Ode

A year has gone, a year will come
What have we learned, what have we done
Where will life bring us, what will happen next
Will we get smarter or maybe kicked in the head
I do not know and I can not say
But I hope it entails both yeay and hurray

Flashback

I re-read the last post and got a flashback to a great MASH ep in which Frank and Hot Lips visits a local craftsman. The dialogue goes something like this: (actually I am rather sure that it goes exactly like this, even it if were years since I had my last MASH hangup)

-(Frank to the Craftsman): One of our sergeants told us you do wood carvings.
-(Craftsman): Ahh, sergeant Kowalski, I make a naked lady radiator cap for his fathers Crystler.
-(Frank to Hot Lips): Now we are getting somewhere, (turns to the Craftsman) So you do carve?
-(Craftsman): Come, I'll show you. (holds up a piece of wood and says proudly) Used to be round.
-(Frank): It looks like a two by four.
-(Craftsman): Thank you!

Brilliant. I just love it!

Duplo

Ok, I wanted to share this image with all of you, and tried writing a nice blog post to it, but it did not pan out. Basically what I wanted to say was that:
I play a lot with duplo these days.
I built this sculpture some days ago and then took a photograph of it, or rather through it.
It turned out pretty nice.
And then I wondered if you could figure out how I did it.
Can you? (Oh yea, I only used regular 2x2 and 2x4 pieces.)

Hur svårt kan det vara?

Hur svårt kan det vara att komma på ett kassasystem som funkar på krogen? Hur kan det fortfarande vara så att om man är ett sällskap som går ut och äter en bit och dricker några glas på krogen och sedan betalar var för sig så är det alltid killen som är sist, den blyge killen med lite krassligt självförtroende, som får ta ölen och maten som de andra tryckte i sig men sedan glömde att de tryckte i sig.
Det är klart att man inte kommer ihåg exakt vad man drack och åt efter fem timmar. Och det är lika klart att det är den osäkre killen som är kvar i slutet och får ta slattarna. Han som inte vågar ta diskussionen med personalen, eller för den delen ta diskussionen med kompisgänget dagarna efter. Han får ta smällen och se glad ut. Hur svårt kan det vara att skapa individuella notor, genom att tex fråga efter namn på den som beställer, eller genom att stämpla gästerna med en stor jävla stämpel i pannan för att identifiera dom.
Den här gången så var jag näst sist och slapp de extra ölen, men jag fick betala för en dyrare maträtt än den jag åt, för den jag åt hade nån annan redan betalt och det var bara de dyrare alternativen kvar, och jag kan erkänna att jag säkert vet att jag gått tidigt nån gång och betalat för en öl mindre än jag drack (något som jag kommit på genom en rannsakan dagen efter), men oftare händer det nog att jag är den som betalar sist (nu är inte det så farligt eftersom jag inte är ute så ofta så den smällen kan jag ta när det händer men roligt är det faan inte). Så jag undrar - hur svårt kan det egentligen vara?

If you are wondering

If you are wondering why this lille katt video suddenly climbed to the very top of the YouTube charts it is cause we showed it to Tage once, and then he demanded to get control over the 'replay' button. If you are wondering why this is my last post it is cause my computer tripped and fell over the balcony rail in a freak accident that has nothing at all to do with me freaking out over this lille katt video.

Something I do not understand

There is something that I do not understand with regards to the new body scanners used at more and more airports. As I understand it people are upset that the security personnel get to see them in the nude and they feel uncomfortable about that. That I get. What I do not get is why the security personnel needs to see the nude images. I bet that it would be bloody easy to construct a program that analyses the images and looks for suspicious things (hidden blades and plastic explosives and so on) and returns a green or a red light for the person And destroys the image in the process. Hence no-one would ever get so see anyone naked, the check would be faster and more secure than by visual inspection and everyone would be happy campers. Personally I would feel much less violated by such a system. Now if I only had thousands of readers I bet that this idea would quickly find its way to the people in charge and they would have everything sorted within a fortnight.

Re-littering

Where do you all stand on the subject of re-littering? I.e. if you see something on the street that you go 'Oooh - that seems interesting' over and then you pick that something up only to realize that it is just a piece of crap - is it then ok to throw it back down on the street or should you locate a trash can? It happens to me quite a lot and I often get stuck in this ethical dilemma (most oftenly I do re-litter but I never feel good about it).

Turbulence

I snapped this during our vacation on Gotland this spring. Except for the crop and a little tweak of the colours I did no edits. Sometimes a little turbulence in the air is a good thing.

Significant figures

I have a problem with the tv show Biggest looser. They calculate the weight loss for the contestants as a percentage based on measurements in whole pounds. So a person that has gone from 310 to 305 pounds has lost 5 pounds => 5/310=1.61%. And then they use this number to eliminate people. It is just plain wrong to get a number with three significant figures from a division that contains a number with only one significant figure. The true answer to the above example should hence be 2%. They really ought to buy a more precise scale and learn some maths.

Change

I thought that a little change was due...

Shit

Another thing that happens in the woods bother me. It also involves stupid people like in my previous rant where someone destroyed my lens hood that I dropped, found and then left hanging on a tree in the same forest that inspired this little rant.
It is shit. Dog shit to be more precise. Having had dogs all the time growing up I am fairly familiar with the subject, but I find that I am a little bit undecided. I mean, if a dog shits on the streets you pick it up - no problem there. But if a dog shits on a path in the forest I do not really know. To just leave it for someone to step in is not acceptable. I think it is quite all-right to just push it out of the way with a stick so that no one would have to step in it, it will be gone pretty soon so no real harm is done. To pick it up with a plastic bag and throw it in the trash is also an option, but I must say that due to the extremely low density of dog poo trash cans out there in the woods I would be a bit hesitant to do that.
But there is a fourth option - to pick it up with a plastic bag and then throw the bag a few feet away from the path. It is just so fucking stupid. I mean I get annoyed of all littering, I have been so darn close to confront people that I see throw their crap on the streets like if it were their own personal trash can, my blood has boiled and I have wanted to just cut their fucking heads off with some choice words (I have only been held back by the fact that I live where I live and hence would most likely have been stabbed or the like by the perpetrator...), but to put something bio-degradable into a plastic bag and then throw it where everyone will see it for years to come is so darn stupid that I  [now I am so worked up that I am hyperventilating, maybe this sentence ought to end soon so that I wont pass out] that I can not even begin to describe it.

Sheos

Attended a training camp this weekend. It was great fun, hard work and a cheep way to up-grade my shoes. I was one of the last people leaving and I could not find my own shoes anywhere. Instead there was a pair very similar to mine: same brand, almost the same model, half a size larger, and a lot less worn. I could see no other option than to adopt them and treat them like if they were my own.

Being the fool

This Friday when I was picking the last of the mushrooms in the forest closest to me I found a lens hood. I was a bit amazed that it was very similar to one of mine. I thought it over and concluded that yes - it was similar, but it was definitely not mine. So I hung it on a tree next to the path close to where I found it and felt good about it, maybe the owner would find it and feel good about not having to spend a ridiculous amount of money for a little piece of plastic that is not a crucial part of the lens but still something that you want to have so that you can use it to its full extent.

I thought nothing of it during the weekend (during which I saw two elks) but come Monday my mind started to nag at me. I took a look around and of course I could not locate the lens hood that looked very much like the one I found in the woods. Fuck I thought, I am so stupid. Of course it was mine, the one I found. Of course, I mean, who else would walk around at that particular spot, with a lens similar to mine?

I quickly got mine and Tages stuff together and rushed out of the apartment. During the quick trot I calculated (maybe estimated would be a better word for what I did) the odds of what would happen next; At first I thought that there would be a 50% chance that it would be where I left it, a 20% chance that it would be on the ground close-by but still intact, a 10% chance that it would be close-by but broken, and the rest that it would be gone forever.

The closer I came the chances of me finding it intact grew smaller and smaller. When I saw the tree and that it was not there I was not very surprised. I later found it some fifty meters away in the mud, broken into four pieces. I am quite amazed of how the mind works for some people. Why would you, if you find a thing in the woods, a thing that someone clearly has found already and put up in a place where the original owner would be able to find it, a thing that is clearly not crap, pick that thing up and destroy it? What do you gain from that? On the other hand, I can not really say that my own brain worked particularly well during this episode either.

Who the fuck?

Who was the bastard that designed the standard that controls how stuff you put into the usb port works? I mean, why in hell must it take an infinity of time for a memory stick/sd-card reader or whatever to be disconnected from the fucking computer? If I tell it to eject it should fucking disconnect immediately. I have no patience for that crap.  (I am a little annoyed since this mornings failed attempt to get the ethernet card in one of my computers to work (the non working ethernet card is the reason for the non existence of photos on this here blog recently)).

Aaaah

We are, just for fun, listening to all our records - in the order in which they stand in the shelf.
Up until today the low point was the Chopin record that was a combination of music and letters (read in French) to and from the composer. Who bought that we really do not know (but since K has a great memory and mine is more the shape of a Swiss cheese I suppose it was me at some confused point in my life).
Today we came to Mazarin by Per Gessle. I can not even begin to describe how much I loath it. My god, I want to puncture my eardrums with a spoon. We and our stupid projects.

Project

I decided during my stay at my parents house this summer that it would be a nice little project to scan all their old photos (or most of them anyway). Mostly it was so that I could get some photos of me when I was Tage's age for comparison, but why not do them all I thought. So I told my dad to bring them to me and now I have 25 cartridges with 40 slides each ( = 1000 slides) to process in my bookshelf. Scanning takes about a minute each so that could be done within 16.7 hours (if I really streamlined the operation) but that does not take into account the time it takes to remove dust, change frames on some of them etc etc etc. Then there is the post-production, cropping, making changes to the exposure, digitally remove some dust etc etc. But that is all fine, it is just manual labour and yes, it takes time and is kind of repetitive but I sort of like that.

What I do have a problem with however is sorting. I am kind of meticulous when it comes to my photos. I have them nicely sorted in the order in which they were shot. I like the time-line, that they form a record of events. It probably has to do with my poor memory. To have your photos sorted like that is of course not ideal. For one thing, it makes it impossible to put them into an album (if you don't put all of them in there), and you can't sort all your photos of your dog in one place (cause then you disturb the time-line), and you can't really show your photos to someone (because then you must show all of them)... (all of this applies to the analog photos of course, the digital ones is far easier to handle (I highly recommend using a photo managing/editing software like Lightroom, Aperture, blueMarine or picasa to keep your photos organized)). But as you might have guessed, the gene that makes you inclined to keep anal order among your photos must have skipped a generation. Photos of the X-mas 1981 pops up in numerous cartridges. Winter is mixed with summer, spring and autumn. A young version of my mother pops up in the middle of a moose hunt in 1985. Dogs that did not exist at the same time seems to be playing together. These cartridges must be my fathers version of Monica's closet. I feel that I must bring order to this chaos but I do not know how. 

Schroms

This week me and Tage have spent more than an hour each day in the forest looking for mushrooms. Except for today we have gone to the smallish forest a couple of hundred meters from here. This one: (We live in the house under 'Earth')


View Larger Map

Since the forest is so close to the town, in fact it is in the town, it is a very popular recreational area. A lot of people move around there and even if not everyone looks for mushrooms I always see people who do just that, but even so, I have had no problem at all finding around 4 litres every day (Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle and Trumpet of death (cool name!) mostly). Today I thought I would change it up a bit and take a bike trip a bit further away, to go where not so many other people have gone before. Compared to just getting the stroller and going into the woods it was quite a bit harder. I am not very used to biking around with a little kid on the back of the bike, and getting on and off is a bit tricky... I also had to carry him almost everywhere we went. So, lets have a quick quiz: how much do you think I found today?

In April

Some time in April or thereabout I borrowed two books at the local library on the art of using flashes whilst photographing. It was an active choice, I went to the library just for that cause. I have a good flash and I do not know really how to use it to get good results, instead I fool around and use the trial and error method (which works to some degree but - really, come on...). So I have actually meant to read, no, to really study these books.

Since then I have re-borrowed them three times, two of the times after the loan already had gone over the limit (so now I own the library some money), even if the library has sent me a mail a couple of days before saying that 'hey, its time to return/re-borrow the books'.

One of the books I have used as a lap-top stand when I have the computer in the bed. The other I actually opened and read several pages in, up to the section of the omni-bounce. It stated that - 'you really got to have an omni-box'. I do not have an omni-box. And yes I could buy one (and I will, once I am in a town that has a decent camera store), but since I do not have one I felt a little like a looser, I mean come on, I did not even realize when I bought the flash that I of course should have bought an omni-box too. Anyhow, after I had read the section of the 'must have' omni-box I kind of lost interest in the books  (no, not really lost interest, I have felt stupid, lazy and like a looser every time I have seen them) and they have just been laying around here since. Until yesterday when I returned them to the library after I had received an email from them saying 'please return the books now you dickwad, we both know it, you will never read them so why not let someone else get a chance? come on now, what do you say?'. This was several days ago, so now I own them even more money. Some times I mess these little things up for no bloody reason what so ever and let me tell you, It really sucks to do that.

Soup #46

#46 Rural bean and vegetable soup. A rather nice soup with a couple of different types of beans (should have been kidney beans, pinto beans and black eyed peas but I could not find pinto beans in any of the multitude of stores that I went to yesterday so I skipped them and increased the amount of kidney beans instead), some mushrooms (should have been dried porchino and button mushrooms, but I thought I would swap the dried porchino for fresh ones from the forest, so I took Tage on a stroll today and could of course not find any of the ones that I had seen on our last jogg. But I did find plenty of chanterells so I used them instead. At the same time I learned what Tage hates more than accompanying me on photography strolls...) The soup also contained some chopped shallots and some mini pasta. So, friend of order asks, where the heck did the vegetables go? I have no idea. Anyhow - I liked it.

(By the way, do not worry, I have not forgotten soups #39 to #45. You will hear about them soon, I promise.)

Naah

Den som är det mindsta intresserad av fotboll skulle säkert tycka det var roligt att nått av lagen i den högre ligan spelar mot mallorca på arenan tvärs över gatan. För mig är det bara ett störande moment när jag försöker kolla på simpsons... Min behållning av matchen som gick på tv igår var den rätt så snygga sparken som nån i det orangea laget fick in i bröstet på en i det svarta laget, råkade zappa förbi precis när dom visade reprisen. I min värld så var det helt klart en poänggivande spark (iof så använder vi inte dojor med dobbar på i dojon).

Blog ideas

People and their cars

'Tack för att du gör mig hel' lappen jag hittade på gatan

Soups (5 of them)

Original people

My obsession with lists and order

Sandboxes, and my obsession with order in said boxes

Why do I only have the energy to search out the lowest price on some specific items and not all. And why is it that I can go to extremes to buy those items at the cheapest place and just ignore the other items?

Photos, cameras, camera gear, money, phones, stuff...

Yea, as you can see, I have a lot of ideas, but the creative side of me is in a state of rest at the moment. But one day I will bounce back and once again be a source of your daily procrastination routine...

Some things really get me going

Most of the time I think that I do not react especially hard on things. But some things really get me going. Pan flute Indians are one of those things. I just can not stand them. In this town they occupy the same place on the main street every summer and today was the first time that I encountered them this year. I was walking along and just caught a tone floating in the air and my brain directly came to attention. A few steps later I was certain and I stooped dead right there. I caught a glimpse of a feather and turned the stroller around and went in a circular motion around them with a couple of blocks in between. It is just what I need, another reason to not walk down to the centre of the town. (Ok, this was not one of my best rants ever, but it is the best I can produce under these conditions..)

Here to

Nerdy street art. Not only in Eskilstuna but also in Visby.

A year ago

A year ago my life changed forever.

PhD

At 15:00 on June the 18'th Jorge Cham is comming to Uppsala to give a talk. If I was there I would not miss it for the world. (registration required before the 10'th)

Number

Number of deer seen on the train ride home from Småland, the train ride that got delayed an hour and then changed into a train and taxi ride at a stop where the train normally does not stop: 7.

Interesting conversation during the ride:
-(the conductor) You will get a taxi from Katrineholm to Eskilstuna.
-(us, with Tage in our lap) Ok, we will need a chair for him in that case.
-(the conductor) Sure, they must have one, I will specifically tell them that you will need one.
-(us) Great.

A little time later, during which the conductor had talked to us and Tage several times:
-(the taxi driver) What? A baby seat? Nobody has mentioned anything about that. I can get one but it will take longer. And I hope you know how to install it cause I have no idea.

It all got sorted out in the end, and we came home only a little over han hour later than what we vere supposed to.

By the way: If you get stuck in Katrineholm, be sure to have a moscito repellent on you, damn it they were hungry.

By the way 2: If you are in Katrineholm and need to go to Stockholm late on a Saturday, make sure you look on the right screen so that you do not wait for the arrivals from Stockholm instead of the departures to Stockholm. (I do hope that the lady who wanted me to help her buy a ticket to said place had some place to spend the night)

Lyxfällan

I think that before a country would be eligible for the huge 'chrisis package' that IMF has put together, the country in question should first have to participate in a Lyxfällan special. That would be a great show. A couple of economists would stand there in front of the budget board and try to make the country realize what their problem is. (The country is silent in the conversation below. It just stands there looking ashamed and tries to hold back its tears)

-So, how much do you spend on the military? On social services? On pensions?
-And what loans do you have? Don't you understand that these sms loans that you took last year have a huge interest?
-Do you save anything for a rainy day? No?  You really should have.
-Ok, so if you sum it all up you see that your income, in form of taxes, is half of your spendings. It does not add up does it? You really need to think this through during the night.

// later in a bar, the economists talking //
-I really do not know if we can save this country.
-No, I agree. They must have seen this coming a long time and just let it happen. I think it might be to late now.
-What we have to do is to sell of any assets that they might have, what can you get for an island on ebay?
-And we have to try to do something about their loan situation. Thirty thousand different sms loans, plus all their credit cards that they have maxed out.. Maybe we can go and see if IMF could do something...

I really think this would be an excellent TV-show.

Wanted

Chipotle paste.  I really miss it, and have searched all over for it without any result. I think it is out of production but there must be a store somewhere that have some left, mustn't it? If you find it, could you please buy a couple of jars for me? I would be forever grateful.

Memory

The other day when I was on my way to the hospital to exchange some blood against two pairs of socks I went down to the bus stop just 100 meters away from here. It is in plain view from our flat and a couple of days before I had noticed that someone had smashed one of the glass walls of the wind shelter. The day I went down there I came around from the back and for some reason I bent down and picked up a shard of glass. With this in my hand I proceeded to walk around and sit down on the bench inside the hut. And then I leant back to rest against the glass wall. The glass wall that had been smashed. The glass wall that I had a piece of in my hand. Can someone please tell me just what the fuck is wrong with my brain.

Abandoned

While on a random walk today we stumbled upon an abandoned flower shop. (Actually I stumbled upon one and deliberately walked past another, but the only nice photos were of the stumbled upon one). The photos could have ended up better I am sure, but Man does Tage hate it when I stop and take out my camera. It is really hard to be creative with groaning kid in the stroller, but I am working on the problem. Any day now either he will realize that groaning is stupid Or I will come to a state were I just do not care. (No, I do not believe any of those things will happen). 

Intellectual challenge

I feel that I need to exercise my brain before it deteriorates. Can't some one throw a 'not to hard but still challenging' problem my way? Math/Physics/Programming/Logical or something else completely. Come on. Put me to the test (or more importantly, excercise my brain!)

2.885

For more than ten months now I have had only one object in front of my camera, and have had so about 2.885 times. Even if the subject is well worth it I kind of miss the good old days when other things caught my eye. With this in my mind I took my camera, jumped on a bus to a place I had not been before (and then dragged on the stroller with Tage in it). I explored and let my eye wander. And I managed to snap more than 20 shots in a row that did not feature any small human beings at all. I even managed to photograph a bird or two, this was however hard since the little guy gets bored quite easily...

By the way, blogging with the little man in the same room is quite a feat. This post took most of the day to compose, and the prose might have suffered a bit in the process.

Quiz answer #10, and the Proud winner is

Fist of all, here are the answers:
-Who of Marge's sisters has triangular shaped earrings? (1p)
-Selma goes for round earrings mostly, and Patty has triangles.

-Sideshow Bob has a brother. What is his name? (1p)
-Cecil Terwilliger.

-What magazine did Milhouse order when he and Bart took care of the comic book store? (1p)
-He orders a thousand copies of 'Biclops' in the Worst eposide ever, as it is called.

-What crop did the family grow at the farm? (1p)
-It was Tomacco, a tomato/tobacco hybrid that tasted awful but was highly addictive.

-And last but not least: In the movie, Marge makes several variations of 'home sweet home' embroideries. You get 0.5 points for each version you can tell me.
-I have not yet watched the movie so I am not one hundred per cent certain of this, but I know that she makes at least a  'Dome sweet Dome' and a 'Nome sweet Nome' version.


And the winner is.... cmh, who came on the outside in the last curve and overtook m with half a point on the finish line - wheeeee!!!!  And there were much rejoicement. The price was a book was it not? Name your poison and I will see to it that it is sent to a mailbox close to you. If you can not decide I will send you one of my favourites.

That's all for now folks. Maybe there will be a new quiz one day. Thank you for playing, hope you enjoyed it!

A little note on design

One of my big interests in life is design. (I might have written something quite similar to this before, but my memory is poor and I really dig the subject so here goes...). Good design makes me happy and poor design can really make me loose all confidence in the species called Homo sapiens sapiens. Most of the stuff you encounter fall in the huge grey area in-between, they do their job but not with splendour. And I have a hard time figuring out why, it should not be so hard to put in just a little bit more thought and testing before finalizing a product. Some of the things that has occupied my brain recently are:

Plastic CD casings. Who the hell designed the first prototype? The hinges are so fragile that they break if you just breath on them. The plastic nubs in the middle that are supposed to keep the CD secure, they break for no reason at all and then the disk just flaps around in the casing. That problem is multiplied by a thousand if you consider the 2-disk models.  (These are just a couple of my hang-ups). So, who the hell designed the first model? And who the hell thought 'Yes! This is it. This is what the casings should be like for our new music media. They look sturdy and resilient. Or maybe not, but it is not like a lot of drunken people will throw them all over the room at parties'. And How the hell can the design have survived for so long (the design that is, the casings do not survive for very long). I do not get it.

The way that the power cord is connected to a MacBook. A magnet holds the cord in place, so if you stumble upon it it just comes loose instead of sending the computer crashing to the floor.  It is simply beautiful.

The TV image format. I want to see my tv in a format that keeps a square looking like a square. That should be the default setting. If that means that I get black stripes at the sides or over  and under the image, so be it. I absolutely do not want the image to be stretched a little at the sides (and not stretched in the middle) so that the entire screen is filled, it makes me nauseous. (There might be TV's out there that handle this in a good way, but our set does not).

Speaking of TV's, just a word on digital boxes. I want to be able to quickly zapp between channels. Maybe it is stupid, but that is what I like. The boxes that I have so-far encountered takes more than a second to switch between channels. Why the fuck would a digital apparatus made in the year 2010 need that huge amount of time to do something so trivial?

DVD casings. Now as durability goes they are vastly superior to their CD counterparts, but why are they so huge? They must be at least fifty times as large as the disk that they contain. (Compare them to the cardboard boxes that video cassettes comes in).

Various household appliances. How hard can it be to make the controls for microwave-ovens/washers/ovens simple and intuitive to use? Bloody fucking hard it seems.

By the way, why in hell does the stove 'on' light light up when you turn the stove on even if the child-safety switch is on and hence the stove is not on? Why? Why oh why?

Sometimes I really regret that I did not consider studying industrial design when I went to college. I think I would have been good at it. I think I would have enjoyed it. Or maybe I would just have been stressed by the deadlines and money restraints and pushed out poor design that people would loath and that I would have hated myself for. Who knows?

Minne

Sitter på golvet och äter kex med leverpastej. Får mig att minnas tillbaks på lumpen när man åt kex och leverpastej mest hela tiden...

Quiz

A week has passed and I have received far fewer answers on the last question than I expected. And no-one has bothered watching the Simpson movie to get even one of the 'home sweet home' variations (I remember two, but I think that there are more). So, now I am torn between:
1, wait over the Easter weekend and see if anyone else bothers to send in their answers, or
2, saying that the game is over and write out the answers.

Since I don't know all the answers I should perhaps wait over the weekend and then decide if the answers I get are valid or not. Yes. That is a good idea. So: send in your answers and maybe you will get some points when I return from the trip down to Småland.

What happened? (and quiz #10)

I have no idea what happened to me, but suddenly I stopped writing. It is a bit odd since stuff has happened that I usually would write about. Soups for one thing (Just finished a prawn bisque that was rather good if I may say so myself, and that is just one of the three that I have not told you about). Another thing is the move. We packed all our stuff in boxes (and some paper bags), transported them out the door into a car, drove the car 160m, then out of the car they came and up the elevator to the third floor (for which you have to press the button marked 4) and into our new huge (by our standards) three room (almost four since the hallway serves as a room too) apartment. Yet another thing that has happened is that I am now home full time with Tage, and that is really something to write about. And I will. But now I realize why I stopped. It was the last question in the quiz. I just could not come up with a good question. I felt that, as it was supposed to be about Simpsons, and that I am supposed to be a Simpsons nerd, the question had to be really really good. But fuck it, I will just ask about a couple of random facts and get it over with and then finally I might be able to get on with the blogging. So here goes. The last set of questions:

Who of Marge's sisters has triangular shaped earrings? (1p)
Sideshow Bob has a brother. What is his name? (1p)
What magazine did Milhouse order when he and Bart took care of the comic book store? (1p)
What crop did the family grow at the farm? (1p)
And last but not least: In the movie, Marge makes several variations of 'home sweet home' embroideries. You get 0.5 points for each version you can tell me.

(I will give you a week to answer since most of you probably has stopped looking in several times a day to see if I have written something new since I have not written something new in a long long time)

Soup #36, #37 & #38

I am lacking the energy for normal posts and the last quiz question (it will come soon, I promise), but I do feel that I must relate the last couple of soups that has been on the menu.

#36 was an ok dish, but it was more of a starter than a complete meal. Cucumber, mint and green peas. Basically it is what it sounds like, soup based on cucumber, green peas and mint. It also contained a couple of tatoes, butter, chicken broth and a good splash of rich cream. A comment we wrote was that it would have been better to use less water and more cream than the recipe prescribed.

#37 I did on my own when K had left me to see an Opera in the city of our dreams. Cheese soup with bacon and potatoes. It sounds quite good and I really had great hopes for it, but it did not live up the expectations. Bacon (too little), onion, broth and potatoes were cooked in a pot and then thickened by some flour. Then some Emmenthaler, sherry and Worcestershire sauce were added. Maybe it would have been better if I had served it in a hot bowl as it said in the book.

#38 This one we did last night, and I just had the rest for lunch. Prawn and lemon-grass soup. As you might think it is an asian soup, and as such it is a bit hard to make since I am not so sure on how it should taste and how the ingredients should be treated. A good thing was the raw prawns, they turned out great since they were only cooked once (they did not become chewy at all), the bad things were the amount of lime, three of them might have been two to many, and then the lemon-grass. Now I do not know if it is supposed to be like that but since they are so 'woody' they are not all that pleasant to get in your mouth and since you should cut them in 2.5 cm long pieces according to the book, they are not that easy to pick out of the soup either.. A strange thing was the straw mushrooms. A canned mushroom that were, hmm, strange you might say. And then we have the coriander, but that is a story of its own.

Due to

Due to enemy shelling (i.e. heavy snowfall and hence tiresome days at the office) black out conditions are observed on the blog. (Modified mash quote by which I mean that I just don't have any energy to ponder up difficult simpsons questions right now. But do not worry, they will come!)

Soup #35

It is back! Once again it is back, your favourite segment on this blog - The soups. (For those of you that can't remember what it was all about: I make all the soups in a book with 85 different soups in it and write about the experience here on the blog. I went into the project with gusto but have kind of slowed down a bit lately (only two new soups were made last year). I do however mean to finish the project.)

Wonton soup was on the menu today. A mixture of fish, crab, ginger, garlic and spring onions were put on a square of wonton dough which then was folded and glued together with a little water. The dumplings were then cooked in a chicken broth together with shallots, ginger and a little sugar. The soup was finished of with rise vinegar, soy, spring onions, parsley and sesame oil.

I must say that it was great. It took some time to make the dumplings, but considering that it was the first time it was not too bad. It was rather easy to make and the result was a well balanced soup with lots of great dumplings.

Quiz answer #9

Of course it was M*A*S*H I was asking about, and first of all: Radar had an uncle that could make binoculars out of corn on the cob/salt and pepper shakers/or just about anything, whose name was Ed. Radar left the show with a hardship discharge so that he could go home and help his mother with the farm when Ed suddenly passed away. 

Major Houlihan got the nickname hotlips after hawkeye and the other guys snuck a microphone into her tent when she was making out with a general (I think it was a general), and then proceeded to broadcast the interchange over the PA system. The general commented on her hot lips and the name stuck.

Charles Emerson Winchester III. The major who got stuck in the 'festering sewer' ('Know this: You can cut me off from the civilized world, you can incarcerate me with two moronic inmates, you can torture me with your thrice daily swill, But you can not break the spirit of a Winchester. My voice shall be heard from this wilderness and I shall be delivered from this fetid and festering sewer') after a gaming debt of 672$ and 17c that his boss at Tokyo general owed him.

The booze that Klinger managed to scrounge up for Charles was a bottle of Napoleon Cognac. Which he refuses to share with Klinger with the comment 'when the delivery boy brings you a new divan you do not invite him to repose upon it'. (I will give one point for Cognac).

Someone recently told me that I have watched far to much of that series, but I hardly think so.

Soon the last question is upon us, and I do believe it will be from a couple of different movies... (Or maybe it will be Simpsons. Yes, I really feel that it needs to be from Simpsons.)

Quiz #9

Radar has an oncle, what is his name? (1p)
What is Houlihans nickname? (1p)
What is Charles full name? (1p)
Klinger managed to scrounge up a bottle of booze for Charles. What kind? (2p)

Quiz answer #8

First rule: 'You don't talk about fightclub'
Second rule: 'You don't talk about fightclub'

A friend supplied to you by the airline company for the duration of the flight: A Single-serving friend.

And finally Bob. The huge guy with the huge bitch tits but without testicles. He was portrayed, quite well I might add, by none other than Meatloaf himself. 

Quiz #8

You all probably know the first rule of fightclub, but what is the second rule? (1p)
What does the guy that Edward Norton plays call persons he sits next to when flying? (1p)
Who plays Bob? (1p)

Quiz answer #7

It turns out that the question was not all that easy after all. Well, what do you know...

Kramers christian name is of course Cosmo!
The ones doing the nasty in Jerrys van (he had it in one episode), were Georges parents!
And finally, George got the job at the Jankies by following his new found religion: doing the opposite of what I would usually do.

cmh probably spent the last few days watching the entire series as he scored three points. Next: One of my favorite movies. 

Fuck

A week ago we were very happy to cancel the combort internet as we are moving. Now that we know where we are moving to, we are very sad to realize that it seems that combort is the one and only internet provider that we can get. Fuckelifuck.

On top of that some fucked up neighbor had stolen our wash time. Being mad from the previous realization I looked them up and rang, knocked and huffed and puffed on their door until... nothing happened.
The culprit did come down to the cellar a minute later when I was trying to jimmy the lock open and he was sooo sorry. Yea. Right. Luckily for him the machines were finished so he did not have to abort the program and end up with half washed damp clothes.

Great idea

K got a fantastic idea this morning. And I do realize that it would take a lot of research to get it to work but I also know that all the money spent would be paid back hundred-fold the day the finished product hits the market. So here it is, we give it away for free for anyone to develop (all we want is one of the finished products): A snooze button on kids!!!

Quiz #7

It is hard to think up questions that are just hard enough... So I think this one is a bit easier:

What is Kramers first name? (1p)
Who ended up having sex in Jerrys van? (1p)
What was the 'religion' that got George the job at the Jankies? (1p)


Monday at eight fifteen I want your answers, and yes, You may watch the entire series to get the answers, but No, you may not google them!

Quiz answer #6

I think the cure for his wrecked nerves was something like 'take of your shoes and make fists with your toes on the rug'. But I will accept 'curl your toes' as some of you wrote.
The president was Chester A Arthur. It was an intricate part of the third movie as it led Mclain to the school with the big bomb made out of jam?/syrup?.
And there are a couple of different ways to solve the puzzle. e.g.
1: fill the 3g jug
2: pour the 3g into the 5g jug
3: fill the 3g jug again
4: fill up the 5g jug with the water in the 3g jug until it is full (now there is 1g left in the 3g jug)
5: empty the 5g jug
6: pour the 1g into the 5g jug
7: fill the 3g jug and pour that into the 5g jug (which now should contain 4g)

No-one got all the answers (the president was the hard one).
New question tomorrow.

Quiz

To get even more players in the fantastically fun and exciting quiz, I am now instituting a consolidation price for the person who gets the most points on the five last questions!!!

So: New players (and old participants who are about to loose interest due to their lack of points), friends, family, new presidents and old presidents, present colleagues and those of yore - Don't be afraid, join in!!!

I'm extending the time on the last question another day so that as many of you as possible can answer, so come on, there is nothing to loose!

Tile stickers

Just got another great idea! Do you know of the stickers that you can put on tiles? A cheap and quick way to change the appearance of a boring white kitchen. Wouldn't it be a great idea to make such stickers but with a couple of standard recipes (like pancakes, meatballs, tomato sauce) so that you didn't have to look it up in a book? Wouldn't i't be perfect for a student kitchen? Can't you imagine going in to Designtorget and finding this product? Are you sure that you don't know any entrepreneurs that could turn my fantastic ideas into money (and give some of it to me)?

Quiz #6

What is the advice Mclain gets on how to calm down after flying? (1p)
Who was the 21'st presient of the united states of america? (2p)
And how could you use a 5 gallon jug and a 3 gallon jug to get exactly 4 gallons of water? (1p)

Yes, you guessed right, it is Die Hard trivia today. Two days from now, and of course no googling.

Quiz answer #5

Ok, so I couldn't the answer to this one, but I thought that I would watch the movie to get it. But then I could not find it on my computer, nor among the cd's. So I were quite convinced that I could find it in the storage room in the cellar, on vhs. Said and done, I went down there moved around all the boxes searching for the video player and tapes. Upon finding them I proceeded to carry it all up-stairs, then I spent twenty minutes searching for a power cord and a scart cable, found one but not the other.. Then I started to look through the tapes to locate the film. But of course could not find it. Hence I had to google for the scrpt (sorry, now tage wants to take an active role in the typing, so there mi''ght be more errors than usual... )

All this said, this is what Brian wrote:
"Romanes Eunt Domus" - 'People called Romanes they go the house'
while the correct grammar would be
"Romani Ite Domum" - 'Romans go home'

Many creds to mjn who almost nailed it (had 'Romani' instead of 'Romanes' in the first line) and gets two points. m were close enough for the bad grammar version and gets one point.