it's raining...

glad I got my... UMBRELLA!


it's the first time in four weeks it's been raining during the day. we had a small rain period at night, but other than that it's been pretty much sun all the time. seems "winter" (if you can all it that) is still waiting a bit to show up. can't say I'm complaining though...

interesting also that during these four weeks I haven't watched football or even tv. and what's funny is that I haven't missed it at all... plenty of things to do around here, and people to hang out with :)

yay! got "published"! (sorta)

every week there's a list of top10 sports bloopers on aftonbladet's sports pages. people submit them and they get published. here's the one from last week:


it's obviously in swedish, and I'm not going to translate it, but #5 was my submission, and you can see my name in the thank you in the bottom left... cool! :)

here is the original link...

capocannoniere?

yesterday was our last game of the season, and we needed a win to make it through to the playoffs. it didn't start well at all, with a 0-2 deficit in halftime, despite having about 5-10 clear goalscoring opportunities (I missed about 3-4).

the second half turned out to be pretty much the same. an abundance of missed opportunities, and spirits were sinking. however, two quick goals, one of them by me, meant that we needed only one more goal to go through. and with 5 minutes left it came, and it felt gooooood. the last few minutes we were just playing possession game, even though we did have a few more chances to score. (and yes, I missed some there too.)

my one goal of the game meant that my total tally came to 23 goals in 18 games, of which I think I missed four or so. 23/14 = 1.64, which is quite a good average. the remaining games are played today, and there's one person with 18 goals scored, which can equal me. they're playing against quite an easy team, but the rules only allow you to score 5 goals per game. which means I'll at least be shared top scorer, if not alone. the award ceremony is the 30th of october, which means I'll miss it...

I need to shave

check out my picture from the site of our football series:


scored three goals yesterday, and barring a miracle, I'll hopefully be the top scorer. one game to go...

a lovely dinner and good bye

so yesterday it was time for the official good bye with my dear friends from work. we went for a dinner, to little persia, so they got to taste some classic persian food. the dishes were quite good, and they seemed to enjoy the food.

what was the most enjoyable though, was of course the company of them all. there were moments of serious conversations, and times of great laughter. my stomach hurt, a couple of people had tears in their eyes, and everyone was smiling and laughing and really having a good time. and that's probably what I'll be remembering the most - the great atmosphere and the fun we had in the group, while at the same time doing a great job.

as a parting gift, I got this lovely sportbladet bag:


and here are the contents in it:


the white box contains a thermos bottle, and in the black thingie there's a (very pink) umbrella. other than that, there's a bathing ball, two pens, a t-shirt, a cap, a deck of cards, a usb memory stick and a book about zlatan. not sure if I'll be able to use them all, but I'm sure gonna try. I promised to bring it all with me to israel, so now there's even more to try to fit in my bag, in addition to my clothes and books and whatnot. it's gonna be a challenge!

but all in all, it was a great evening, I'm really happy I got the opportunity to work with all those wonderful people. and I promised to drop by at least once or twice more before I go... so it's not really good bye just yet :)

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! :)

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...

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 :(

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 ;)

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 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 :)

hardworking boss

here's my boss, working really hard, trying to do some maths in his head:

facebook at work

somehow we got everyone at work to add facebook. so suddenly we're talking about adding people, different applications, groups, etc... fun!