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.