Time sure flies when you’re busy. I didn’t even realise how long it’s been since my last post until I checked the date. I’ve been about to post something a few times, but I never seem to get around to it once I’m actually here at the computer. I’ve noticed that a handful of people have kept popping in every now and then, so I apologise for the lack of new content. I can’t say you’ve missed out on much, but I’ll try to post a little more regularly from now on. After next week, that is, since I have a final linguistics exam left that I need to spend some time preparing for, as well as a literary essay to write.
It has been a month now, but I’m still bummed out about Kurt Vonnegut dying. I know he was 84 years old, but for him to be outlived by this guy just doesn’t seem right to me. Since it’s a bit late for a meaningful tribute post, I’ll suffice to say that Kurt is up in heaven now (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
As for me, I turned 29 a few days ago and already feel like I’m getting old. I went to the about page to update my age just now and realised I should probably write something more substantial there. I’ll deal with that too in the near future - as soon as I’ve figured out what could be relevant to put there.
I sure am glad that somebody warned me about the Scottish weather before I left. It was even colder than in Sweden! The weird thing was that the Scots didn’t seem to think so. S and I wore winter caps most of the time because of the icy wind, but there were plenty of people around Glasgow not even wearing proper jackets. And you’d think we’d be used to cold weather!
Anyway, we had a great time. Spent most of the time in Glasgow, but took the train to Edinburgh one day as well. Didn’t get a chance to see any comedy, though, since everything interesting was sold out, but British television kept us entertained enough at night (they sure have some pervy shows over there). I’ll post some pictures (of Scotland, not of pervy TV shows, obviously!) in due time. For now I just wanted to let you folks know I’m back in the real world.
Oh, and I got a job! Kinda. Can’t say much yet, though. I’ll keep you posted.
[I decided to edit this part of the post, simply because it was little more than poorly written whinging, and I also don’t want to risk offending a certain someone should they happen to stumble upon this site.]
On a lighter note, S and I are going to Scotland (Glasgow) on Saturday. Should be fun. It just so happens that we’ll be there during the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. Maybe we’ll get to see some of it. Expect some pictures in a couple of weeks!
I’m just going to have to accept the fact that I won’t have time to keep this thing updated for the rest of the month, so this is where I say Merry Christmas and all that. No matter how you celebrate it, if at all, I hope you’ll have a good one. As for me, I’m just going to my parents’ house for a nice old secular dinner, hopefully without any major conflicts. Like most Swedish holidays, Christmas, or “jul” (as in Yuletide) as we call it, is more pagan than Christian. At least it has always been so in my eyes.
I’ll return around new year’s with a bunch of “best of 2006″ lists. Speaking of which, I think I actually may have stumbled upon the album of the year today. Fucking awesome.
Sorry about the long silence. Two essay deadlines are fast approaching, plus I have a bunch of other stuff to finish. So, you can expect more posts some time next week. In the meantime, I would like to offer you a little taste of what I’m going to see on Sunday. That’s right; it’s concert time. Haven’t been to one since the Bob Dylan gig last year, I think. Anyway, enjoy:
Found out today that a man was found murdered in the next building two days ago. Not only that; he had been lying there for nearly two weeks. Kinda creepy. It’s weird also how the neighbours have received no information whatsoever. Somebody living right above the victim only found out when enquiring about the gate being locked in the afternoon. Personally, I heard about it on the news.
Swedes can read about it here, and the rest of you can just ‘enjoy’ the included picture of my neighbourhood. By the way, a man in Gothenburg has apparently turned himself in for the murder, so that’s good at least.
The Stockholm area will have to wait for the snow another few weeks. Some snow might fall tonight, but most likely it will be gone by tomorrow morning, according to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute … it is still way too warm for the snow to stay on the ground.
Oh, really? This is what I saw when I got out of bed this morning:
Whenever the first snow of the season falls over Stockholm, everything comes to a grinding halt. This time was no exception. All trains going in and out of the central station were cancelled last night. Same thing with a number of bus lines. Surely the subway could run normally? Nope, not even that. Every single year it’s the same thing, and this in a city where winter is by far the longest season and ought to have the highest priority in terms of traffic arrangements and such. But no. When the first snow arrives in Stockholm, everybody’s caught by surprise. Chaos every time. Luckily, I didn’t have to go anywhere myself.
I probably would have been able to get a better picture if I hadn’t slept till 11, when the fresh coat had already been ruined by footsteps and - by the look of it - ski tracks. Now this is the part that bugs me: who the hell is such a winter freak that they actually go and dig up their old skis as soon as they see there’s a little bit of snow outside? I guess this is another one of those Swedish things, similar to how everybody always brings out their grills on the first moderately warm day in the spring. There’s a whole lot of this kind of obsessive compulsive behaviour among Swedes in general, and it deeply fascinates me. I share some of it myself, I’m sure, but it’s obviously much more fun to look at the things I can’t understand or relate to (such as the aforementioned obsession with barbecues). This is a topic I’m likely to get back to in the future, as I’m fascinated by these kinds of cultural traits/oddities.
Ok, so the summer hiatus turned out to be a little longer than I intended. I’ve been postponing my return because I wanted to make sure that once I started blogging again, it wouldn’t be another half-assed effort with random posts every few weeks or so. Truth be told, I can be rather lazy, and procrastination is an art I know very well. My perfectionist nature often gets in the way of my creativity, and this is one of the things I was hoping to remedy with this blog in the first place.
Anyway, in honour of the new season, I’ve given the site a bit of an overhaul. Hope you like the new look. Aside from a few minor modifications, it’s all Beccary’s work. It’s a bit on the dark side, sure, but since I’ll be living in more or less constant darkness over the next few months, I think it’s only fitting. As you might know, we don’t get a lot of sunlight up here in the Subarctic this time of year.
As for what’s been going on while I’ve been away, we’ll get there eventually. I’ll be posting more soon as things come to me.
Well, spring is here, finally, which should be a great thing. For some reason, though, this always seems to be the most hectic time of the year for me. It’s the middle of the semester and a bunch of exams and essays for various courses all need to be written at the same time. That probably isn’t entirely true, but since I don’t know how to plan my time, that’s what it ends up feeling like. Today I handed in a take-home exam I’ve been working on all week, and next week I have an oral presentation I’ve barely started working on yet. That’s all for gender studies. I also need to hand in another Slovene translation sometime soon, as well as finish that political science thesis…
Chances are this site won’t be updated very often this spring. Since it hasn’t really got going anyway, and I haven’t informed everybody of its existence yet (I kinda wanted to get into a habit of posting regularly first), that’s probably all for the good. I’ll make sure to regather some strength in the summer (going to Slovenia as usual) and come back here with new energy. I’ll check in here once in a while, though, whenever I have something I just have to get off my chest. As for right now, I have to go and translate some Slovene poems into Swedish. Oh joy.
Things have been a little slow here lately, I know. I seem to find it more convenient to pester other people’s blogs with my comments than to write a post of my own. Old habits die hard, I guess. One of the reasons for the lack of posts is that I’ve had trouble deciding what to write about. Not that there isn’t anything interesting going on in the world, but since I just set this thing up, I haven’t quite figured out who it is I’m writing for. There’s lots of stuff going on in Sweden at the moment, but I figure there isn’t much point in writing about it in English. Unless the point is to explain Swedish affairs to a foreign audience, of course, but I reckon that would require including more background information to each topic, which would probably get tiresome after a while. This site is obviously not meant to be a news source, but a place where I can get some things off my mind.
So why am I writing in English at all then, you may wonder. Well, there are plenty of reasons for that, one being the fact that this is the language I speak at home. If you know me in person, you already know this, of course. I also have friends in other countries, as well as some foreign friends living in Sweden, with whom I hope to communicate through this weblog.
Anyway, I’ve started to think that perhaps I should keep one blog in English, for more universal topics, and one blog in Swedish, which would focus more on Sweden-related topics. I do read quite a few Swedish blogs regularly, and it would probably be a good idea to stop bothering them as much with my annoying comments and write some posts of my own on similar topics instead. I think I’ll give it a shot, and then I can evaluate later on whether to stick with both or to focus on one or the other. I don’t think it would be that good an idea to have a bilingual blog. I’ve seen a few out there, but it seems kind of annoying for some not to be able to understand all the posts. I’d rather do some occasional paralel posting instead.
So, you can expect some more regular posting here in the near future. And stay tuned for a link to my new Swedish blog!
