Surveys

Es ist doch manchmal irgendwie erleichternd, Sachen von einem selbst zu lesen, die man vor einigen Jahren geschrieben hat und man der Meinung ist, sie genauso heute auch wieder zu schreiben ... so wie diesen Online-Fragebogen, den ich vor etwa 3 Jahren ausgefüllt habe....

Dieses Land braucht | mehr sommer, berge überall, eine türkischen feinkostladen in jeder strasse;

Dieses Land braucht nicht | noch mehr winter; einkaufsstrassen; viele türkische feinkostläden auf einem haufen; eine fussball-weltmeisterschaft;

Das Gute am Erwachsenwerden ist | man kriegt haare überall; legal alkohol und zigaretten kaufen und ins bordell gehen zu können, aber es trotzdem nicht machen; ausziehen von zuhause;

Das Schlechte am Erwachsenwerden ist | man kriegt haare überall oder auch nicht (mehr); jemanden fürs leben finden zu müssen;

Was man einmal am Tag machen muss: | Kaffee trinken; fluchen; über jemand etwas gutes; über jemand etwas schlechtes sagen;

Bei einem Konzert darf niemals fehlen: | Pile-ons, Sing-alongs, wall of death und eine begleitung, die das auch benennen kann!

Eine tolle Frau muss...: | eine gute dvd-sammlung haben; alle metallica-alben kennen; nicht einem vorhalten man wolle eh nur das eine; schon einmal zugeschlagen haben; die kennenlern-story ihrer eltern erzählen können; sich in der öffentlichkeit zwischen den beinen zu kratzen ohne sich zu schämen.

Good:
- Visits of the family
- Sun

Bad:
- Expensive taxi trips
- Embassies

Song for this post:
The First Step - Something Inside

Nothing but sun!

Something what has always fascinated me in the north were these differences of light and sunshine between the seasons. Endless days in the summer and dark days in the winter when the sun appears only for a few hours on the sky. Without a doubt, the latter can be pretty depressing, especially if you are not use to it. If you are here in the summer, when the total sunshine duration gets longer every day, it's the total opposite and just incredible. At the moment the sun goes down in Stockholm about 10 PM and comes up again at 4 AM. It's amazing, for example, if you leave a club or a bar early in the morning and the sun rises already or you take a walk in the forest in the late evening and it is still bright outside. The only problem is if you want to get some sleep :). My window goes out in Eastern direction, so at 5 AM my room is totally bright and it is not unusual that I am already awake at this time. Not even the best curtain helps me in this case. Nevertheless, I want more of that, I want more of these endless days. I booked my journey for the far north and will cross to the polar circle in the beginning of July. Some outback tours in Lapland are planned. Therefore, I have also re-scheduled my flight back to Germany, which will be on the 15th of July (for anyone who is interested?!).


Good:
- Swedish folk songs & drunken Swedes

Bad:
- Being older than 25 years in Sweden (no discounts anymore!)

Song for this post:
Himsa - Wolfchild (Album: Hail Horror)

Stockholm archipelago

Given the current situation of a rainy weekend I have to remember to the good weather we had a week ago. Me and my roommates escaped the crowded city of Stockholm and we have taken a boat out to the archipelago. For everyone, who comes to Stockholm I strongly recommend to go there, because this is a must-see, especially if you have an additional day here and you are tired of sightseeing within the city. It shows you that Stockholm is more than just the old-town, museums and fancy shopping streets. We took the boat pretty early and headed towards the Baltic Sea passing hundreds of islands. Even on the smallest islands you can see small hidden cottages. I really would like to have such a wooden "sommarstuga" and to spend the summer months in the "Skärgården". We have been dropped off at an island called Grinda and spent there several hours hiking in the forest, climbing up to the highest point of the island to have a exciting view on the surrounding islands, relaxing in the sun and ... not to forget having "fika" (having a coffee-break). I'm sure I will go to another island in the archipelago in the next weeks.

Here some pics:

If anyone is interested to come to Stockholm and visit me here ... you are welcome, just drop me a line!

Good:
- Vikings
- Bouldering

Bad:
- Rainy weekends

Song for this post:
Morrissey - Speedway & The youngest was the most loved (MySpace)

Move On

I would like to draw your attention to very interesting homepage and organization, which is called MoveOn.org. It is a nonprofit organization and their goal is to bring real Americans into politics to fight for a more progressive America and elect progressive candidates. I am not an American, but I think for everyone it could be a useful source to find out more about the policy in the US.
If you like, take a further look on the campaigns initiated by MoveOn.org. A very interesting one is a video competition called 'Obama in 30 seconds'. Check it out!

Review 'Semi-Pro'

A long awaited movie has finally been released here in Sweden: "Semi-Pro". I think, it will probably take a while till the movie can be seen in a German movie theater or maybe never ever.... well, lucky me, I'm here and we were backed up hard with a huge pot of popcorn and some super-sized drinks. Me and my friend Patrick have taken our seats in the last row, which have been such kind of "couple seats" for two persons. You know, those with no arm-rest between. I don't know why we got those, but the couple next to me knew why. They were making out the entire movie. Get a room! What a waste of time. Well, back to the movie....
... the movie was better than it was expected to be from the trailers. The movie is about the merger of the basketball association of the ABA and NBA in the 70s. The 'Tropics' of Flint, Michigan have to improve their game otherwise they won't go to the NBA. Well, take a look at the trailer:

Will Ferell a.k.a Jackie Moon is hilarious as player-coach and the story is full of funny characters, such as the commentator Dick Pepper, referee and pastor "Pat the Ref " or the Lituanian Center Vakidis, who does not speak a word of English at all. Great one! Watch it!

Song for this post:
Jackie Moon - Love me sexy

MLIW pizzabox

Can anyone buy me this here? It's a pizzabox set of 'Modern Life Is War' (MySpace) with all their releases (3x 12" & 1x 7"). It has been released by Lifeline Records and has been sold on MLIW's final show in April in Marshalltown, Iowa. Only 65 of them have been made/sold. The present would be much appreciated. Costs would be approx. USD 150! Thanks, Chris

Song for this post:
Modern Life Is War - John and Jimmy

The final price for this set on ebay was more than USD 350. Damn!

I suck in miniature golf!

Well, urgently I have to do an update of this blog before an entire month has passed since my last post...
Thursday, the 1st of May was a holiday here in Sweden as it was in many other European countries, so me and my roommate Patrick also took the Friday off to have a long weekend. We headed north from Stockholm to the Siljan Lake (GoogleMap). Before that we have taken turn through the cities of Uppsala (where a big student party was going on), Falun and Gävle. The cities were pretty nice, especially Uppsala with its universities, the castle and the old town. In Gävle the most exciting was a wonderful shaped miniature golf course (see picture). It was also the first day of the season, therefore the synthetic turf was in best shape and the paint seemed still to be wet. In an exciting game I beat my competitor with an impressive final result of 56:67 (how bad was that?). A nice feature was the hole at the end of the course. It leads directly to the house of the house keeper (or however you like to call him) through subterranean pipe line ... so, no jerk will play a second round for free. I think, I have to write a post some time about the progressive thinking of Swedes when it comes to simplification. So many examples have already crossed my way here and I was asking myself why nobody has thought about this in my home country yet. As soon as I retire, (if this will ever happen) I wanna be in charge of such a miniature golf course. With good taint in the face all summer I will standing around all day long and shouting at people who do not play correct at my course.
Of course, there is also something more interesting than golf here in Sweden. What about the UNESCO World Heritage in Falun, the old cooper mine? Well, it is pretty interesting if you walk around the city and all of a sudden you are staring in this big hole. Unfortunately, there was no proper time for a tour through the mine that day, so we left after a while ... but nice, pretty pretty nice.
Beside of some sunny moments as you can see it on the upper picture, the weather was not always good. We have taken a tour around the lake and got a good impression about it, but if it is cold and rainy it is not really fun to be outside all the time. Friday evening, when we were standing outside at the youth hostel in Leksand, we've just look at each other and just decided to drive back home. The weather in Stockholm was much better the next days. I even hung out in the sun for quite a long time, beside of the usual program such as climbing or other sport.

What else? My good friend Dominik came to Stockholm in the end of April for the weekend. We had a pretty good time exploring different parts of the city, such as the harbor, the old town and the castle. The highlight was probably the buffet at the vegetarian restaurant Hermitage (Stora Nygatan 27, Google Map). After two hours of eating from the buffet, free coffee and additional cake we felt really sick, but happy. We continued our tour and ignored the pains in our stomaches. Thank you, Dominik, for stopping by! Good time as always!

I think, that's it for now. I'll continue with a review about the movie "Semi-Pro" in my next entry and a short story about my trip to the Stockholm archipelago last weekend.

Good:
- Ipod
- Larry David & Curb your enthusiasm

Bad:
- Foreign bank transfer

Songs for this post:
Depeche Mode - It's No Good
Only Living Witness - Voice of Disrepair (MySpace)