to my colleagues

I've been here for 10 months, and already from the first day I felt like a part of the group. it's been a great honor and pleasure to be working with you all. I have learned so much from each and every one of you, and if I have been able to repay that with just a tiny fraction, I am more than happy.

I have simply had so much fun working together with you. it hasn't felt at all that I've been going to work, but more like meeting up with a couple of friends and then doing some stuff on the computer. I've laughed so much, I've enjoyed the atmosphere, and I have really looked forward to going to work, every single day.

it is with ambivalent feelings that I am leaving you and aftonbladet, as I don't really know if I will ever go to another place where I will feel as at home that I have here. on the other hand, I am really looking forward to the challenges and experiences I will have in israel. I will miss you, one and all! and who knows, maybe I'll be back again...

so again, a big thank you, and with the best wishes in the future. I am very much looking forward to our paths crossing again. it has truly been a pleasure.

over and out

bye bye!

it's a bit difficult to work...

I got Post-Ited:



YAY! :)

ducks...

... or ninjas?


you decide!

last day of work

last day of work... means checking in stuff, uploading all the files, fixing the documentation, and finally saying good bye... wonder how I'll feel at the end of the day...

I don't like to be the center of attention

so a small coffee break was arranged for me today at work. some pastries and just a general gathering of the people I've been working with during my time there. and I must say it was a bit weird to have most of the attention centered around me. I guess I have a sort of love-hate relationship towards attention - I don't mind it, have no problems holding speeches and such, but mostly prefer to stay in the background, do my job and go on with it. as long as the people who are supposed to know know that I'm doing my job, I'm happy with it. no need for any sort of public recognition or any of that kind.

I was even asked to hold a speech, but kindly "delegated" it to my boss. he just briefly said that he'd been very happy with having me there, and that he'd love to have me stay (I did get an offer). that was more than enough for me, and I can only say the same - had it not been for my service, I would've loved to stay.

tomorrow is my last day...

is it possible to be in love with a sport?

I'm sitting here in my couch, watching barcelona hand zaragoza a lesson in how to play football, and I'm just sitting being amazed at how beautiful it is. it's fast-flowing, technical football, the kind that you dream you'd play. this is something I wish every person who's the slightest interested in football would just sit down and watch. absolutely amazing.

then they came for...

... the Baha'is?

here's a touching post by u.s. congressman mark steven kirk, about the situation of the Baha'is in iran.

here's (one of apparently many versions of) the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984):

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


and iranian president ahmadinejad answering on the question why the Baha'is are deprived of their human rights:

let's hope it ends differently this time...

the picture

here's globen:

what do you do at 10.15 pm?

I decided to go out to a friend. they live close-by, it's only a 15 minute walk, but even though they've lived there since mid-june, this is the first (and last...) time I go visit them. got back home now... and still as I was putting on my shoes to go out, I was thinking to myself "what am I doing?"

we had set the time to meet at 10.30. the only problem was that I had no idea where they lived, so was supposed to call and get directions as I was walking. well, it took five calls until I got an answer...

but it was good fun, we talked about my going away on service and life in general, I got to see their place and ate some tasty cakes and cookies. a good small trip, hope I won't be too tired tomorrow.

took a nice picture of globen as well, I'll put it up tomorrow.

stomp

in an effort to bring you more skilled and cool things, here's stomp, a group that greates music out of absolutely everything and nothing. two videos:

there's a lot more on youtube, for example this one.

the last week

today starts the last week of many things... I have only 5 days left of work, and so have to wrap up things here so that no loose threads hanging when I'm gone. friday will probably be quite a long day as I have to go through everything to make sure it's all checked in, uploaded, and all that. and then in the end hand in my computer and my access card.

and then I'm also moving out in the weekend, so my last days of living on my own. my place is already more than half-empty, so it's already a bit weird being here. but as I said before, it's pretty much just tv and computer that needs to go out, and then a proper cleaning. I'll get help from my parents, so I hope to be able to finish it off without stressing too much in the end.

and I'm limping since yesterday's game. got a knee right on my thigh, so it hurts. even sleeping is kinda painful, and let's not even talk about shoes, socks and trousers. yikes. I hope it goes over soon, but it'll probably take a couple of more days. means no sports for me, just gym. boring :(

Baha'i world loses most distinguished member

the last of the Hands of the Cause of God, Dr. Ali-Muhammad Varqa, passed away on the evening of the 22nd of september. read more here.

"Light and glory, greeting and praise be upon the Hands of His Cause, through whom the light of fortitude hath shone forth and the truth hath been established that the authority to choose rests with God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Unconstrained, through whom the ocean of bounty hath surged and the fragrance of the gracious favors of God, the Lord of mankind, hath been diffused. We beseech Him—exalted is He—to shield them through the power of His hosts, to protect them through the potency of His dominion, and to aid them through His indomitable strength which prevaileth over all created things. Sovereignty is God's, the Creator of the heavens and the Lord of the Kingdom of Names."

- Bahá'u'lláh -

crash

I just saw crash (I know, I'm a bit slow), and... just one word: wow. simply amazing. it's really difficult to put a word to it, but I will try anyways...

it deals with racial prejudice, the story of blacks and whites. it's a mish mash of people and stories, that somehow get related on the way. the movie takes place over about 2-3 days, and there's so much that happens. in the end, it seems everyone does something good, and something bad. no one is perfect, but everyone has a good side to them.

I can't really say much more, the movie just left me speechless. if you haven't seen it, do it. now. it's well worth it. deal?

my apartment looks... empty.

I've had some wonderful help here during the weekend, packing and cleaning my apartment. I now only have the absolute necessity left; tv, computer, some clothes and a few books - the rest is back home. I have one more week of work, and in the weekend I'll be moving back home. it's gonna be strange to come back home and have "nothing" to do for a while, but I'm sure my mind will be so preoccupied with planning and preparing for leaving, so that should be quite okay in the end. have a few things I want to take care of :)

I almost wanted to move back already this weekend since there's nothing left here, but it would be too stressful to try and take care of everything tomorrow (cleaning and stuff), so I'll take care of it next weekend. will give me a bit more time and a bit more relaxed environment to take care of it. it should be good.

triple bourne

in some strange turn of events, I managed to see three movies in three days - bourne identity, bourne supremacy and bourne ultimatum. the first two were on tv, saturday and sunday, but on different channels, so that was quite surprising. the third one I naturally had to go to the movies to see the day after, since I was already so much into it.

the whole movie is about jason bourne, played by matt damon, who wakes up with a completely blank memory, and has no idea who he is. as he goes on, he realizes that he implicitly knows a lot of things related to combat, survival, etc: "I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?"

the three movies are essentially about him trying to find out who he is, why he knows all these things, what he has been doing and then trying to make up for it. I really liked the movies, as it manages to keep the excitement throughout. and jason, the "good guy", is doing bad things, but since one identifies with him, you never think of him as a bad guy. the movies are very intelligent, with twists and turns all the way. the third movie seemed very good to me, probably the best one, although that could be because I saw it in the movies and the others on tv.

I really recommend everyone to see the movies. not so much for any sort of lesson or morale of it, but for the excitement and action. 6 good hours of entertainment!

licking envelopes

am I the only one that is horribly bad at it? I always end up taping them just to make sure it doesn't open...

not sure what to think of this

I'm not really sure how scientific this is, but it's fun at least:

$4875.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

always something to look forward to...

got my ticket!

finally got my ticket now to go to haifa. it hasn't felt completely final, but now that I have my ticket, there's no return. my flight is through paris and charles de gaulle airport, on the 23rd of october, at 6.50 am. arrival in tel aviv at 3.30 pm. it's a little bit early departure, but I don't think I'll be sleeping much the night before anyways ;)

started a counter on the right, 33 days left to go!

more stockholm

I have previously written about pearlofsweden.com, which is a really nice site for tourists looking to visit stockholm.

stockholm highlights is another site with a bit of a personal touch on things. a friend of mine is running this site, and tells about her favorite places in stockholm. it's a mixture of everything, so check it out! (in swedish)

for the spiritual side of stockholm, check out stockholmbahai.blogspot.com. it's a place for reflections and experiences of the Baha'is of stockholm (in swedish). the blog just started, but I'm hopeful it'll turn out to be a lively place in the future. it's a good start at least.

weather vs weather

fall is officially here in stockholm now... it's beautiful sunshine, but around 7-8 degrees warm (cold?). I checked the haifa weather for the upcoming 10 days: sun (29 degrees), sun (28), sun (28), sun (28), sun (27), sun (27), sun (27), sun (27), sun (27), sun (28).

I think I could get used to that...

is this really a poem?

sl, who are running the public traffic in stockholm (buses, subway, train, etc), have something they call "poetry on the road", and the poems there have always kinda annoyed me. my most recent annoyance is here:

I collected stamps
My dad gave me half a kilo
I didn't collect stamps anymore


how can that be a poem???

I feel old

without much effort, I found 30 straws of gray hair looking at myself in the mirror. I'm not even 24...

beautiful goals

here's a beautiful goal from the weekend, adebayor's 3-1 against tottenham:

kinda reminds me of this one, which is possibly even more amazing:

weekend update

started out by finding out that my cable modem spontaneously broke down. yay for technology! so no internet at home at the moment, but they're going to send it so I should have it soon again...

have had a cold since wednesday, so skipped football and squash thursday-friday. stayed at home on saturday, and cooked what turned out to be some delicious rice. only problem was that I couldn't smell it :(

was looking forward to another calm day at home on sunday with some football, but turned out to be anything but. the reserve team had a game, and I had said that I could come sit on the bench if there were few people turning up. got a text about 2 hours before we were going to meet up, and in the end I turned out to be the only person sitting on the bench. there was one guy who was supposed to come that didn't show up, so I even had the chance of starting but asked to start on the bench. however, I played the entire second half, as right-back, not really my natural position I must say... but it went quite okay, I was not too full of energy though. saved one ball on our own line, but later on managed to hit the ball on one of our defenders and into our goal... and 1-1 :(
we should've won the game much earlier though, had many many clear-cut chances to score but didn't...

still got a bit of my cold going, but it's getting better. should be another day or two and then it's hopefully over. two weeks left of work...

world community grid

let your computer do some work while you're not. world community grid is a program that does exactly that. you might've heard of seti@home (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) where you have your computer download and analyze radiowaves from space to detect any anomalies. world community uses the same principle (and even the same software nowadays), but in my opinion for a better purpose than finding aliens (don't worry, we'll show ourselves when it's the right time ;)). the projects of the world community grid are currently:

AfricanClimate@Home - trying to more accurately build models for the climate in africa

Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together - finding drugs for viruses

Human Proteome Folding - Phase 2 Project - modelling human proteins

FightAIDS@Home Project - helping to understand more about HIV and AIDS

I'd say it's a good tool to download and have running. simply have your computer be useful to humanity when it's not doing anything else. and it's a beautiful screensaver too!

beautiful solutions

working as a developer can at times be very frustrating, as things usually don't tend to happen linearly. problems tend to appear and disappear without prior notice, and the 80/20 rule (or the pareto principle) seems to apply very much. but beyond this, there are intellectually challenging problems which are at first frustrating but in the end turn into beautiful solutions. there have been two times that I have been very impressed by how we have solved our problems.

the most recent one turned out to be quite similar to the knapsack problem, but not as advanced. here's the scenario:
imagine you have a certain set of products (at least 3, could be more), and each product has their own amount. you're going to insert these into a parcel with a certain size (that you don't know ahead of time). at least one of the products you can just insert into the first parcel without adding any to the total amount in it (there could be more). you want the products to be evenly distributed in all the parcels, so that in case one parcel gets lost, you still want some amount of all the products to be delivered. and also, the last parcel has to have a minimum of 5 products in it, so that if you end up with less than that, you'll have to take a few from the second to last parcel to fill the last one up. naturally you want to fill all your other parcels, so that you have the minimum amount of parcels needed.

now, how would you solve this ... beautifully? :)

another birthday greeting

we had another birthday yesterday, and continued the tradition with our post-its:


this time, however, except for the usual greeting post-its, I wrote two humorous notes:
"btw, the database is going a bit slowly", and "sorry, I accidentally flushed our customer table".

he was happy nevertheless ;)

check me out!

here's a short video of me running in saturday's relay. I've got blue pants and a red t-shirt, and it takes about 33 seconds until I appear, and 2 seconds until I disappear again: the link (didn't work to embed...)

if I write with both hands...

... am I a stereotype(r)? ;)

last minute-borna!

I was going to write something longer, but suffice it to say that I do everything last minute. need to change that...

free hugs!

today is officially the free hugs campaign-day! there's not much more to say except for check the site.

and the video:

monthly monthly

here comes another one of those, a few days late, but not so bad.

best before dates
when it comes to food, these are like speed limits in traffic - merely a recommendation. one or two days extra is usually not so bad, especially when it comes to yoghurt and stuff. although I usually only buy stuff that I'm going to use in the upcoming 2-3 days, so in that way I stay safe.

bouncing sleep
I've constantly been jumping up and down in my sleeping patterns for the past few weeks. with squash and football early in the mornings, and sometimes football late in the evening, it's been hard to keep up. I've had to catch up quite often, taking early nights just to make sure I don't get ill. but it should get better now, a few more free evenings during the week means that I'll be able to sleep and organize things a bit better.

future
"There is nothing that brings success in the Faith like service. Service is the magnet which draws the divine confirmations..."
my contract at work runs out in three weeks, and after months of speculation (ok, maybe not ;)), it's finally done and ready where I'm headed - to israel for 2.5 years of service at the Baha'i World Centre. I will be serving at the information services department, not exactly sure what I'll be working with, but computer related.
I'm very excited about it, it'll be a very developing time there, and an opportunity to get to know a lot of people and experience many different cultures. I will definitely post more about it later, for now here's a link. I'm leaving in the end of october.
I will be moving out of my own place the weekend 29-30th, and back to my parents. will have about three weeks to pack and get ready, and then I'll be off.
hopefully I'll be able to keep stuff updated on my blog, and take lots of pictures to put up. it's so increadibly wonderful there, so I'm sure there'll be a lot to show and tell.

goodbye party
leaving naturally leads us to saying good bye to people. to make things easier for me, I decided to throw a party and invite literally everyone. saturday 6th of october at 6 pm back home at my parents' place. if you can read this, you're invited, just let me know you're coming. it's not going to be a sad occasion, but a happy one. there will be food, some sort of program, and no football at all. I'll have my camera around, take lots of pictures, and force people to take at least one "self-shot". it's going to be great fun, I hope as many people as possible are able to come :)

sweden - denmark

so I got to go see the game yesterday, which ended 0-0. zlatan was incredibly good, and it was good fun with the crowd cheering a lot. here are my pictures from the game. not too many, but at least a few. two videos up on facebook too.

my result from the relay yesterday turned out to be 21.17, and I can't be anything other than satisfied with it. unfortunately I didn't have anyone to run with, as I was constantly catching up with everyone in front of me. the weather and shoes didn't really help me either, but no excuses. I'm in good form, and am happy about it. hopefully I'll be able to come down under 20 minutes soon.

good timing, bad timing...

... and my timing. so yesterday I decided to take it easy, stay at home, and wash my clothes. among them, were my pants. needless to say, running out in the rain today was a bit a dirty and muddy. the result? look:



here's a picture of my t-shirt, before:


and after:


what about my time? well, I think I'm somewhere in the low 20s. couldn't be bothered running around with my phone to keep time, but luckily I found out that the times are automatically taken, so soon I'll found it. I got passed by one mixed runner, and I think 4 from the men's team. but I was constantly passing people, and my final kilometer was probably quite fast. I was even sprinting on my way to the goal, so my time could possibly have been even a little bit faster since they probably took the time somewhere slightly before the finish. we'll see how it goes... it's still raining though.

going out for a jog

or more like it, out for a run. we're running the "bellman relay" (bellmanstafetten.se) in the mixed class, 10 teams from aftonbladet. a total of 1175 mixed teams, 286 men's teams and 159 women's teams, give or take a few who might not show up. it's a 5*5km (~3.125 miles) relay, and it's raining outside. I've always said I'd run it under 20 minutes, but I think it's going to be a bit tough. my legs are still a bit sore after yesterday's squash (and thursdays football...), but it's going to be a fun run. under 22 and I'm happy.

we have lovely red-colored shirts, I'll put up pictures later. gonna be a bit of a hectic day though; gotta be back latest by 4 to shower and get ready for nineteen-day feast, and then after that we're going to go see sweden - denmark, which is one of the biggest games for sweden in a while. it's going to be interesting to see how it turns out - I'm excited!

I just sent my prayer book to new zealand

that's probably one of the most random things ever. now why did I do that?

a friend of a friend is working on an art project, which is centered around the theme of Baha'i pilgrimage. for this, he's going to make an art installation containing prayer books from all over the world, similar to this suitcase outside the Shrine of the Báb:


being able to gather all this up will be a demonstration of a spiritual unity among the Baha'is all over the world. I think it sounds like an incredibly cool project, and it would be very exciting to see how many he's able to gather up. hopefully mine will make it in time :)

nice sunset

here are two nice sunset pictures I took earlier this week:


and a bit closer look at the tree:

one of the greats has left us

luciano pavarotti has left this earthly life and moved on. one of the three tenors, they rose to fame at the world championships of football in italy in 1990, singing on the eve of the final. the album from that performance is still the best selling classical album.

pavarotti was simply one of the greatest tenors that has lived. listening to him makes you shiver every time, he's got such a powerful voice.

watch this:

pavarotti is in a league of his own...

gotta be flexible!

so since the football training got cancelled yesterday, I called up a friend who I was supposed to meet today, and tried to reschedule. worked perfectly for her, so she came over to my place to watch pirates of the caribbean 3. that meant I woke up with the intention of going to my own practice, changed my mind to go to sweden't training, but ended up staying at home watching a movie. can't say I'm too unhappy about it!

the movie is... okay. it doesn't have an extremely good or exciting plot, or characters that make you feel very much involved in them. depp is good though. but what it does is that it leaves you with a "feel good"-feeling afterwards. it's got its moments with laughter and funny stuff, and that's enough to just watch and fly away. and also, it's got an excellent soundtrack! I really loved it!

short review, but yeah... that'll do. turned out also that my disappointed friend from yesterday got to go to the training today and meet his big idol and get his autograph, so things turned out well in the end there too :)

and eternally cursed be the weather...

training cancelled because of too much rain. I'm looking forward to global warming.

I feel like a kid again :)

working at aftonbladet does have its benefits at times. as the swedish football team is practicing today and we're hosts, I was able to get a couple of free tickets for it last week. got two for my brother and another friend, but none for myself, as I have football practice myself. sorta regretted it back then, and then today I was thinking to myself that if there would be a mail coming with more tickets, I'd try to go down and get one for myself too.

just as I was thinking that, a mail came out, saying that there are 5 tickets available. went down and got one, yay!

update: got another ticket for a friend, he was *very* happy, to say the least :)

b-day greetings

here's how you welcome and wish someone a happy birthday at work:



lots of post-its with congratulation messages. good thing we came before her, so no reaction pictures yet.

update: she's happy, and surprised. yay :)

world championships

I don't know if it has escaped anyone out there that the world championships in athletics have been going on. the afternoons at work have been spent watching the finals, and especially the swedes we've been watching together.

what brought me most joy was actually something I heard about after the actual gold. nelson évora, world champion in triple jump, turns out to be a Baha'i from portugal. and not only that, his coach is the father of my friend. so cool! check more here.


in other news, I got up early this morning again to play football for work. was tired, but still decided in the end that since I've said I'm coming, I should go. luckily the other team were one man short, so we were able to dominate quite easily and win 4-1. scored the two first goals, got the freekick for the third, and had an assist to the fourth. quite a good start to the day!

came to work in the weirdest "outfit" today... football shoes on my feet, carrying a laptop in one arm, squash racket in the other. wearing just a t-shirt, and the sweater hanging over my shoulder, together with a backpack. I felt so out of everything :)

I came, I played...

... we conquered. my first game today, played for the reserve team. we actually met the league leaders (we're second), but they weren't any good at all... I started on the bench (no big surprise), and got brought in after about half on hour. got to play on the left wing, and I guess in general I was a bit too eager/excited, as I ran on pretty much everything that came (and didn't come) my way. the score was 1-1, we had equalized after an early goal by them, and were pretty much dictating play.

with the last kick of the first half, we score a goal. I'm over on the right wing (!), get a pass from a nutmeg, 1-2 with another guy, pass it to one of our midfielders who's made a run into the penalty box. he drops the ball back, and one of our strikers beautifully places it in the bottom corner. lovely goal :)

second half is ours, but I only manage to play for about 25 minutes before I'm too tired. gotta be a bit more careful and judge better what I run on. I should've scored about one minute into it as I get a nice pass from the right side and try to slide it in with my backheel instead of just taking it with my foot and chipping it over the keeper. you play, you learn...

I got to take the corners from the right, first one turned out to be quite dangerous, and the second one resulted in a goal, 2nd assist there too :)

all in all, I was happy to play, and I think it went quite okay. playing as winger is really tough, especially if you try to run up and down and be involved in everything. I have to be more wise in the future. let's see how it goes!

this is how you equalize in the 90th minute

a bit bad quality, but still:

no words needed...

harry potter and the deathly hallows...

... or was it lord of the rings? I read the seventh and last book while in the states, and it took me about 12 hours. that's including lunch and dinner breaks, and a bit of watching football. finished at 3 am.


however, I must say it wasn't as capturing as the other books in the series. there've been times I've been unable to put the book down, and also been able to identify much more with the story of harry in his adventures. it just didn't do it in the same way for me this time around. now I mostly felt like I wanted to keep on reading just to finish it.

many of the things in it were very similar to lord of the rings (eg the horcrux around the neck, affecting the mood of whoever's wearing it; them running away, hiding in the woods, etc) and some also felt that she threw in just because. many of the people dying is an example of that - they were just going left and right without really adding much to the story.

perhaps I should've read it over a couple of days, because that would probably have made me think more about the book and somehow kept my interest up more. but then again, the fact that I did finish it in just one day could also be a quite good review of it. either way, this article should be read as well, about how and why the book fails to deliver. I can't but agree.