eat on the way. got back up on got it.

went out again, locked the door, on my way out, remembered I forgot to bring my card to get into work. got back up and got it...

went out shopping with a friend today, might've bought a bit too much, but at least now I have stuff for the summer :)

facebook fun

so I decided to take facebook a bit less seriously and just fool around with things. and I can assure you, it was quite a lot of fun.

I messed up my family situation a bit... I now have two fathers; one I met randomly, the other one I hooked up with and "it was so wrong". I have a sister whom I lived together with here and there, worked with for a while, dated once, and am not on speaking terms with anymore. she is also currently dating my son, so in effect, her nephew... now I'm just looking for a mom or two.

also gonna go some courses in football, leading and stuff. I think it's gonna be interesting and useful, both for the team now and also for the future. there are a lot of steps to take if one wants to become a professional coach, nothing that I have planned, but am at least going to take a few steps forward. we'll see how it goes!

how do you find the center of a triangle?

problem: assume you have three points, S, C and O, located some distance from each other:


your task is to find out point T, which is the point that is equally as distant from all three points. how do you go about?

solution: it's not that difficult. first of all, make it a triangle:


next step is to draw a line from each corner of the triangle to the middle of the opposite side:


the intersection is point T.

I was thinking about it last night, and it seems that this is actually the way to go about in doing it: centroid of a triangle

why is this interesting? well, imagine that S = stockholm, C = copenhagen, and O = oslo. T then equals torsvik, which is a small town in sweden, used as a warehouse for transporting between the countries. quite interesting, huh? :)

accenture

was just at a company presentation at accenture, a consulting company. they invited computer scientists/it students from kth, and then a few from stockholm university. we were about 25 or so in total.

they started off with some presentation about how it is working there, one of the senior executives told us a bit about his experiences there, and finally a quite recently hired employee also told some stuff about his thoughts. then we had time for questions, and before dinner there was a challenge for us.

we were supposed to with the help of some random accessories design a modular solution on how to starting from point A, blow up a balloon at point D. between these points were intermediaries B and C, and the point was that each step should be possible to isolate and test, A -> B, B -> C, and C -> D. we were split up into groups of about 8-9, and each group was again split into three teams, which each was responsible for one of these modules. we started out by designing, then building, and finally testing before we went "live". the criteria for who would win was a combination of efficiency, modularity, scalability, speed and creativity.

my group came up with an incredibly cool solution (not much thanks to me), that was basically the same module tripled, with the balloon being punctured in the end. it was a very simple solution as well, so we had very few things that could go wrong. basically if one of the modules worked, the two others would work too. unfortunately, at the time of show, the balloon didn't get punctured, due to a slight misplacement of it. however, with some minor adjustments, it worked. and on top of that, it went quickly. it was almost instant, whereas the two other groups took ~2 seconds or so, even though their solutions were very creative and quite cool. I'll have pictures and videos coming up later.

we wrapped the evening up with a dinner and dessert, and at the end of it they announced the winners. by my description in the previous paragraphs, you have probably concluded that my group won. and we did. no idea what the prize is, it seemed to get stuck on the way, so we'll have to wait for a few days until it arrives. not that that's the most important thing, but it's always fun.

as for working at accenture, I guess it's a possibility for the future. compared to for example mckinsey, their project span is far wider, ranging from strategy and analysis, all the way to implementation, testing and outsourcing. this means that it's possible to get a broader experience and one can try out different things within the same company, to find out one's niche and preference. they have also shifted a bit from recruiting only newly finished people (apparently used to be 99%) to a bit more balanced (60-40), so that's good for me in the future.

however, I must say that I am very happy where I am right now, and I don't see the need to change for the sake of changing. we will see what the future holds in store, but it's an option for later on at least.

nineteen day feast!

just co-hosted stockholm's 19-day feast today, together with a friend. it was the first time I was in charge of it all (have arranged the devotional part of it before), so it was an interesting experience. probably won't happen again in a while, but it was cool.

I took care of the prayers, while my friend had found some really cool instrumental/bolivian/indian music, very calm and relaxing. we had also arranged flowers and scent candles, so the place actually looked quite good, with a very pleasant atmosphere.

unfortunately there were quite few who came, but it turned out to be good for us anyways. we had more or less miscalculated how much snacks/fruits/cookies to get, so had there actually been as many as we had calculated with, we wouldn't have had enough. so it all turned out well in the end :)

montly monthly, part 2

it's been more than two months since I moved out, and a bit more than a month since my last post, so here's my second update on things. this time I will focus on sleeping, relaxation state and friendly invitations.

sleeping
I can of course sleep longer now in the mornings, since I don't have as far to travel. however, since I have no train to catch, I am more keen on snoozing once or twice in the mornings, which usually makes me get into a bit of a rush since I want to get to work at a certain time. usually not too bad, but something I should probably try to avoid.

relaxation state
since I'm not at all as stressed in the mornings, I'm feeling a lot more relaxed. most mornings I have my breakfast in front of the tv, taking my time to eat and do the other things I do in the mornings. I don't have to worry about taking a maximum amount of time to eat and do everything else; if I want, I can just get to work 5 minutes later.

friendly invitations
since I live in town, it's easier to meet up with friends living in town. random invitations an hour ahead of time are easier to accept when going home only takes ~15-20 minutes. yesterday I met up with a few friends and played "mig", the mobile intelligence game (link), which is kinda like trivial pursuit except in a smaller version (physically). it was good fun, and the blueberry ice cream was delicious :)
last week I also invited a few other friends over for dinner, breaking the fast together... I don't think they would've come all the way out to väsby just for dinner ;-)

who moved my cheese?

who moved my cheese is a book that talks about changes and how we deal with them. the story is of two mice and two human beings running in a maze looking for Cheese. the Cheese can of course represent anything that we find valuable in life.
the mice don't care all that much about things but just run around based on instincts looking for cheese, whereas the humans analyze things. they finally find their Cheese, but eventually run out of it. how will they react, and what will they do?

the book is probably meant as an introduction to a training programme about dealing with change, and should be read in relation to that with following discussions (see whomovedmycheese.com). in my opinion, it's a bit too basic and doesn't really deal all that well with how one should act and react for changes. sure, it's good to be prepared in case something happens, but on the other hand you should also try your best in creating and changing the environment you are at to make it a good place to stay.

and of course, there are thousands of other motivational books that deal with the same thing; change your mind, and the rest will follow. the most important thing is always what's running in your head, that will decide how you react and see things happening around you.

the article

here's a picture of the article. I don't really like my smile; after holding it for a few minutes, it gets kinda bad...

when moaning and whining doesn't help...

had one of those strange days at work today... started out by getting a few things done, and then sat for about 2 hours trying to think of a solution to a problem. most of the time I was quite convinced that there was no easy way of going about with it. then after some thinking I just decided to give it a shot, try something and see where it led me. lo and behold, after a little bit of trial and error, I suddenly managed to not only solve the problem I had at first, but also got further on into my project, something that I never thought I would've.

obviously it didn't pay off to just go into it with a negative mind, it's better to just give it a shot, try your best, and eventually you'll get somewhere.


I feel like I'm constantly playing catch-up with my life, always something that has to get done. I'm not sure what it is I'm waiting for to pass or happen, or if I just have to speed up the pace that I'm doing things at. I'm not feeling stressed yet though, so still a while until I really have to pull the brake...

I passed my exam!

wrote an exam two months ago, but in some strange ways I have not gotten the result until now, after 2-3 mails. but YAY! now I only have one more exam to go, and then I'm finally done and will have my masters!

homestyling

here's how to significantly raise the value of your place:



now it's invaluable ;-)

spring is officially here!

it might have been a little bit cold, it definitely was a little bit dark, but the first official outdoor actvitiy has now taken place! we played basketball yesterday, outside at 19.30. double t-shirts helped keep the warmth, and of course put on the jacket during the breaks, but we played. of course it was all a little bit rusty, but it was a good start. and now my legs and shoulders are dead...

in other news, the hair article got published on sunday. I've got the paper and will take a picture of it and put up later.

balancing user control

focusing on the users in development means giving them the power of choice and opportunity to affect how things should be. but is absolute freedom always good?

there are often cases where the users are too used to doing their task one way that seeing it be done in another way becomes difficult or almost impossible. in these cases it is up to the developer to have the open mind and see where the improvements can be made, tactfully suggesting them and see the response. however, it is very important to keep in mind the routine the users have developed; sometimes they are the most efficient way of working.

another problem that may arise is when the users are given too much choice. "I can do it whichever way you want, how do you want this to be?" can often lead to counterproductive results as they might be overwhelmed and not really have a clear picture of how to go about in doing things. when saying something along those lines, it is always good to have some sort of suggestion of how things could look like. but that must also be balanced with not making things look too done and final, because then there might sneak in a reluctance in the users to change things.

it is very difficult to keep the balance of keeping the users in charge, while not overwhelming them with choices. it is important to keep in mind that they are experts in their work, not in design and development.

need to read

I want to read more... I have a whole bunch of books that I want to read, but am not dedicating enough (read: any) time for it right now. more books, less tv/computer.

The Fast

we're halfways through the month of fasting, and a bit later than expected, I'll try and write some of my thoughts. I'll start of with a few quotations:

"Verily I say, there is a great station before God for fasting and prayer..."

"Besides all this, prayer and fasting are the cause of awakening and mindfulness and conducive to protection and preservation from tests."

Fasting and obligatory prayer constitute the two pillars that sustain the revealed Law of God.

"In the realm of worship, fasting and obligatory prayer constitute the two mightiest pillars of God's holy Law."

"Obligatory prayer and fasting are among the most great ordinances of this holy Dispensation."

the Fast of course has its physical aspect in the fact that one doesn't eat between sunrise and sunset for a Bahá'í month, 19 days. since the Fast occurs just before the spring/autumn equinox (northern/southern hemisphere), the time to fast is never absurdly long or short. for those who live for example of the polar circle where the sun is up for a very long time, they go by the clock, from 6-18. the others follow the sun, which means that the non-eating time averages somewhere around 11h or so.

some say that fasting has physical benefits to the body, such as cleansing the body of toxins, healing it, and also having an effect on lifespan (source). others claim that fasting has negative effects on the body, even though it seems to be in regard to total fast, ie not drinking or eating for a prolonged period. and we also know that we would never be ordinanced something that would be unhealthy to us.

however, as the quotations above state, the main aspect of fasting is of course spiritual. it is a time for prayer and meditation, of thought and reflection. oftentimes, the period of fasting is followed by some sort of change in personality and lifestyle, as it gives the opportunity and time to do some other things instead of all the time focusing on food. and if not, it is at least a reminder to us as to what is most important in our life, in regards to the physical versus spiritual aspects of our life.

to me, the not eating part isn't all that difficult. I'm used to skipping lunch every now and then, and now I am also mentally and spiritually prepared for it. what I find more difficult is to get the time and energy for reflection and meditation. usually my eating-time just goes to something else. that's something I need to improve a bit more on. and naturally, I do get a bit more tired at the end of the working day due to lack of energy, and I also miss the natural breaks. lunch and fruit breaks are good in the sense that they force you away from the computer, which gives a bit of rest for the eye and mind.

all in all, I like the period of fasting. it usually is a calm month, which also gives many opportunities for dinners with friends, to break the fast together. it also is the period right before spring comes, and the day gets lighter and lighter. and then of course, we can always hope that God accepts it :)

"there should be a license for having children!"

too many times have I heard people complain about bad parents out in the world, and then continuing by saying something along the lines that there should be a license for having kids.
newsflash 1: there is one
newsflash 2: it's called marriage!

in the Bahá'í Faith, marriage requires the consent of both parties' parents before it can take place. I think this has a twofold wisdom:
first of all, it promotes the unity in the families, that the parents accept the chosen partner of their children (however, before they have made a choice, the parents have no right to interfere). it is in a way the final thing the parents do before they leave their children on their own, and giving consent is the official way of doing it.
and also, it means spending a lot of time with your parents-in-law-hopefully-to-be so you can get to know them, and they can get to know you. it will give the partners an understanding of what kind of education and raising they have received, which means you'll be coming closer to your significant other as well. this is a way for the parents to pass on their life-long acquired wisdom to their children, and if they're persian, you're bound to get great food too!

in conclusion, there is a great licensing tool for having children, it's just that not too many people use it in its intended way.

conspiracy?

I think there's a conspiracy against me... out of 8 teams in the champions league, 6 games went against what I wanted, and the other two I was quite indifferent to.

and at work, nothing is really going right... argh!

football tonight

it is the champions league tonight, and I invited some friends over to watch it together. we'll have one tv and two laptops, which means we'll be well-equipped to watch three of the games. chelsea - porto isn't all that interesting, so we'll probably skip that one.

here's an actual conversation between me and another quite football-fanatic friend:
me: wanna come here tonight?
him: sure
him: whats happening?
him: ehm...forget i asked :-P

seems football might've taken a toll on our brains...

léon!

I have finally seen léon! this was the very first movie I downloaded (*cough, cough*) when I got broadband, which was about 7 or so years ago... I've had it ever since, transferring it between my computers, but never gotten around to watching it. it's been on tv a couple of times, but I've always noticed halfways through it and there hansn't been much of a point to watch it from there. and of course, everyone has been telling me that I have to watch it.

well, it finally happened yesterday evening. took my dinner, put on the movie, and sat and watched it. had a two hour phone break, or technically two one hour phone breaks, but still didn't lose too much because of it.

the movie in itself is really, really good. got you captured right from the start and almost all the way up until the end. it's fun to see a very, very young natalie portman (the movie is from '94) and of course the ever impressive jean reno. it's of course quite bloody as reno is a professional hitman, but I'd say it's a lot cleaner than many other action movies. and the interaction between the two is very interesting to see. two hours long, but really doesn't feel like it, it just goes very quickly.

I like the way luc besson uses all possible scenographical tools such as camera angles and views, music, lighting, etc to give a very suggestive mood to the whole movie. it is a true masterpiece, and something that everyone should definitely see. now I can finally say that too!

favorite quote:
- this... is... from... mathilda
- ........ shit.

and of course, the ending music is shape of my heart by sting... I love it :)

video games...

How to get your girlfriend to play video games is a good start, now I just need something similar for football and I'll be all set.

one month to go!

in exactly one month, this year's nordic youth conference starts. check out www.nordicbahaiyouth.com for more information and registration. it's gonna be awesome, I promise! come!

facebook is evil

tried to avoid it for as long as I could, but it seems there are way too many people there... now it just takes a lot of time :(

all continents!

I just hit visitors from all 6 continents, yay! check out the map:



kinda cool :)

nice picture

I really like this pic, from the Baha'i World Center in haifa, israel:

insights of the day

1. it's a small world
   
2. I can't sing for my life

met a friend from portugal today whom I hadn't seen for 4 years. it seems his friend is here as an exchange student, and so suddenly he decided to come for a visit. he met up with my brother, who called me and told me to come. I was so excited about seeing him that I forgot to switch the train and so had to walk a bit extra. good fun. we had dinner together, went for a walk in the old town, and then sat down at a café for a while. will hopefully meet up again at least once more.
conclusion number two came from today's singstar. I'm not sure if I have to say anymore... but rest assured, I now have people that will back me up when I say that I suck.


in other news today, the junior youth group went well. I had to go early to see my friend, but we went through two lessons from breezes of confirmation, which we of course modified a bit and removed some of the very simple lessons. I was positively surprised by their reaction, that they actually did it all without thinking that it was strange or silly in any way. bodes well for the future. have to talk to my teaching team to see what we'll do next.

a summary

things have been a bit hectic the past two days, but now I'm back at my parents', so it's a bit calmer and I can sum things up a bit.

thursday was a lot of rushing back and forth, with a thesis presentation at uni (congrats pedram!), some planning for today's junior youth group, nineteen day feast and then we went to the movies, one of my Ayyám-i-Há gifts. went and saw the departed, which I thought was really good. it's a remake of the original hong kong movie infernal affairs, which is supposed to be much better. guess I gotta see that one too :)

got two other gifts arranged as well, the flowers that I had arranged on tuesday to my parents got delivered (which really surprised them):



and I also ordered the "love football" wristbands (wouldn't really call them bracelets) for the whole football team. the purpose is to work against racism and violence in football, started by aftonbladet (info in swedish):



I think it's going to be a cool and uniting thing for the team if everyone wears it at training and during games.

on friday it was the first day of the Fast. not eating wasn't really much of a problem, though my tiredness was. didn't get much sleep on thursday night, but it was good. gives you a focus on what is important in life. I'll write more about the Fast later. we're having junior youth group meeting later today, gotta be ready for that one too.

prayer

here are a few quotations on prayer:

"I beseech Thee... to make of my prayer a fire that will burn away the veils which have shut me out from Thy beauty, and a light that will lead me unto the ocean of Thy Presence."

Bahá'u'lláh

"There is nothing sweeter in the world of existence than prayer. Man must live in a state of prayer. The most blessed condition is the condition of prayer and supplication. Prayer is conversation with God. The greatest attainment or the sweetest state is none other than conversation with God. It creates spirituality, creates mindfulness and celestial feelings, begets new attractions to the Kingdom and engenders the susceptibilities of the higher intelligence."

'Abdu'l-Bahá

"Make my prayer, O my Lord, a fountain of living waters whereby I may live as long as Thy sovereignty endureth, and may make mention of Thee in every world of Thy worlds."

Bahá'u'lláh

"Spirit has influence; prayer has spiritual effect... God will answer the prayer of every servant if that prayer is urgent. His mercy is vast, illimitable. He answers the prayers of all His servants."

'Abdu'l-Bahá

"... the impulse to pray is a natural one, springing from man's love to God."

'Abdu'l-Bahá

"Intone, O My servants, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men. Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb. Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul. Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Source of power and wisdom."

Bahá'u'lláh

some more statistics

newspaper circulation numbers, with the difference from last year:

1. Aftonbladet, 426 000, -13 100
   
2. Dagens Nyheter, 351 800, -15 500
   
3. Expressen-GT-KvP, 344 400, -14 700
   
4. Göteborgs-Posten, 245 700, -3 200
   
5. Svenska Dagbladet, 194 900, +6 600
   
6. Sydsvenskan, 125 500, -6 100
   
7. Dagens Industri, 117 800, +300
   
8. Helsingborgs Dagblad, 82 100, -2 000
   
9. Dalarnas Tidningar, 64 800, -200
   
10. Nerikes Allehanda, 59 300, -2 700
    
11. Östgöta Correspondenten, 59 300, -1 000
    
12. Nya Wermlands Tidningen, 56 600, -700
    
13. Upsala Nya Tidning, 56 600, -1 900
    
14. Borås Tidning, 49 100, -100
    
15. Norrköpings Tidningar, 47 600, -500
    
16. Vestmanlands Läns Tidning, 45 400, -800
    
17. Barometern, 43 600, -300
    
18. Jönköpings Posten, 40 000, -500
    
19. Norrländska Socialdemokraten, 40 000, -600
    
20. Smålandsposten, 39 600, -500
    
21. Skånska Dagbladet, 39 300, -1 000
    
22. Västerbottens-Kuriren, 39 000, -1 100
    
23. Blekinge Läns Tidning, 36 100, -100
    
24. Sundsvalls Tidning, 34 100, -1 400
    
25. Eskilstuna-Kuriren, 33 500, +100

(source)

expect the unexpected!

I'm a strong believer in the concept of fun, regardless of where you are and what you're doing. if you're having fun, chances are you'll be doing a better job. therefore, I have tried to incorporate unexpected events and things at whatever I do at work.

for example, for one project I'm working on, when showing people that have recruited their friends, I could've gone with a simple sign like a * or perhaps a simple image of a handshake. instead, inspired by this post about creating passionate users, I chose these incredibly cute guys: . so what happens? people smile when they see them, and it makes their work a bit more enjoyable.

there are of course limitations to everything. if the product isn't working well and I've put a lot of time and energy into making these small quirks, it would be bad prioritizing. however, if things are working as they should and it has these additional mood-lifting images and features, it helps to make the users happier about what they use.

I probably have some more surprises coming up... ;-)

it's been a long day...

my msn read: work -> uni -> juan/gloria -> 19-df -> cinema... more of that tomorrow.