17/08/2008
16/08/2008
Lykke Li Kicks It
Everyone's heard Lykke Li by now, but if you haven't seen her live you might not know of her love of hip hop. When I saw her she did Everyday I'm Hustlin by Rick Ross for instance, as well as a bunch of other songs. Now I'm kinda hoping she'll make a hip hop record. Maybe with Saul Williams? That would be something, and would probably kill a few music critics from pure excitement.
14/08/2008
Russia vs. Georgia
This whole thing seems to get more and more out of hand.
First Georgian forces went into South Ossetia, which is a former part of Georgia, they were apparently trying to hunt down seperatist, but South Ossetia asked for military support from Russia, since they presumable didn't have any means of denying the Georgian to enter their territory. This was eagerly granted, since the Georgian military apparently also managed to kill a few Russian diplomats and military personal stationed there.
So, Russia kicks the Georgian military out, and pursues them into Georgian territory. So far it only seems fair.
The problem, however, is that South Ossetia isn't recognized as a nation by any member of the UN. Instead it's still considered a part of Georgia. Why that is I have no idea, but it's a big part of the problem. It's also apparent that Russia does not seem to agree with this.
So, now Russian troops seem to draw close to the Georgian capital. Clearly overkill, but if their goals was to overthrow the Georgian government it kinda makes sense. Problem is, we can't assume anything about the situation. Since, if it turns out that the Russians where only sending a message to Georgia to stay out of South Ossetia, and we start something over it, we could kick off World War 3.
Bush is claiming that Russia will be internationally isolated it they do not withdraw. Which is of course just an empty threat, thanks to their presence in Iraq.
I've also heard speculations that the US will trade Georgia against an Israeli attack against Iran. Maybe not the most likely scenario, but it is nevertheless a possible factor if Russia do occupy Georgia and the US does nothing.
Personally I'm hoping that Russia is just doing a show of force to show Georgia that they should leave South Osseta alone. Either way, the following days is gonna be interesting.
First Georgian forces went into South Ossetia, which is a former part of Georgia, they were apparently trying to hunt down seperatist, but South Ossetia asked for military support from Russia, since they presumable didn't have any means of denying the Georgian to enter their territory. This was eagerly granted, since the Georgian military apparently also managed to kill a few Russian diplomats and military personal stationed there.
So, Russia kicks the Georgian military out, and pursues them into Georgian territory. So far it only seems fair.
The problem, however, is that South Ossetia isn't recognized as a nation by any member of the UN. Instead it's still considered a part of Georgia. Why that is I have no idea, but it's a big part of the problem. It's also apparent that Russia does not seem to agree with this.
So, now Russian troops seem to draw close to the Georgian capital. Clearly overkill, but if their goals was to overthrow the Georgian government it kinda makes sense. Problem is, we can't assume anything about the situation. Since, if it turns out that the Russians where only sending a message to Georgia to stay out of South Ossetia, and we start something over it, we could kick off World War 3.
Bush is claiming that Russia will be internationally isolated it they do not withdraw. Which is of course just an empty threat, thanks to their presence in Iraq.
I've also heard speculations that the US will trade Georgia against an Israeli attack against Iran. Maybe not the most likely scenario, but it is nevertheless a possible factor if Russia do occupy Georgia and the US does nothing.
Personally I'm hoping that Russia is just doing a show of force to show Georgia that they should leave South Osseta alone. Either way, the following days is gonna be interesting.
Forbiden Thoughts
The US and Britain appear to be competing on who can create the first Orwellian society. Sure, Britain's got the cameras everywhere in London, the metal detectors in the subway, but the US got the limited liberties of the population, encouraged spying on your neighbors, and soon: (at least according to this) thought censorship.
Basically, if you have a political, religious, or an other opinion that does not work with the one supported by the government, people will figure out a way stop you. You can't disagree with the government, they were elected after all, people want them to take care of you!
Thing is, if we can't disagree with a government, how will we ever manage to change anything? Isn't politics about change? Cause it seems to me like it's more and more about maintaining an almost dogmatic belief in a political view. There's a difference between convincing yourself that you're right, and finding out what's right.
Basically, if you have a political, religious, or an other opinion that does not work with the one supported by the government, people will figure out a way stop you. You can't disagree with the government, they were elected after all, people want them to take care of you!
Thing is, if we can't disagree with a government, how will we ever manage to change anything? Isn't politics about change? Cause it seems to me like it's more and more about maintaining an almost dogmatic belief in a political view. There's a difference between convincing yourself that you're right, and finding out what's right.
12/08/2008
Writing Fiction
I do this from time to time. Always liked writing and reading when I grew up. So far I've only written short stories, but lately I've been thinking a lot about writing something else.
So I've come up with a few ideas that I'm going to try to work on. One is a series of short stories that I'm mostly just working over in my head, but I've got quite a nice structure to it so far I think.
The other is more the kind of story that evolves as I work on it. I'm thinking that one might turn into a proper book, or at least a novel. We'll see I suppose.
I'm gonna put that on hold for a while though. With school starting soon again, and me still having some things I have to get done before that, writing two books at the same would probably be a bit much.
Still, can't study all the time.
09/08/2008
Glowing from the Inside: Radiation Poisoning
The fact that we at any moment can die in the instant spark of an atomic fire haven't really been a concern of ours since the Cold War. Yet those countries who have nuclear weapons spend billions of dollars on improving them. Right now we could kill everything on this planet a few times over, but that's apparently not enough for some reason. Never mind the fact that no one can win a nuclear war, we're using ancient knowledge here. An eye for an eye.
And yet, if we spent all of that money we waste on nukes on, say education, health care and public transportation, we'd have come a lot closer to a utopia than a post apocalyptic wasteland.
Sure, Fallout might be a cool game, but no one that can be considered sane would want to live there. Fact is, you'd all be too dead to live there anyway, considering the generations that would have to pass before we could actually walk around outside again whiteout a sunblock of, say, a few millions.
I've always heard that we'd have to inherit our parents mistake. It seems like their nuclear holocaust is also passed down for the next generation to worry about. Thing is though, no one does.
One day, when all the nukes are long since forgotten, some bad wiring will cause a nuclear storage facility to go, well, nuclear on our asses. Like waking up the day after under a table, realizing that you're not at home. It's confusing and it hurts, and once you get home there's not one shard of whole glass left in the entire building, someone's stolen the doors, and everything else that wasn't chained to a block of concrete. Someone's also made a fire in the living room, decided to make a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out, burned all the furniture that the other thieves didn't want, and repainted the entire place with small dead animals, garbage and human shit.
And when you're laying there naked and mentally destroyed, with blisters on your feet because you didn't find your shoes, a pair of torn jeans and a severely stained t-shirt is all you've got on that completely fails to keep you warm, I'll come climbing in trough the window.
I'll probably be looking a little less than a bum than you do, except for a enormous beard.
I'm gonna walk over, grab your t-shirt by the collar, punch you in the face ones, say "I told you so." then throw you back on what's left of your floor.
How's that for a metaphor?
And yet, if we spent all of that money we waste on nukes on, say education, health care and public transportation, we'd have come a lot closer to a utopia than a post apocalyptic wasteland.
Sure, Fallout might be a cool game, but no one that can be considered sane would want to live there. Fact is, you'd all be too dead to live there anyway, considering the generations that would have to pass before we could actually walk around outside again whiteout a sunblock of, say, a few millions.
I've always heard that we'd have to inherit our parents mistake. It seems like their nuclear holocaust is also passed down for the next generation to worry about. Thing is though, no one does.
One day, when all the nukes are long since forgotten, some bad wiring will cause a nuclear storage facility to go, well, nuclear on our asses. Like waking up the day after under a table, realizing that you're not at home. It's confusing and it hurts, and once you get home there's not one shard of whole glass left in the entire building, someone's stolen the doors, and everything else that wasn't chained to a block of concrete. Someone's also made a fire in the living room, decided to make a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out, burned all the furniture that the other thieves didn't want, and repainted the entire place with small dead animals, garbage and human shit.
And when you're laying there naked and mentally destroyed, with blisters on your feet because you didn't find your shoes, a pair of torn jeans and a severely stained t-shirt is all you've got on that completely fails to keep you warm, I'll come climbing in trough the window.
I'll probably be looking a little less than a bum than you do, except for a enormous beard.
I'm gonna walk over, grab your t-shirt by the collar, punch you in the face ones, say "I told you so." then throw you back on what's left of your floor.
How's that for a metaphor?
08/08/2008
The Perfect Human Vol. 2
Another thing I find interesting is that we seem to focus on unreal dangers, while we let the real ones go unnoticed.
For instance: terrorism. Impossible to stop, near of closing your borders and creating a society resembling a machine more than an organism.
A lot more people die in traffic accidents, by slipping in the bathtub, by stumbling at the wrong moment, and other as trivial things that any terrorist could ever dream of. Yet these are things that don't seem to bother us greatly.
The difference is of course that when a threat is uncommon it can turn into a phobia. Like being terrified of spiders, or sharks while going to the beach. Sure, more people get killed by dolphins than by sharks, but sharks seem a lot scarier. They've got bad pr compared to the dolphin.
Same thing with terrorism really. People seem to have forgotten what the purpose of terrorism is. I'll give you a hint. Read the name again. Terror. Ism. The goal is not to kill a lot of people, that's just a way to reach the goal. The domino effect that ripples trough the targeted society is the goal. Fear. Anger. Confusion.
Like an earthquake in the right spot causes a tsunami, so does a strong enough hit at the right place in a society. You don't have to kill a lot of people though. You could just as easily disrupt the infrastructure long enough for people to start to panic. If done right you could halt a entire society for several days.
Luckily this hasn't happened. Probably because those that are conducting terrorist activities are driven by fanaticism. Their goal is to kill people first, scare people second.
But that dosen't really matter. What matters is what seem to do to protect ourselves against our phobias. We lock ourselves up, we destroy our own lives because we imagine ourselves to be safer that way.
Then we have the conspiracy theorists who do the same thing as the terrorists really. They turn into fanatics because they refuse to believe that people would agree to the sort of things that makes them safe but also takes away their freedom. They accuse the government and different authority's, along with media, banks and all kinds of places to have manufactured the current situation to take power over the world, the country, or something like that. What they don't seem to realize is that there are people in these places. Who are probably also afraid, although maybe not at the same level as the ordinary person. And even if they're not, they get affected by everyone else.
Humans are social creatures. Anything that affects enough of us affects everyone to some degree. Unless you're a hermit that lives in a cave somewhere.
The point is, we all react to what happens. The problem is that we sometimes forget to think about what we reacted to, why we reacted the way we did, etc.
Basically, use your skull.
For instance: terrorism. Impossible to stop, near of closing your borders and creating a society resembling a machine more than an organism.
A lot more people die in traffic accidents, by slipping in the bathtub, by stumbling at the wrong moment, and other as trivial things that any terrorist could ever dream of. Yet these are things that don't seem to bother us greatly.
The difference is of course that when a threat is uncommon it can turn into a phobia. Like being terrified of spiders, or sharks while going to the beach. Sure, more people get killed by dolphins than by sharks, but sharks seem a lot scarier. They've got bad pr compared to the dolphin.
Same thing with terrorism really. People seem to have forgotten what the purpose of terrorism is. I'll give you a hint. Read the name again. Terror. Ism. The goal is not to kill a lot of people, that's just a way to reach the goal. The domino effect that ripples trough the targeted society is the goal. Fear. Anger. Confusion.
Like an earthquake in the right spot causes a tsunami, so does a strong enough hit at the right place in a society. You don't have to kill a lot of people though. You could just as easily disrupt the infrastructure long enough for people to start to panic. If done right you could halt a entire society for several days.
Luckily this hasn't happened. Probably because those that are conducting terrorist activities are driven by fanaticism. Their goal is to kill people first, scare people second.
But that dosen't really matter. What matters is what seem to do to protect ourselves against our phobias. We lock ourselves up, we destroy our own lives because we imagine ourselves to be safer that way.
Then we have the conspiracy theorists who do the same thing as the terrorists really. They turn into fanatics because they refuse to believe that people would agree to the sort of things that makes them safe but also takes away their freedom. They accuse the government and different authority's, along with media, banks and all kinds of places to have manufactured the current situation to take power over the world, the country, or something like that. What they don't seem to realize is that there are people in these places. Who are probably also afraid, although maybe not at the same level as the ordinary person. And even if they're not, they get affected by everyone else.
Humans are social creatures. Anything that affects enough of us affects everyone to some degree. Unless you're a hermit that lives in a cave somewhere.
The point is, we all react to what happens. The problem is that we sometimes forget to think about what we reacted to, why we reacted the way we did, etc.
Basically, use your skull.
I am Blond
Once upon time, when I was still a child I used to have blond hair that flew in the wind as I peddled my tiny bike around like a madman on speed.
With the passing years my hair has turned the strings of dead cells attached to my scalp darker and darker. Theses days they that certain brown color that's between dark brown and light brown that makes you look like a dead dog.
But thanks to science and a fair dose of vanity, combined with a slight panic that disrupted my usual "fuck it" attitude towards my hair, I am now blond. Ish.
You see, some of the spots look like I am an Asian that has tried and failed at making my hair blond. Nature has decided to punish this trespass by turning these spots into the color that attracts birds and insects. It is some-sort-of-orange, basically.
Others are almost too blond. I've got spots of white-blond hair that cold probably reflect sunlight to a low orbital space station.
Needless to say, I love it.
There are two reasons for this:
One: It will offend people that I like how it looks.
Two: If I use chemicals such as concrete and glue I can make something even more offensive.
If I can not stab you to death with my beautiful yet repulse hair, I don't want it.
Add goggles and a strange coat and I'm a mad super villain.
Hell, I can probably wear anything with this hair. It sorta demands it in a way. Either I look super weird, or super awesome ninja-cool, there is no middle ground.
With the passing years my hair has turned the strings of dead cells attached to my scalp darker and darker. Theses days they that certain brown color that's between dark brown and light brown that makes you look like a dead dog.
But thanks to science and a fair dose of vanity, combined with a slight panic that disrupted my usual "fuck it" attitude towards my hair, I am now blond. Ish.
You see, some of the spots look like I am an Asian that has tried and failed at making my hair blond. Nature has decided to punish this trespass by turning these spots into the color that attracts birds and insects. It is some-sort-of-orange, basically.
Others are almost too blond. I've got spots of white-blond hair that cold probably reflect sunlight to a low orbital space station.
Needless to say, I love it.
There are two reasons for this:
One: It will offend people that I like how it looks.
Two: If I use chemicals such as concrete and glue I can make something even more offensive.
If I can not stab you to death with my beautiful yet repulse hair, I don't want it.
Add goggles and a strange coat and I'm a mad super villain.
Hell, I can probably wear anything with this hair. It sorta demands it in a way. Either I look super weird, or super awesome ninja-cool, there is no middle ground.
31/07/2008
The Perfect Human Vol. 1
I'm expecting this to become something of a series of posts, all revolving about humanity, our history and future, and our genes. Though that's probably just a small piece of what I'll mention. So, let's get to it, shall we?
We all know that there's always been a notion of a perfect human being, either the übermench of Nietzsche, the Nazis addition, the perfect athlete, movie star, astronaut, or thinker.
Some, like the samurai, tried to incorporate several aspects of the ideals of that time. The monks aimed for another. All, in a sense, striving to become perfect in what they saw as the only way possible. Either by fighting or meditation. (A really bad comparison in this case.)
But what I think about, not disregarding the past of course, is the future.
Thanks to watching Gattaca, and reading the latest from Iain M. Banks about us joining the Culture after genetically erasing racism, greed and so on from our DNA.
I can't help but think that it might not be such a good idea.
For instance, what if the modifications, instead of erasing all competitiveness, makes us passive and uninterested in everything?
What if the people who have been moded becomes the obedient workforce of the unmoded, who only care for their own gain?
Not that I think that would happen, but you could write interesting fiction about it. And fiction have more than once become reality, so who knows?
When we've got so far into the future that we can get rid of unwanted personal traits in people, we're probably also able to actually turn everyone into superwomen and men from birth. This presents another problem, does a superior body lead to a superior person? Here we get into the debate about inheritance vs. upbringing, which is fascinating, since I think both play into it. But I have to say that I think upbringing gets the upper hand for the most part. Sure, you can be totally fucked up from birth in a number of ways, but can also be so from upbringing. And with the right upbringing I'd like to think a monster could become a saint.
In Gattaca the protagonist does things his physically and genetically superior brother could not not, not because he is better than his brother, but because he has a reason and a goal that motivates him. Which in turn makes him better. Comparing this to what Banks said about competetiveness being a hinder for us, I can't say I agree there either.
It can be if you don't have control over it of course, in which case I suppose it's pure greed more than anything. But it's also a powerful way of achieving things we didn't think we could.
For instance: jump from one place to another. Now do it ten meter up in the air and the previously filled distance is a pitfall. It gets a lot harder that way, even though we know we can do it, if we don't have the motivation to do it we'll give up. And besides, you don't have to compete against your übermenchian brother, you can compete against yourself.
It's harder, but also a lot more rewarding if you ask me.
We all know that there's always been a notion of a perfect human being, either the übermench of Nietzsche, the Nazis addition, the perfect athlete, movie star, astronaut, or thinker.
Some, like the samurai, tried to incorporate several aspects of the ideals of that time. The monks aimed for another. All, in a sense, striving to become perfect in what they saw as the only way possible. Either by fighting or meditation. (A really bad comparison in this case.)
But what I think about, not disregarding the past of course, is the future.
Thanks to watching Gattaca, and reading the latest from Iain M. Banks about us joining the Culture after genetically erasing racism, greed and so on from our DNA.
I can't help but think that it might not be such a good idea.
For instance, what if the modifications, instead of erasing all competitiveness, makes us passive and uninterested in everything?
What if the people who have been moded becomes the obedient workforce of the unmoded, who only care for their own gain?
Not that I think that would happen, but you could write interesting fiction about it. And fiction have more than once become reality, so who knows?
When we've got so far into the future that we can get rid of unwanted personal traits in people, we're probably also able to actually turn everyone into superwomen and men from birth. This presents another problem, does a superior body lead to a superior person? Here we get into the debate about inheritance vs. upbringing, which is fascinating, since I think both play into it. But I have to say that I think upbringing gets the upper hand for the most part. Sure, you can be totally fucked up from birth in a number of ways, but can also be so from upbringing. And with the right upbringing I'd like to think a monster could become a saint.
In Gattaca the protagonist does things his physically and genetically superior brother could not not, not because he is better than his brother, but because he has a reason and a goal that motivates him. Which in turn makes him better. Comparing this to what Banks said about competetiveness being a hinder for us, I can't say I agree there either.
It can be if you don't have control over it of course, in which case I suppose it's pure greed more than anything. But it's also a powerful way of achieving things we didn't think we could.
For instance: jump from one place to another. Now do it ten meter up in the air and the previously filled distance is a pitfall. It gets a lot harder that way, even though we know we can do it, if we don't have the motivation to do it we'll give up. And besides, you don't have to compete against your übermenchian brother, you can compete against yourself.
It's harder, but also a lot more rewarding if you ask me.
29/07/2008
Playing Catch
I have once more returned for a joust with the words and letters you see before you.
Lately things have been kinda busy, I'm back home for the first extended period of several days this month though, so that's probably about to change from now on.
First of I was at the Arvika Festival, awesome funtime all around there. Then I got home and the same day my friend called and told me I had work in a few days if I wanted to. So, I spent two days at home, then went over to my mateys place for the duration of about a week while we worked. Then I was home once more for a few days, before leaving for the capital around these parts, namely Stockholm. I spent arond 10 days there mostly just relaxing with my dad, various relatives, my dads girlfriend and her kids, and my trusty laptop.
I played trough Max Payne 2, half of Mass Effect, and got to see a bit from Bioshock (awesome) Witcher (not really my thing), and I saw Hancock as well. I have to say that I really hated the ending to that one, way to Disney-cuddly for my taste, especially considering that Hancock actually killed quite a few badguys in it. Not grapchically or anything, but punshing people trough walls generally have that effect if you ask me.
Now comes the spoilers, so skip the last part here if you wanna see Hancock:
The movie would have been a lot better if it ended with them dying, or with Hancock hurling himself to the moon.
First option have the advantage of being a shock to the viewer. The immortal hero, and his immortal on and off girlfriend gets killed by a simple bunch of criminals.
The second one could go in a few ways: He drifts of into space, becoming more and more powerfull as he gets further and further away from earth.
He stays on the moon, becoming a hermit.
Or he ends up fighting an alien scourge coming towards earth?
That last one would be a bit of a return to Independence Day though, so maybe that's off in this case.
Either way, now I'm back home once more. Brain hardly functioning thanks to severe lack of sleep, due to riding the train down here instead of sleeping.
Riding a train in the current heat that's pounding on us right now wasn't the best idea either. Sure, it was at night so it wasn't to hot outside, but a train crammed full of people trying to sleep, with windows that you can open, but that will prevent you from sleeping because of the occasional bursts of sound made by the train?
The choise was: either you sleep in suffocating heat, or you get a little sleep interupted by bursts of ear-shredding sound.
I manged to sleep a bit, but mostly I read about Anarchism or listened to rhe Roots.
This resluted in the usual state somewhere between perfect clearness and sleep that presents itself when you've neglected sleep, about a hour before I was supposed to catch the train while in transit in Gothenburg. Things seemed suprigsingly clear, I knew what I would do with my life, this included parkour workshops, politics, and writting.
And none of it seems all wrong after a good nights sleep either, which actually scares me a bit, since I've never really known what I've wanted to do before.
Maybe I've changed a bit, but that much?
I also had a feeling of meeting myself when I was headed out of the station. The glassdoor was reflecting the sun in such a way that I could see myself in it, but in my tired state I didn't realize it was me, and I tried to move out of the way of my reflection.
When I relized my mistake I kinda froze for a minute, the realization was quite huge, at least to me. It felt as if I was outside my body watching myself for a moment, and it didn't feel too bad actually. Which either means I'm an egotastical maniac, or just quite a mellow dude, hard to tell.
Lately things have been kinda busy, I'm back home for the first extended period of several days this month though, so that's probably about to change from now on.
First of I was at the Arvika Festival, awesome funtime all around there. Then I got home and the same day my friend called and told me I had work in a few days if I wanted to. So, I spent two days at home, then went over to my mateys place for the duration of about a week while we worked. Then I was home once more for a few days, before leaving for the capital around these parts, namely Stockholm. I spent arond 10 days there mostly just relaxing with my dad, various relatives, my dads girlfriend and her kids, and my trusty laptop.
I played trough Max Payne 2, half of Mass Effect, and got to see a bit from Bioshock (awesome) Witcher (not really my thing), and I saw Hancock as well. I have to say that I really hated the ending to that one, way to Disney-cuddly for my taste, especially considering that Hancock actually killed quite a few badguys in it. Not grapchically or anything, but punshing people trough walls generally have that effect if you ask me.
Now comes the spoilers, so skip the last part here if you wanna see Hancock:
The movie would have been a lot better if it ended with them dying, or with Hancock hurling himself to the moon.
First option have the advantage of being a shock to the viewer. The immortal hero, and his immortal on and off girlfriend gets killed by a simple bunch of criminals.
The second one could go in a few ways: He drifts of into space, becoming more and more powerfull as he gets further and further away from earth.
He stays on the moon, becoming a hermit.
Or he ends up fighting an alien scourge coming towards earth?
That last one would be a bit of a return to Independence Day though, so maybe that's off in this case.
Either way, now I'm back home once more. Brain hardly functioning thanks to severe lack of sleep, due to riding the train down here instead of sleeping.
Riding a train in the current heat that's pounding on us right now wasn't the best idea either. Sure, it was at night so it wasn't to hot outside, but a train crammed full of people trying to sleep, with windows that you can open, but that will prevent you from sleeping because of the occasional bursts of sound made by the train?
The choise was: either you sleep in suffocating heat, or you get a little sleep interupted by bursts of ear-shredding sound.
I manged to sleep a bit, but mostly I read about Anarchism or listened to rhe Roots.
This resluted in the usual state somewhere between perfect clearness and sleep that presents itself when you've neglected sleep, about a hour before I was supposed to catch the train while in transit in Gothenburg. Things seemed suprigsingly clear, I knew what I would do with my life, this included parkour workshops, politics, and writting.
And none of it seems all wrong after a good nights sleep either, which actually scares me a bit, since I've never really known what I've wanted to do before.
Maybe I've changed a bit, but that much?
I also had a feeling of meeting myself when I was headed out of the station. The glassdoor was reflecting the sun in such a way that I could see myself in it, but in my tired state I didn't realize it was me, and I tried to move out of the way of my reflection.
When I relized my mistake I kinda froze for a minute, the realization was quite huge, at least to me. It felt as if I was outside my body watching myself for a moment, and it didn't feel too bad actually. Which either means I'm an egotastical maniac, or just quite a mellow dude, hard to tell.
16/07/2008
Stuck
For the time being I've got this terrible feeling that I'm stuck. I can't get anywhere, and even if I tried, it would inevitably just end up as another half finished project in the graveyard where such projects go when I tire of them.
This is not exactly true, but that's never the less the feeling I've got right now.
So I decided to come here, to share my painful confusion and indecisiveness with you!
So, what's going on lately?
I was of course at the Arvika festival. Which was awesome, great weather for the most part, all the bands I saw was at least good, new friends, the boss was nice as well.
Sure, we had to work our asses of for a few hours or so, but it was worth it.
Best shows was: Danger, The Go! Team and Saul Williams.
The Go! Team had trouble with their mics at the start, since the tent they were supposed to play in was flooded, which had delayed things, and gave them less time for a proper sound check.
Despite this I had an awesome time, at the front, with a sea of people moving with the music at my back.
Then we have a bit of a tie, although since I missed a bit of Saul Williams, and didn't really get a good place to stand, it was an awesome show. Saul is more of a rockstar than many rockstars of today. He just couldn't stand completly still it seemed, and his face was a constant display of emotion.
If I'd seen all of it, I think I'd probably call it the best show at Arvika this year.
Then we have Danger. Which you can't read facial expressions at even with a binocular, since he wears a mask while on stage. To be a bit more precise, he looks like a negative of Spiderman, wearing a black t-shirt with a neon print.
He's got some sort of white shining eyes, which in combination with the neon print flashes as the lights flash with the beat of the music.
The music, in this case, is French electro, with a touch of old videogames.d
Awesom music, accompanied by a homemade VJ set consisting of clips from movies such as Predator, Robocop, Indiana Jones, old cartoons and quite a bit of nice material made for (or maybe by?) Danger himself.
I was there for a week, 4 days of work, 3 days of music. I saw 17 bands in total, hang out a bit with friends, and had a good time in general.
Then I got home, and found out I had potential work ahead of me if I wanted, so I've worked for a few days, and now I'm leaving for the capital soon.
I had to go away to work as well, so I haven't been home a week straight this month.
At least I'm not getting bored though.
This is not exactly true, but that's never the less the feeling I've got right now.
So I decided to come here, to share my painful confusion and indecisiveness with you!
So, what's going on lately?
I was of course at the Arvika festival. Which was awesome, great weather for the most part, all the bands I saw was at least good, new friends, the boss was nice as well.
Sure, we had to work our asses of for a few hours or so, but it was worth it.
Best shows was: Danger, The Go! Team and Saul Williams.
The Go! Team had trouble with their mics at the start, since the tent they were supposed to play in was flooded, which had delayed things, and gave them less time for a proper sound check.
Despite this I had an awesome time, at the front, with a sea of people moving with the music at my back.
Then we have a bit of a tie, although since I missed a bit of Saul Williams, and didn't really get a good place to stand, it was an awesome show. Saul is more of a rockstar than many rockstars of today. He just couldn't stand completly still it seemed, and his face was a constant display of emotion.
If I'd seen all of it, I think I'd probably call it the best show at Arvika this year.
Then we have Danger. Which you can't read facial expressions at even with a binocular, since he wears a mask while on stage. To be a bit more precise, he looks like a negative of Spiderman, wearing a black t-shirt with a neon print.
He's got some sort of white shining eyes, which in combination with the neon print flashes as the lights flash with the beat of the music.
The music, in this case, is French electro, with a touch of old videogames.d
Awesom music, accompanied by a homemade VJ set consisting of clips from movies such as Predator, Robocop, Indiana Jones, old cartoons and quite a bit of nice material made for (or maybe by?) Danger himself.
I was there for a week, 4 days of work, 3 days of music. I saw 17 bands in total, hang out a bit with friends, and had a good time in general.
Then I got home, and found out I had potential work ahead of me if I wanted, so I've worked for a few days, and now I'm leaving for the capital soon.
I had to go away to work as well, so I haven't been home a week straight this month.
At least I'm not getting bored though.
09/07/2008
The FRA-law. Again.
Since this affects me personally your gonna hear about it until you either accept it, or jump from a building.
First of, according to a Swedish newspaper, sources close to the department doing the surveillance are saying that the main purpose of it is to intercept Russian intelligence, which would mean that the relations between Sweden and Russia might go a bit frosty.
It's not considered very nice to spy on your neighbors. But the Russian spy who defected was apparently killed under orders from the Russian government, so it seems ol' Russia is up to her shenanigans once more.
Secondly, it seems all the youth sections of the different Swedish political parties are united against the FRA-law. The old politicans must realize that they've fucked up by now, right?
Either way, it's good to see that liberals, democrats, conservatives, socialist, enviromentalists and everybody else have found some common ground for once. Hell, we might actually start getting along for once!
First of, according to a Swedish newspaper, sources close to the department doing the surveillance are saying that the main purpose of it is to intercept Russian intelligence, which would mean that the relations between Sweden and Russia might go a bit frosty.
It's not considered very nice to spy on your neighbors. But the Russian spy who defected was apparently killed under orders from the Russian government, so it seems ol' Russia is up to her shenanigans once more.
Secondly, it seems all the youth sections of the different Swedish political parties are united against the FRA-law. The old politicans must realize that they've fucked up by now, right?
Either way, it's good to see that liberals, democrats, conservatives, socialist, enviromentalists and everybody else have found some common ground for once. Hell, we might actually start getting along for once!
Fuck You McCain, Fuck You
I'm taking a stand, not saying that I'm supporting Obama or anything though. He seems way too perfect to me.
McCain, on the other hand did seem like an alright guy at first, except for being right wing, but I can't really tell the difference between Liberals and Conservatives for the most part when it comes to American politics anyway. For a Swede they're way to similar to make much sense.
Either way, McCain apparently dislike people comparing him to Bush so much that a librarian who had a sign saying "McCain=Bush" got busted for trespassing at a public campaign event. Public apparently mean a different thing than I thought it did. Or maybe McCain is penpal with Mugabe and have decided that politicans are too soft on people who won't vote for them?
Either way, a 60 year old librarian is apparently a real threath in politics, if people who can actually read is against you, the ones who can't will notice, and realize there's more to the picture than they thought.
Oh, and then we have the fact that McCain is going to fix the American economy, but haven't said how, so either he's a wizard, or he's bullshitting. Of course he could be both, but I seriously doubt it.
Not that lies are uncommon in politics these days. It seems like you have to lie your ass of to get elected, and then people act surprised that you don't turn the water into wine onces your in position.
Politicans are not divine being able to right all wrongs, in fact they're just as fucked up, intruthful and generally human as the rest of us. They like sex, to drink some booze or get stoned once in a while, watch crappy tv and eat junkfood.
To expect them to fuck up less than others just proves we think way too highly of politicans, and probably of the human race in general.
My view on the human race is well documented though, so no need to get into that here.
As I said, I don't really like anyone runing for president, solely because they want power, and people like that are generally bad news in my opinon.
Obama haven't given me a real reason to dislike him yet though, so that's good I suppose.
Not that I've been paying much attention or anything either so far.
I'll probably do so once the real election starts getting close.
McCain, on the other hand did seem like an alright guy at first, except for being right wing, but I can't really tell the difference between Liberals and Conservatives for the most part when it comes to American politics anyway. For a Swede they're way to similar to make much sense.
Either way, McCain apparently dislike people comparing him to Bush so much that a librarian who had a sign saying "McCain=Bush" got busted for trespassing at a public campaign event. Public apparently mean a different thing than I thought it did. Or maybe McCain is penpal with Mugabe and have decided that politicans are too soft on people who won't vote for them?
Either way, a 60 year old librarian is apparently a real threath in politics, if people who can actually read is against you, the ones who can't will notice, and realize there's more to the picture than they thought.
Oh, and then we have the fact that McCain is going to fix the American economy, but haven't said how, so either he's a wizard, or he's bullshitting. Of course he could be both, but I seriously doubt it.
Not that lies are uncommon in politics these days. It seems like you have to lie your ass of to get elected, and then people act surprised that you don't turn the water into wine onces your in position.
Politicans are not divine being able to right all wrongs, in fact they're just as fucked up, intruthful and generally human as the rest of us. They like sex, to drink some booze or get stoned once in a while, watch crappy tv and eat junkfood.
To expect them to fuck up less than others just proves we think way too highly of politicans, and probably of the human race in general.
My view on the human race is well documented though, so no need to get into that here.
As I said, I don't really like anyone runing for president, solely because they want power, and people like that are generally bad news in my opinon.
Obama haven't given me a real reason to dislike him yet though, so that's good I suppose.
Not that I've been paying much attention or anything either so far.
I'll probably do so once the real election starts getting close.
27/06/2008
Six-Four
A large number of people decided that they'd had enough, that their goverment needed a more democratic approach, and that their society needed a change for the better.
It started of with 10 000 students sitting at a square.
It soon grew to 100 000 people protesting against what they felt was a unjust government. 1 000 of these went on a hungerstrike that for some lasted 3 weeks.
The protests lasted for almost a month, but since there was no clear message behind them, other than that they where for a reform of the government, things became highly confused.
Same thing happened with the government. Some where in support of the protesters, some where not. The ones against the protests soon got the upper hand and declared martial law, sending the military in.
This, of course, resulted in a lot of deaths. Most sources seem to place the numbers in the thousands, and at least some of the dead where military personel.
They stormed the sqaure, shooting indescriminatly, beating up anyone for just being there. People hidding in busses, or leaving the square as well.
All of this happened before I had turned 2 years old, but I've always heard about it from my mom, who visited that same square a few years before all of this happened.
I can only imagine what she felt when she watched this on tv when it took place.
And a lot of it ended up on tv, despite the censur and media control of the country in question. This was because at that time, the Russian president was visiting, so it was to some degree a stroke of luck that we know so much that we do.
The image of the man standing if front of the tank, refusing to move is probably the one image a lot of people have burned onto their retina. We still don't know who he was, if he got executed for it, or if he lives in hiding somewhere to this day.
In conclusion, about an hour of documentry about the "incident" in 1989, and quite a lot about China today, and why we don't care about the obvious disregard for human rights, censorship, and general fasicm in todays China.
19/06/2008
The FRA-law passed
Which of course pisses me off to no end. Soon we'll have to salute the leader, as he drives around with a military honor guard, only there to kill anyone who might say something critical.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fucking fuckery fuck.
There are some good things about this though. For instance, there are only two politicians in the sitting government that actually are on the same page as the rest of the people. One voted no, the other forfeited his vote in protest of the proposition.
Both have gotten hundreds of flowers sent to them in support, and also as a statement to show the rest of the government that they fucked up.
People are now instead encouraged to donate the money to Journalists Whiteout Borders, since they don't have any place to put all the flowers, and journalists just had their jobs get a whole lot harder.
Most things are bad though. IT-companies are from now on going to try and avoid Sweden, which means the government just shot itself in the foot. So, we get a law that drives away investors, is in violation of our constitution, and most people seem to be against? This makes sense! In fact, it would only make more sense if a dancing monkey wearing clogs and playing a xylophone showed up!
But hey, this more or less guarantees that the current government will be replaced once the election comes in two years. They are already looking bad in the ratings, and this kind of things can't exactly help.
The fact that the Liberals actually supported this law is a bit mind blowing really, since they're the ones supposed to be big on personal freedom, the rights of the individual and all that. Apparently not, but I still salute the people who dared state, despite no one supporting them in their party, that they were against this law. That took some serious balls. I wish we had more politicians like that actually... But who doesn't?
And along with the flowers also came protest against the decision via email. 350 so far, but I'm thinking it's gonna rise quite a bit. I know, 350 might not sound much, but it's apparently quite a bit in Sweden, and considering we only got around 9 million people living here, that makes up for it. A bit.
I'll be writing a mail to eventually. I'm gonna work on it a bit though, sharpen the edges until you could go blind from looking it at. Then I'll send it.
Fuckers...
18/06/2008
Awesome tv
One of my favorite shows when I was a really small kid was Ika I Rutan, it's a Swedish show about a woman who looks like a early goth, who mimes, dances like John Cleese, and does a lot of random things, often accompanied by some slightly psychotic music. The show had a more or less psychedelic feel about it, and has probably affected a whole generation of young Swedes to some degree.
Some loved it, some were terrified of it. Hell, some still have nightmares about it.
Here's another example:
I think you get why this show could be scary for a young child now. Though I don't care, I'm gonna show this to my future kids either way. It's still tons better than this a lot of the Disney-crap out there... Though I love the Lion King as well I have to say.
Here's another Ika-clip, she's invented a dancing-spray, to make people dance:
And to round things of, a longer clip where she's trying to scare us, and learn us how to scare people. Don't miss the vampire, the egg, or anything else awesome!
Vegetable Genocide
I have a garden. I don't rake care of it nearly enough though, so whenever I feel like blowing of some steam I go there and rip up defenseless plants the size of smaller trees with my bare hands.
I nearly wrote bear hands for some reason. Could have been a Freudian slip, or maybe I do hands the size of other peoples buttocks?
I wonder if having huge hand would be counted as a superpower? Should I use this power for good or bad? Punch bad guys? Rob department stores, and hurl refrigerators at anyone who tries to stop me?
Either way, my garden is starting to look like a garden again. I'm not sure this is a good thing though, since I'm used to it looking like a flyover photo of the rain forest. Though I suppose this means I might actually be able to grow something, which is always nice if you feel like feeding your delusions of being a god.
"I am Enkahi, creator of all life. I spill my seed and plants rise towards the skies, great and mighty. Out of the pods on these plants, the hairless monkeys emerge, their task it to bring me gifts, and worship my mighty jaw!"
Furthermore, my great powers of observations have revealed to me that, Warren Ellis, the real reason behind the reformation of the church (it was originally just a drunken prank), lives in London. Why I didn't know this is a great mystery, almost as huge as the entire plot of the X-files.
Though I'm not sure why this is public knowledge, his enemies might just decide to get him with a thermonuclear strike, just to be sure. I could of course use my divine powers, which of course include la parkour, juggling, and perfect balance. Those are the ones I like anyway. I do have superskin, teeth that can pulverize bars of steel, and my giant fists as well, but those aren't nearly as fun. Leaping trough the air and grabbing a hold of a ledge with your teeth looks quite neat, but it tastes like ass, so I wouldn't recommend it. Plus, you might die, which isn't much fun either to tell you the truth.
16/06/2008
Angry Sad Bum
My monetary status is at the moment quite dead.
I just had to remove a chocolate bar when paying at the store, since I didn't have enough money to pay for both that and the milk I bought.
In fact, I don't know if I've been this poor before.
Luckily I have some nice friends who buy me ice cream from time to time, so I'm surviving on that, pasta and pancakes this summer.
And I just found out that M.I.A canceled her entire summer tour, which makes me feel both sad and angry. I was so looking forward to seeing her, but right now I feel more like sitting inside mopping all summer.
Luckily there's still a load of awesome bands playing at the festival, so I still have that to look forward to.
The Go! Team, Interpool, Danger, MSTRKRFT, Surkin, Hot Chip, Robyn, and all kinds of awesome Swedish acts that you've probably never heard of unless you live in Scandinavia. Besides, I'm too lazy to write a long list. Gotta think of my bum image you know.
15/06/2008
The Hipster
This is not a piece about why hipsters suck. In fact, it's more a piece about what the hell it is, why I don't care about it, and why you shouldn't either.
When people started using the term a hipster was someone who listened to the latest music, someone who was en par with good musical journalists (MTV does not count), and often listened to stuff that most people hadn't even heard about yet.
Now, it means more or less the same as indie used to, before that became mainstream too. Hell, hipsters are turning mainstream as I write this.
If you listened to Feist, Regina Spektor, Justice and so on before they became famous via iPod commercials (the bane of any hipster status a band might have), the latest album or whatnot, chances are good you used to be a hipster. It's not as clear if your one now though. I guess it depends on what you listen to really.
Ever heard of Danger? If you have, you might be a hipster, if you haven't, it's one of the better French electro acts, along with Surkin and SebastiAn.
Yeah, I'm a hipster, at least when it comes to music, and of course I'm a hipster of the old school. Sounds like a really dumb fucking thing to say, but there it is.
A hipster is not all about the music though. There's also a certain kinda of clothes that's considered "hipster". The "terrorist scarf" for instance, add a couple of Converse, glasses with thick black rims, a beard and a band tee for some obscure Japanese folk or something. Maybe a plaid shirt too?
It doesn't really matter as much though, since a hipster to me is mainly about the music, and not about how you look.
If I thought it was more about how you dressed, I wouldn't be calling myself a hipster. That, and I'm hoping some hipster might get angry at me for calling myself a hipster...
Either way, a hipster now is a middle class young adult with nothing better to do than spend hours on Pitchfork and music forums, whining over the latest record by the Animal Collective. The hipster is the new indie, and it wouldn't surprise me if the label hispter is attached to any band who is indie, but not indie rock in a few years time.
But I get why people don't like hipsters. Because most hipsters are so into music, they tend to frown and look down upon anyone who don't truly listen to anything, and at least a few bands who most people haven't heard of. No wonder ordinary people wanna punch them in the face from time to time, but if they're one of these faux hipsters who only follow Pitchfork, don't discover music themselves, and are still acting like you're a cunt for not having heard Bjorks latest album... Just punch them in the face.
The Swedish FRA-law
The FRA-law is a law that basically means that the Swedish goverment have the right to check all Internet traffic passing trough Sweden. This means that they don't need any permission to check what I'm writing here, in case they can come up with a reason to do so.
In a sense it's more or less the same thing that goes on in China, Burma and other dictatorships.
What shocking with this is that it's in Sweden of all places. The closest they've ever come to a terrorist attack was when a bunch of angry people burned a Swedish flag by mistake while they were protesting against the Danish Mohammed drawings.
Though that's apparently enough to start turning Sweden into an Orwellian state.
I'd imagine the next step would be a small forest of surveillance cameras all over the big cities.
Then maybe we could have a curfew, to prevent "suspicious activities"?
And you might think I'm being a bit "end of the world" here, but when spokespersons from Goggle say that "this kind of thing shouldn't have any place in a western democracy." And say it's more the kind of things you'd expect from China or Saudi Arabia, we can start worry.
The law also works against journalists and the media, since they'll have a harder time keeping their sources secure.
The law also states that traffic that doesn't cross over the Swedish border wont be monitored, which is of course pure bullshit, since almost all traffic taking place between people in Sweden pass the border anyway. If you know how the Internet works, that would come as no surprise to you, company's have servers all over the world, so there's no way to make sure your traffic stays national.
Basically, Swedes might soon be guilty until proved innocent, and there would be no way of stopping the government from registering peoples opinions if they want to.
Hopefully the law wont pass, but I'd advise any Swedes to start getting encryption keys, using darknets and so on. Or just start chain letters about murdering politicians and blowing up buildings.
And you have to wonder, why would this law show up all of a sudden? It seems to have an uncanny resemblance to the undemocratic Patriot Act, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a connection to the US somewhere along the line.
Terrorism seems to be the universal excuse to push trough laws and regulations that the people don't need or benefit from these days, so it wouldn't come as a surprise if that's at least hinted at if the law is passed. I'm betting "state", "security" and "safety" will be used too, all words that seem to be closer to fascism than their literal meaning these days...
14/06/2008
Darth Vader Strikes Back
Yupp, seems like Britain recently had it's first accounted case of mortal combat between the Sith and the Jedi.
Apparently the founder of the Britain's Jedi Church had angered the mighty lord Vader, and in a fit of drunken rage he decided to strike down the offending element with a metal crutch.
It seems the recent years has been hard on old Vader, he apparently had to pawn his lightsaber to afford booze, and his suit was replaced by a black garbage bag.
Though he was still wearing his helmet, which gleamed in the sun as he bested his sworn Jedi enemy in single combat.
This all happened during an interview with the Sun, where suddenly Vader came leaping over the fence into the garden of the Jedi Master. After he had beaten the Jedi, he decided to strike down reporters as well for good measure. Sounds reasonable to me.
The police does obviously like to have a word with him about all this, but I have a feeling Vader wont go down that easily...
12/06/2008
What do I belive?
I started to think about this after reading one of Penny Reds latest posts.
What the hell do I believe?
And the truth is, I can't think of anything that I am absolutely certain about. Sure, I'm against killing people, not because life is sacred or anything Disney-esque like that. I'm generally against killing people because it's a bad way to solve a disagreement. It's an awesomely flawed argument though, so I don't really hold it as a truth or anything.
It does work better if you take it to the personal level, but then it's more about fighting than killing people either way.
You can't really punch someone into agreeing with you, though I suppose you could beat someone up over you disagreeing with them sleeping with your spouse or something.
Either way, I do believe that a lot of todays media suck humongous snail dongs, and they're apparently absorbing the putrid waste of popular culture and political opinions of others, and publishing this as news.
The media is supposed to tell us what the hell is going on thats important, not what amuses us the most. Sure, a light-hearted piece once in a while is fine, but a paper full of 20 pages about a bunch of famous retards that wouldn't even be in paper if they weren't famous has as much with news to do as a duck with two assholes.
Then we have consumption, the form of todays society, the rule of the market, the pointless scaremongering being done by politicians and media about terrorism, people starving because of poverty, people starving because they think they look better that way... Fuck! It's the one thing rich and poor people have in common! Stop the presses, Marx was wrong! Maybe if we increase the gap even more, we can all die of starvation together!
Oh, I'm left by the way, in fact, I could be so far left that I'll punch you in the kneecap from the right...
I'm not very serious thought, am I? Sure, I do my little Spider Jerusalem-impersonation from time to time, but most of what I say are things I stand for.
I'm all for better resource management. Translated for those of us who didn't finish kindergarten, that's translated into "thinking before you buy".
This means two things: I almost only buy clothes that's second hand, and I buy cheap, healthy food. Meaning I look awesome, both physically and fashion-vise.
No, I do not wear a suit at all times. Suits are to safe. Safe is boring.
I would wear a suit with red high tops and a red "terrorist scarf", as it's been dubbed by the think-tank over at Fox News.
So, I don't believe in the consummation society of today, I don't believe we need a lot of the crap we end up getting.
Water boilers, micro wave ovens, hairdryers, bottled watter, hell, we wouldn't even need tooth brushes if the food industry didn't put sweeteners in everything.
Who's fault is it then? I could go with the politically correct answer and say human nature, but that's just an excuse for our ignorance. We've come miles when it comes to technology, but we're still barely more intelligent than chimps. (I appologise to any chimps reading this, you clearly are superior than humans when it comes to pure brainpower.)
So, let me ask you, would you put a chimp in a jet fighter? On the moon? In the White House?
Don't even think about answering that last one... I might have a stroke, and I'll make sure you get locked up for first degree murder. I don't know how, but you're fucked. Hell, we're probably all fucked either way when you think about it...
10/06/2008
A tulpa, or not a tulpa?
Ever heard that word? Tulpa.
It has nothing to do with tulips, tumblers or anything else in the realm of biology.
A tulpa is a thoughtform given life.
Though, that's of course not all of it.
A tulpa is a being created, or given life, by willpower alone. It could be an exact copy of your own body, or look completely different, it depends on what shape it is given by the person or persons imagining it, and I suspect it would also depend on what it's purpose is.
So, from what I've understood, there are 2 forms of tulpas.
One that is created by a single person, often a yogi of some kind, who have achieved such a knowledge and insight that he can even disassemble his own body in order to fool death.
Of course, creating a tulpa is not a hard thing for such a person, since he must have an exceptional will.
The other is one created by a group of people, either trough superstition, or consciously creating it in order to reach a certain goal.
The first one mostly only lasts for a short time, since it takes a lot of will and focus of the people/person who created it for it to last.
But if a group of people create it, with the right methods and devote enough thought to it, it can last past the death of it's creators.
In some cases the tupla exists as more of a spiritual being, with no way of influencing the physical world, in others it can manipulate the matter just like us.
The difference is that since it is made from several peoples thoughts, it is a lot stronger than normal people in both body and mind.
Hence, if a person loses control of it, it might end up killing it's creator.
Sorta like Frankenstein and his monster.
Ever said that you wanted two of you to manage everything you have to do? Well, think about long and hard enough and you might get what you wish for. Though, if you lose control, you might end up killed by your own thoughts and will.
Still, I wouldn't mind getting to know how to make a tulpa. It might come in handy...
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