Industrial design

One thing that can really get me cooking is industrial design.
Today it is the plastic little flipp on the cat-5 cable connector that after some time, at least when it is connected to a laptop that is carried around the flat, breaks off. It really grinds my gears. I have not counted, but I believe that I currently have at least five cables that are broken. The cable is probably designed to be stationary, you plug it in to a router and a computer and then you leave it, and then there would be no problem. But I can not be the only one that use a cable connected to a laptop right? It baffles me that the connector has not evolved into something sturdier. (One reason might be that most people use a wireless connection and hence circumvent the problem entirely, but I don't since I got in a fight with my isp regarding a wireless modem that they promised me over the phone but then cheated me of).

Feelings of guilt

Am I alone in feeling guilty walking past my regular pizza place carrying ingredients for home made pizza?

(The pizza was good, the listeria bacon that I used as an ingredient on said pizza kind of ruined it though)

Who are you?

Especially you who come from: http://www.dongo.org/the_netherlands-germany/list_4_en/a_dutch_street_and_a_german_street_in_category_transport.html
And why do you come from there to this little corner of the world?

Quote of the day

During lunch today Tage says:
'Hur säger man på engelska pappa? Tack för maten?'
('How do you say it in english dad? Thank you for the food?')

I was stunned.

I am certain that there is a Nobel price in my future

The nurse at my doctors office told me, when I asked for some advice about my broken back, that I should eat the maximum amount of non-prescription pain pills. That I should combine paracetamol and ibuprofen (i.e. Alvedon and Ipren) to get a maximum effect. So, it came to me, the Nobel price winning idea: Making a pill that contains both substances! Alvepren! The maximum effect in One small pill! I can assure you that it would be a big seller.
I am giving the idea away to the pharmaceutical companies, but I do want the price money and a seat at the kings table!

Stupid criminals Or maybe it is me

We took a hike through the woods today and picked some shrooms. We used our new double stroller to get to the woods and then Tage walked on his own and I carried Knut in a BabyBjörn. To stop the thieves at least a little I locked the wheel with an old lock and then left the stroller next to a well travelled path. When we got back we noticed that someone had rummaged through the contents in the stroller, probably searching for anything of value, but luckily he/she struck out. When we walked home I could not make up my mind if I thought less of the thief for going through our things or for the fact that he/she was so bad at the job that they couldn't even pick the crappy lock and steal the entire thing (which is worth muchos dineros).

And now I am blogging about it, which reminds me of the time when someone broke in and stole some petty cash from the Hilbert (the break room for the physics students in Gothenburg) store room. We laughed about that the next day, about the fact that the serious money was located just under the tray with the petty cash, and the stupid criminal had missed it. Of course the room was burgled again the next night and all the money was gone. So, if we should learn anything from that story it means that we can not take our expensive stroller out to the forest again, cause the criminal will read this and realize his/her mistake and take the entire thing the next time. 

Bad parenting #2

Is there someone else than me who has thought of teaching your kid something that is entirely wrong, just for the fun of it. Something fundamental, like: dark is light and light is dark, or up is down (both of which Tage, on his own behalf, insisted on for some time). It would take a real effort to build up the conspiracy needed for the misconception to really take hold, but what a pay-off right?!?

But no, instead we try to force our son into the suit that everyone should wear, in which the room becomes dark if you turn off the light, you travel up with the elevator when in fact the elevator is gaining altitude, girls are girls and boys are boys and so on and so on. But I often contemplate saying that Yes, of course that (red) crayon is blue, just to see where it would take him.

Black quote

"The black train must come and get me", 
my two year old says. Kind of ominous don't you think?

Bad parenting

When you get upset when your kid tips over the water glass during dinner cause he was dipping his finger in it. And the reason for dipping his finger in the glass was that he wanted to do as his father did (I was dipping my finger in coffee and then in the water glass trying to form a nice 'smoke' ring in the water). Good job sending mixed messages dad (i.e. me)!

You deserve better

Or at least something new. I have been totally lazy these last months. Or No, not lazy per se, more tired and unable to put anything interesting down on paper, or the paper substitute that this is. It is not that I do not have the time, I have just now been laying on my bed with a sleeping infant in the same room for the last couple of hours, doing nothing really.

I have been thinking about blogging, even started a few entries, but they all landed on the cutting room floor. As I am sure that this will.

I admire people who can formulate long imaginative texts every day, or once a week for that matter. But also those who can post nice photos as often. I have thought of doing that, posting a photo a day or something, just to get creative and do something, but My stupid brain stops me every time I try. Or rather, it is my lack of skill compared to my (maybe too) high standards that stops me (which is very stupid I know, cause come on, it is not like this is important or anything. It is not a job, I do not get paid to do this, and you do not get paid to read it (if you are not doing it at work, which some of you probably are) and no one is going to 'discover' me through this blog. No one is going to stumble in here and find my writing/photography so great that they will pay me to do it (right?)).
Anyway, that is the way that I think, I do not want to post a pic that I am not a 100 per cent satisfied with, and if I sift through my rather large collection of photos the number of 'great' ones is depressingly low. I have tried to ignore my brain and just share anyway, but have not jet succeeded. (The fact that I have all my photos on a computer without internet connection, with makes it a bit of a bother to upload stuff, sure ain´t helpin either).

I have had a much lower threshold for my texts before (they are a real mix between low points and a couple of read-worthy ones) but after a break I get some kind of a stage fright and think that everything I write must be well written, thought through, funny, note worthy, interesting and funny. But fu"k that, here goes nothing, Lets push publish and see what happens!

Epiphany

We took a weekend trip to our capital to cash in one of our wedding gifts - a visit to Fotografiska including dinner, a sleepover and great company.

After a lunch at the herring wagon at Slussen we went down to the docks to wait for our friends. Sitting there we noticed a boat that acted a bit odd. It just bobbed about doing nothing special and I got confused. Our view was blocked by a couple of boats, one of which is acting as a hostel I believe, just to set the scene for you. (I could have shared a photo of our actual view, including the oddly behaving boat, but for some reason I only had my old analog Minolta with me and I have not yet developed the film).  Then a second and third boat came about and did more or less the same. 'Odd' I thought.

After a while a whole bunch of different boats came from under the bridge and headed out towards the ocean. 'That was also odd' my mind said and tried to come up with a reason why so many boats would come at the same time, maybe they were involved in a race (but that really did not add up, usually boat races are more homogeneous - these boats were very dissimilar).

After a little while, the oddly behaving boats started to move in the opposite direction (as opposed to the strange boat race) and this is the moment where I had an epiphany. Is it possible that there actually is a lock (=sluss) at Slussen??? Oh yes. Sometimes I am so darn clever (or if we turn it around - most of the time I am so darn dense).

Deprimerande

Jag är lika gammal som Ove Sundberg. Snacka om deprimerande.

(censored) her!

Just as I was entering a building the other day I happened to overhear a mother talking to her four year old. He said something on the line of 'Hey, there is the mail man, do you think we will get some mail?´ Her retort was a snide remark that I was obviously meant to hear that basically said that 'We will probably not get something cause those guys are so useless that they deliver the mail wrong almost all the time'.

I stopped in my tracks and almost confronted her. And I should have, I should just have turned to her and asked, 'Sorry, I could not help overhearing, is there something that I do wrong? Have I delivered your mail to the wrong door by misstake?' in a pleasant tone of voice and with a nice smile. Instead I continued through the door, got in the elevator and started fuming over her remark and the fact that I was to chicken to confront her.

Now all I can say is (censored) that (censored). (censored) her. I take my job bloody serious and I am meticulous about getting the right letters delivered to the right recipient. Errors can of course occur, especially if I think, e.g., that Johnsson, M, lives with Johnsson, K while they actually lives with Johnsson, B. (A little note on the door might fix that problem by the way. We mail men are capable of reading, telepathy though, is seldom our strongest ability.)

If she had just told me that, 'sorry, my mail often gets mixed up with Johnsson's on the second floor, could you please be more careful', I would have cared, I would even have felt really bad for the mistake, Maybe I would have lost sleep over it even, but now - (censored) her and her bloody problems.

Headlines

I got a letter for a company called 'wang somethingsomething' the other day, and since the address was not correct I searched for the recipient trying to find out what to do with the letter. Googeling 'wang eskilstuna', I found this:

The perfect name for that particular profession.
At the time I found it hilarious.

Chef

T's first original recipe. Pancakes with muesli (and jam). I predict a great career as a chef at a Michelin star restaurant in the near future.


(Darn this was hard. I have forgotten how to spell and how to express myself in English. Perhaps it is due to my long absence from this here place, or maybe it is the sleep that eludes me that makes it so difficult. Ill try to come back soon at a more reasonable hour and see if it will be a little easier.)

No bloging long time

It has been a lot the past month.
I stopped being a 'dad at home' and started working again.
The work has been hard, especially due to the cold weather and icy roads.
I have also worked a day at the daycare Tage attends, and that was no picnic, let me assure you.
I have trained a lot, or rather, I have been a trainer a lot.
My beard has grown big and needs more and more care.
There has been a lot of preparation towards last weekend,
during which I got married.
To sum it all up, I have been tired and have had no energy to compose any of these funny/interesting/informative/well thought through blog entries that you have come to love and crave. I am sorry and hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, even if I do not promise that I will be better in the future.

What a day!!

Today was the first day that I left Tage alone at the daycare. It was only for half an hour, and it went all right. I mean, it wasn't fun to walk out the door and leave my kid crying in the arms of someone else, but he calmed down after a while they told me. But that was not what brought on the title of this post, it was something that happened during this 'free' time that I got.
 
I walked around without a real goal, just staying away and trying to not obsess too much over the fact that my kid was crying. I happened to walk by a grocery store and thought 'maybe I should just pop in and get me a chocolate bar, I deserve that don't I?' even though I am trying to loose those damned extra Christmas pounds that currently flapp around my waist. So I walked in to the store, but when I saw the fruit I actually changed my mind, I was going to have some bananas instead. But they did not have any ecological ones, and since bananas are one of the things that we only by if they are eco, I changed my mind back towards chocolate again ( I do admit that the logic here is not very sound, especially since sweets are not one of those things). Anyway: On my way back from this little detour in the healthy section towards my original goal It happened.

I walked by a cart with some wares that were marked down due to that they were going out of sale. 'Hmm, a bottle of fish sauce. That I do not need.' I thought distractedly at the same time that I, for the hundredth time the last fifteen minutes, checked that I had reception on my phone and that there were no missed calls from the daycare personnel. Just as I was about to walk on something in the back of my mind told me to look down once again, there was something in that cart, something very important.

And my mind has never been more right.

It was a product that I learned to love a couple of years ago. A product that inexplicably vanished from the stores maybe last autumn. A product that I wrote an unanswered mail to the manufacturer requiring about. A product that I have searched for all over the country. A product that I put a Wanted ad for, right here on this very blog. A product that I had lost all hopes of ever owning again. 

There they were, what might possibly be that last two jars of Chipotle paste in the country, in a sales cart, going for 10 SEK each. If they only knew what I gladly would have paid for them they would cry themselves to sleep for a week. You better believe that I bought candy to celebrate!

AAAAAHhhh MVF

Alltså, va faan.
Kanske är jag löjlig. Kanske så ska jag sköta mig själv och skita i andra. Kanske tycker folk att jag är dum. Kanske så kan folk som inte bryr sig om att sopsortera flytta till en annan planet och sluta att förstöra den som jag och min blivande fru tänker bli gamla på, den planet som mina barn ska växa upp på, den planet som alla idioter håller på att köra i botten. Hur jävla svårt är det att slänga den gigantiska kartongen som den nya platt-tv'n kom i i lådan som det står 'förpackningar av papper' på istället för lådan som det står 'övriga sopor' på? Hur stor uppoffring är det att ägna en minut då och då till att sortera lite jävla sopor? Om man inte orkar bära kassen med tomflaskor till affären för att panta dom kan man väl iallafall slänga den i plast/glas återvinningen eller? Är det föresten bara jag som är snål eller är det någon mer som känner att om man har betalt pant för att få låna en flaska av butiken så vill jag ta mig tusan ha tillbaks dom pengarna? Jag vet mycket väl att sopsortering bara är en liten droppe i havet, en mjölkkartong som återvinns istället för att slängas i soporna kommer inte att rädda världen, men det är en väldigt enkel åtgärd för att dra ett litet strå till stacken. En sista fråga: Är det ok att plocka upp ica-kassen som är full av pantflaskor och burkar ur soporna och ta med dom till affären eller blir man då direkt klassad som en sunkig uteliggartyp? (Jag tycker själv att man borde bli klassad som miljöhjälte, men jag får mer känslan av det tidigare när jag står där och tittar ner i sopkärlet och hatet mot mina slöa jävla grannar får det att koka i mig. Jag lät flaskorna vara kvar, jag klarade inte av att möta någon granne i trappen med en påse jag plockat upp ur soporna, men jag flyttade svärande över tv-kartongen till rätt kärl).

MVF

Men Va Faan

Har spenderat lite tid med kära eniro.se för att lokalisera lite folk, och det är helt otroligt att dom har lyckats förstöra den siten så grundligt som dom har. Man blir så in i helvete frustrerad.
Till och med reklamen för deras sökmotor är ju helt uppfuckad, dom söker efter något i typ Lund och får upp svar i hela Sverige. Man kan väl i alla fall anta att om man vill ha en, låt oss säga restaurang, i Lund, så vill man att den faktiskt ska ligga i Lund och inte någon annanstans. Orten är man väl oftast rätt så säker på.
Om man går in på fliken 'personer' och söker men inte får någon träff så hamnar man helt plötsligt på fliken 'kartor' eller 'företag', men det var ju en person som man sökte, det är ju ändå en sak som man var rätt så säker på. Om man sen vill ändra sin sökning så måste man själv byta flik, och då är sökningen som man just gjorde borta, så då måste man skriva in allt igen.
Sen så kan man ju tycka att om man har fixat en adressändring via adressandring.se så vore det ju käckt om telefonkatalogen som folk faktiskt använder, dvs just eniro.se, faktiskt uppdaterar sitt register.

Jag kan inte minnas att det var så kasst förut, så jag undrar hur dom har lyckats göra så många saker så mycket sämre?