procrastination flowchart

how to avoid work in the best way:

and I'm off to eilat

wwwwwooooooohhhhhhhhhhoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

people leaving

yesterday the first person from my orientation left, and another one is leaving tonight. I must say it feels really strange, especially as there will be more people leaving quite soon.

to make ourselves happy about it, we arranged a barbeque:


it was a little bit last minute, so not everyone was able to show up. but we had a lot of fun, the food was delicious, and I think we all at least went home happy and full! :)

to see the rest of the album, click here.

atonement

I recently finished another book, atonement (don't read too far if you haven't read the book or seen the movie):


I had only heard about the movie, never seen it, and so luckily again I had no expectations. because it was really, really good. from wikipedia: "It is widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works and was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction... In addition, Time magazine named it the best fiction novel of the year and included it in its All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels, and The Observer cites it as one of the 100 best novels written, calling it 'a contemporary classic of mesmerising narrative conviction.'"

the book poses a very interesting question: how much can the actions of one person affect the lives of people close to them? briony, a young girl at the age of 13 accuses the son of their housekeeper for rape, an act that leads to quite changes in the life of the both of them, as well as their entire family and also their cousins who are visiting. we get to follow the story from the perspectives of each of the characters. it's a really interesting piece of writing, where we get to read what's going on in their heads all the time, which is also how the book progresses.

I'm not going to write more about it, you should read the book. but reading the review got me to these links:
time top 100: the complete list in alphabetical order
guardian top 100: greatest novels of all time
new classics top 100: the 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008

interesting stuff!

not everything looks better in black and white

beautiful prayer

last thursday I was asked to say a prayer in class. thinking it would be a nice idea to say a prayer in swedish. last thing before going, I printed the paper out and folded it, and put it in my bag...

I thought. when the class was almost over, 5-10 minutes before it was time for me to say the prayer, I looked into my bag to take out the paper and prepare myself. to my great surprise, it wasn't there. the very last thing I had done before leaving was to print it, and somehow I managed to forget to put it down in my bag. (later on I found it neatly folded on my desk...)

luckily I was given a prayer book in due time, and managed to find a prayer that not only was suitable, but also very beautiful. I had never heard or seen it before:

O Thou beloved of my heart and soul! I have no refuge save Thee. I raise no voice at dawn save in Thy commemoration and praise. Thy love encompasseth me and Thy grace is perfect. My hope is in Thee.
O God, give me a new life at every instant and bestow upon me the breaths of the Holy Spirit at every moment, in order that I may remain steadfast in Thy love, attain unto great felicity, perceive the manifest light and be in the state of utmost tranquillity and submissiveness.
Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Forgiver, the Compassionate.

'Abdu'l-Bahá

I guess it all worked out well in the end!

olympic achievements

so if any of you missed it, the olympic games were on for a while, ~2 weeks actually. it was a little bit strange to be here and not following it as intensely as I used to, but there was still time and opportunity to enjoy some of the amazing achievements made. my top 3, in no particular order:

michael phelps - eight (yes, eight) gold medals, of which three were relays and five individuals. in all but one he beat the world record, although he did set a new olympic record there. two of them were absolutely amazing comebacks - 100m butterfly where he won with literally his last stroke; and the 4x100m free where jason lezak came back from behind to beat alain bernard by 0.08 seconds. alain bernard happened to win the individual 100m later on...

usain bolt - lightning bolt struck not once, not twice, but three times during the olympics. although again, in the last race, 4x100m, he obviously got help from the rest of his team. world record on 100m (9.69), with his seven last steps already stopped running; world record on 200m (19.30), beating michael johnson's old record by 0.02 seconds - with a headwind of -0.9! this record was deemed to be "impossible to beat", as it stood for 12 years. just while they were at it, the jamaican team also set a new world record for 4x100m by 37.10. amazing to watch this guy run, and he's only 22 years old, so there's plenty more to go.

with a bit of swedish patriotism, jörgen persson - who finished 4th in individual table tennis competition. what's so amazing about this feat? well, first of all, he's 42 years old... in 2000 he finished 4th, and the same thing here again. china usually subscribes to these medals, and the same thing happened this year again. in 4 years he's 46, will he make it?

how her shadow falls

interesting post on the hockey stick

here's an interesting post on the hockey stick often referred to in climate discussions, about how the temperature is going up. also check out the comments on page 5, specifically the ones by david holland and jpj.

300!

no, not the horrible movie, but the number of days I've been here. almost been 10 months now, which is one third of my total service time here. wow! I'm not going to do a summary or reflection or anything of that kind, simply because I can't be bothered, but to put it briefly, it's been absolutely amazing. and recently I've gotten a few more things to think about, so I think it will only get better from here. I'm excited about the future!