Re-activating blog

I've been thinking for a while that I should start blogging again. I had a period when there was a lot going on - private life, work and everything, but nothing was of the kind I would like to share on the blog. So instead I skipped writing in the blog for a while. And as you all know - once you stop doing something for a while, it's hard getting started again.

So, anyway. Since March 31st loads of things has happened. Short version is I now work and live in Stockholm. Yey!

Slightly longer version is that I am now working in Stockholm with establishing our Stockholm office. I will also work as a consultant with regular assignments at the same time as doing this, but during summer it has been mostly startup work. I also live in Stockholm now - in a small, tiny apartment close to Stadsbiblioteket and Handels. The apartment is really tiny without a real kitchen (but with fridge, micro and toaster - everything i need) and since i got my stuff there this weekend it actually feels like home!

This will have to be enough for now - but more will hopefully follow now that I picked up blogging again. ;)

Social Web

Just received the latest Google Friends newsletter and as always it's interesting to read what's happening at the most influentuous Internet company. This is one of their articles and I agree strongly with their thoughts about the social web. Will be interesting to see what this new cooperation could lead to.

From Google Friends newsletter:
"The web is better when it's social." This idea has taken root all across the web of late -- the more you can share, update, comment, and contribute in all sorts of creative ways to the steady stream of news, views, and entertainment, the more dynamic and compelling the Internet becomes. For developers, the web is more interesting when they can build applications that easily interact with everyone. But the challenge for those creating software widgets, gadgets and "containers" for content has been to pick the right tools and, until recently, bet on the right platform for building their creations. This is one reason we've banded together with Yahoo! and MySpace: to encourage open software development for as many of the communities and sites as possible. Collectively, we plan to create a private non-profit foundation that can support open development of common toolsets. We think this openness helps everyone.
http://www.opensocial.org

Vem klarar egentligen av att vara avkopplad när man blir nerkopplad från sin uppkoppling?

EQ

As most of you already know I am very fond of doing IQ-tests, quizzes and puzzles of different sorts. I am a member of Mensa just because I felt like taking the test and then two years later ended up deciding I could join the society as well since I did pass the test. There are many great things about Mensa that I like - for example we had a meeting/seminar/get-together the other day regarding being a consultant, starting your own business, etc. Very interesting, especially to meet some of the member that have just been names so far. Another thing I like about Mensa is their mailing lists - especially the one where anything goes. On this mail any kind of subject could be discussed for a long time. It is very interesting to read some of those discussions when you have the time for it.

One of the current discussions is about IQ vs. EQ. EQ is for those of you that haven't heard about it Emotional Quote - something rather like IQ, but instead of measuring logical-analytical skills it measures social skills. I haven't read that much about EQ before and I did not know there were any tests for it. However there seems to be a few tests out there and they had some interesting results that seem to be at least to some point valid. People that have been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome got low scores, most people got around 100 points and some got quite high scores - 120 and above would be high I guess.

Seeing as I see myself and is seen by others as a very social and outgoing person I wanted to the tests myself. And so I did. And perhaps there is a reason that friends have said things like "You could melt into any group of people and just talk to them in a natural way", "You are a social chameleont", "You are a social freak" or "You are mano-social!".

The tests I did you can find on the following two links. They are kinda lengthy with 70 questions in the first and 106 questions in the second, but it doesn't take more than 30 minutes or so each to finish them. The first one was interesting, but I always felt that "this will be the answer that gives you the highest EQ" and then I tried to pick the one that felt most true to me. The second one was harder and more interesting - often I didn't have a clue what would be "the correct answers", but just answered them as truthfully as I could. The second test had pictures where you were going to determine the feelings of the participants in the picture, or scenarios where you'd pick the feelings most likely felt by those in the scenarios. As I said - second one was harder to guess what would be seen as the "best"answers - so you ended up picking the answers you felt were right from your point of view instead which I guess is very good for those kinds of tests.

http://www.psychtests.com/tests/iq/emotional_iq_r2_access.html
www.queendom.com/tests/take_test.php?idRegTest=1121

My test scores?
On the first test I got 126 points - which is well above average, probably within something like the highest 2% of the population.
On the second test I got 146 points - which is extremely high and would place me higher than 99.91% of the population.

Mano-social was it? :)

Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest

An image says more than a thousand words, so here's approximately 150.000 words about Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.

Bratislava

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you suddenly find yourself in a foreign city on a street with no money and no idea where you are? This is what I experienced on Thursday morning in Vienna at 5:30 in the morning. After walking around in Vienna for a while and starting to find my directions and an ATM things started looking better. I still had no idea of what to do, but decided to go to Bratislava to get out of Vienna. From Bratislava I could go home by RyanAir or just go to some other place later on.

I started the day in Vienna by meeting an Australian girl lost in Vienna. She had a plane connection in Vienna and had a couple of hours to kill in central Vienna. We must have been the only two people awake in Vienna - the streets were just empty of people and nothing was open (at like 6:45 in the morning). So we just walked around, did some sightseeing and talked (it was mostly she that did the talking though - I don't think I ever met a person talking that much).

When she returned to the airport I decided to go to an Internet cafe to decide what to do. From there I figured out that trains to Bratislava left from Sudbahnhof and that they left every 15 minutes or so. So I took the subway to Sudbahnhof, bought a ticket for Bratislava, got some lunch and then jumped on the train.

On the train I met two americans - Lindsey and Andre - and I've been with them since. We've done some sightseeing in Bratislava and seen the old town, the Devin castle and so on. Very nice. Bratislava is beautiful, but a little bit run down. And the weather was really bad the first two days which gave it all a depressing tone. The nights have been better - the 1. Slovak Pub quickly became our second home where we could get all the slovak food we wanted (Bryndza cheese is really good and apart from that it's mostly meet and other hearty meals. Very good!) and cheap beer. We also went out partying, so now I've seen the slow nightlife of Bratislava as well. But it was good fun though - we were just being silly on the dance floor more or less! :)

Also met a guy from London, so now me, Andre and Neel (the Londoner) are planning on going to Budapest by train. Should take 3 hours, so we should be leaving soon.

Will write more and upload photos when I have the chance!

Photos

Pictures from my apartment - cleaned and no people:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/DiverseHembilder

Picturs from my apartment - birthday party:
http://picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson/FDelsedagsfestLinkPing

Instant wisdom

You know how you every time you have a birthday get the question "Well, what does it feel like - being one year older?" and you never have a good answer for that, because really you are just one day older than yesterday or even just a few seconds older than you were the other moment? Well, obviously I got this question when I turned 25 as well, together with the question "What does it feel like to be halfway to 50?". On my birthday I did not know how to answer these question in any other way than "meh".

But as I woke up on the first day of my 25th year - March 15th 2008 - I realized something that should have been so obvious my whole life. It's been there in front of me all the time. I am sure others have noticed, but no one told me and I was to blind or too foolish to see it. The simple truth that I have missed for so long is that my birthday is not just on any random day (approximately 9 months from midsummer of course, but nothing uncommon with that). It's a very special day - it is the pi-day.

March 14th.
14/3.
3-14
3,14

I cannot believe I have missed this for so long, and suddenly it is all so clear to me. So turning 25 turned out to be very special. 25 turned out to be the age when I gained instant wisdom.

:)

Ableness

At the moment I am reading a master thesis in psychology by Jannica Stålnacke (http://www.diva-portal.org/su/abstract.xsql?dbid=7061) regarding ableness or talent in the logical-analytical sense (the Swedish term for ableness would be 'särbegåvning'). I found this thesis through the webpage of Mensa and a lot of the thesis have been written in collaboration with Mensa.

Though I haven't read that much of it yet I find it very interesting. I recognize myself in many of the descriptions about exceptional abilities in the logical-analytical sense - for example the possibilities available but at the same time a feeling of not really belonging. This was obviously more true in the first years of school compared to the life of university and work. The thesis also mentions that unlike talent in sports, art and music, logical-analytical strengths are rarely promoted and developed in school. The Swedish school system is in these subjects based on threshold where the goal is to get everyone across a certain threshold - not to develop each individual to the best of their capacity. The thesis states that in Sweden, these individuals have to find their own ways and strategies to develop and adapt their ability.

I guess this is true for me as well. I have always found school quite easy, but thanks to my parents and later on personal interests like Mensa and other things have helped develop my abilities and my understanding of myself. Thanks mom and dad for this - for challenging me to reach further and to develop my mathematical, logical and analytical skills!

The thesis also mentions social adaptability and high IQ. They've done tests that show that most persons with a high IQ often are well balanced, confident, outgoing and had the ability to get confidence and friendship from persons of the same age. I guess all of those are quite true for me. They also say that "the socially optimal IQ is between 125 and 155" - more than that and you often have a hard time adapting and fitting in to the society. Last time I did a IQ-test (just a short trial version - the trial test on Mensa's homepage) it said "You have an IQ of 135 or more - well within the 2% of the population needed to enter Mensa". I guess that meant that I got all correct answers on the test in 7 out of 8 minutes. Right now I'm looking into tests that test the higher IQ-scores with a better precision - I really like solving tests like these.

Anyway - to anyone interested in understanding a bit more about my thoughts, in the subject in general or with talented children in school-age I really recommend to read the thesis or at least just the first part.

I was not sure whether to post this entry or not. It feels a bit like ... just writing about how good I am or whatever. But I think that at least those of you who know me also understand that this is just yet another of my random thoughts. Any comments - just post them and let me know!

Power of internet

A few days ago I found myself thinking about the power of internet. All the services available open up incredible possibilites that we could only dream of a few years ago. The fact that most of what we today call internet sprung up in the last 10-15 years and that we before that couldn't even imagine the possibilities we take for granted today.

But what is the real power of internet? The real power of internet is of course information. That's really all there is to internet if you start to think about it.

And then I found myself thinking that if information is the real value and power of internet, then the power of internet is not within the internet itself, but within the user. I have been working with computers as my main tool in studies, work and spare time since I was 8-10 years old and for me using the computer is very natural. But this is not true for all people, in fact it is not true for most people. The way I use the computer, the programs on the computer and the services on the internet brings together the power of the internet - or should i say the value of internet since the power is within the user - for me to use at my own will.

But as I said, this is not true for most people. Most people find the computer coming in between them and what they want to do. They now there are so many possibilites with the computer, the programs and the internet - but they just can't seem to get the computer to cooperate. And while some people struggle with their computer or simply giving it up or perhaps even miss out on the best and coolest features of whatever, people that are in control of the computer and the internet can find the information they want and the services they need faster and cheaper.

For me, the computer used to be my hobby. It used to be the goal of learning the computer - to be able to use it, play with it or do whatever. Since I started working with computers on a daily basis, I've started seeing the computer as a tool which lets me do the things I really want to do. By using the computer I solve problems unsolvable in any other way, I pay my bills, send e-mails, plan my trips, by my books, share my pictures and much much more. All these things are done more efficiently, cheaper and faster than I could have done otherwise - which leaves room for living, meeting friends and doing whatever makes me feel good at the moment.

So the value of internet is really information, and the power of internet is really within the user of internet. And knowledge is power. This have always been true, compare with the church of old times or the librarians of more modern times. They have been a power source because they have the knowledge and thus some sort of truth. Today information is so readily available that everyone can get it. But the difference between information and knowledge is not insignificant and we once more see that an experiences user can find much more valuable knowledge on the internet than a layman could in the same time.

So will there be a librarian of the internet? Of course we have Google, Yahoo and other search engines that try to be the librarian. And we have more limited services where you pay for expert users to search for limited knowledge for you - e.g. Google Answers. But the best way would probably be to become your own librarian of internet. Learn to use the internet in an efficient way and loads and loads of time and money can be saved.

Where did I want to go with this post? I honestly don't know. It felt like a really good start, but I think I lost some of my points got lost in the conversion from mind to "paper". Anyhow - enjoy and give me feedback. Might try to write it down later on when I've wrapped my head around my thoughts and what I really wanted to say.

Still alive, but much of what have been happening right now haven't been that interesting to write about. Starting new assignment at new customer tomorrow - yeyness, looking forward to it!

2007

2007.
One year passed.
Lots of things happened in my life.
This is an attempt to collect it all into one small blog entry. We'll see if it works.

Ok. So. The first day of 2007 I woke up in a hotel room in Malaysia. I remember being a bit surprised by the fact that I was in Malaysia since I only got there the day before. Me and Josefine (whom I was travelling with at the moment) had decided to go to Langkawi to celebrate New Years instead of staying in Thailand. The first meal of the day was in a lousy restaurant close to the beach at Langkawi and as it turns out, it was the worst meal of 2007. Perhaps the worst meal I've ever had as well.
Anyway. From Langkawi, Malaysia we continued south through Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur and from there I catched a flight to Cambodia. Cambodia was one of the most beautiful countries I've seen - the culture, the people, the food and the kindness - but at the same time the poorest and hardest countries I've seen as well. Vietnam turned out to be an even bigger shock in many ways, with millions of people crammed into huge cities and a countryside where I got to see the reality of poor farmers and their everyday life - struggling to get by every day. Hanoi and the week-long trip from there through northern Vietnam on local buses is one of the strongest memories from the whole trip, but visiting the marvellous Halong Bay together with what turned out to become close friends was also very nice.
After Vietnam I took a two weeks vacation from travelling more or less - I settled into the Laos slow way of thinking and acting, always with a smile on my lips. And after some crazy tubing in Vang Vieng I was ready to go down to Bangkok and then north up into China.
China also turned out to be more than I'd hoped for. Hong Kong was simply amazing, with hundreds and hundreds of skyscrapers reaching for the stars. The rest of China was very amazing - the difference between beautiful landscapes and huge cities, western and eastern living, locals and expats. The list could be made long. China was really the country of mixed impressions.
If China was the country of mized impressions, Mongolia turned into a single long-lasting strong impression that is still with me every day. By traveling around in a jeep in the Gobi for almost a week together with amazing friends and staying with nomads in their gers (tents) every night I got a chance of seeing a lifestyle and a country in a way I've never seen it before (and may very well never get the chance to see it again).
After returning back to Sweden on a train through Russia, which was a nice ending to four amazing months in Asia, I had some troubles settling into the normal everyday life- and work cycle. However, starting a new job (same employer, new client) was very exciting and it feels very good to have been able to stay there since. I really like the place I'm at right now with great colleagues, interesting and challenging tasks and a chance to become really good at what you do.
I also met Hanna when I got back to Sweden for the first time and that was very nice indeed. After meeting her only a few times I mailed my boss to get some extra tickets to a carneval in town - SOF. My employer had some extra tickets and had told us that if we had a partner that wanted tickets we could get some for ourselves or our partners. So I mailed my boss, saying that there was this girl I wanted tickets for and that "she will be my partner - she just doesn't know it yet". Perhaps a bit overly confident, but it turned out to be correct and that was the start of a wonderful time together!
The summer in Linköping was very nice. Working, playing beach volley in the evenings and visiting Hanna in Falköping on the weekends. Unfortunately she had to work in Falköping, so we didn't get the chance to see each other as much as we'd have liked.
I also had one week of vacation in the end of the summer, where I went to northern Sweden together with my dad. A nice chance to see all the relatives again - it's getting longer and longer between the times now which is really a shame.
The autumn has been full of working and traveling. I've had a couple of short vacations, where I've been to London once and Vienna a couple of times. Hanna have been studying in Vienna since September, so I had a really nice week with Hanna in Vienna trying to get her settled in and at the same time seeing loads of beautiful sights in Vienna.
This autumn I also moved to my new apartment (those of you who missed this - feel free to send me an e-mail for my new address). As nice as sharing an apartment with Åsa have been, it feels really good to have a large apartment of my own. Two rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. Close to downtown, built in 1996, a large balcony and windows in three directions. I like it very much!
And the end of 2007 turned out really nice as well. With a looong Christmas vacation of more than two weeks I had the time to celebrate Christmas in Falköping together with Hanna and her family and then also to go snowboarding in Åre together with Hanna and a bunch of friends.

And on the New Years Eve I found myself standing in Åre, watching a great firework display by our neighbour, surrounded by friends and with Hanna by my side. It was a very nice way of ending the year. Most of the things that happened this year I couldn't have dreamed of doing or that they would happen. I'm just glad I was there to experience it all! Let's hope that 2008 turns into an equally amazing year!

For pictures of all my travelling, my new apartment or everyday pictures of me - check out picasaweb.google.com/anders.ivarsson.

Anything and nothing

Wow. Amazingly long time since I wrote here. This time I'll write what ever comes to mind. I've been thinking about a few blog entries I'd like to write. One of them is a continuation of the previous entry - something along the lines of agile living. This will not be today. Another blog I've been thinking about writing is connected to the book I'm reading right now - Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. I'll probably finish the book before deciding to write about it though - but it is a very interesting book and have many interesting thoughts and concepts that I'd like to talk about. Some day. Not today. I've also been thinking about writing about the previous year. 2007. It was a nice year in many ways and loads of things happened. And I like the notion of summing up the previous year. Perhaps I'll write this today - feels like as good a time as anytime to write it. But it will probably be in a separate entry, this one is just me rambling on about anything and nothing.

Agile Living

Agile. One of the great buzzwords of the software industry today. Lean development. Yet another related paradigm of cutting waste and getting to the core of things. Scrum. A way to run a project when things are getting out of control. Extreme Programming. One of the most known collection of agile practices.

We are currently talking, thinking and studying a lot of agile methods and practices at work. It is all very interesting. And most of it makes sense. Some of it is applicable to the software projects I am currently in. Some of it is not. Some of it is applicable in a broader sense.

In the book Extreme Programming Explained - for some known as the XP bible or the start of agile - I read today that you could always "start at home". By that the author obviously meant that if you cannot change your team or your environment into adopting agile practices, you could always start with yourself. Start using them in your daily work. Start test-first developing, start your own daily deployment, etc.

But this blog is not about software development. I will write about that another day. This blog is about the literal interpretation of "start at home". Is it possible to run your home in an agile way? Is it possible to live your life agile? Would that bring the same effects as running a software project in an agile way? Would it make it easier to adopt to a changing environment, to changing requirements? Would it be easier to find the root-cause of problems, to get to the core of any problem that might arise and handle it in the best possible way and ultimately - to have a more efficient life? And please note: I don't intend "efficient" in a "get more work done" way - I mean it in a "fill your life with more of what is important to you" way.

So. Where do we start. Think agile. Your life. The first thing to remember is that just because you start thinking and acting agile, you cannot cut the big plan. You have to have a vision of where you are going. You have to have a goal. What does that mean for your life? That's up to you to decide. Perhaps start by asking yourself - what are the core values that I value in my life? What parts of my life is it that I like most? What would you like your life to be like - in ten years, in five years or perhaps today? This vision would probably be called the product backlog if you asked a Scrum Master. It would probably be called a set of base lined requirements if you asked someone working in a non-agile way. And it would probably be called a wish-list if you ask a layman.

When you got that mental image of your life, of your goal and vision for the product, aka. yourself, we cut down to some practical things that you can to do achieve that vision in a more efficient way.

Short development cycles. Some methods talk about one month cycles. Or one week cycles. Or one day cycles. The keyword is cycles and we're not talking about one year cycles. So. What does that mean? That means that in order to achieve your ten year plan for where you are going you will not be able to sit down right now, plan the next coming ten years and then just perform according to the plan for ten years. So instead of trying and then make small changes to that plan every now and then - locking us into a mindset where we can only stray so far from the set path, we only plan for the first step and perhaps have a loose plan for the next one as well. When we are done with a step/cycle/period of time we evaluate and plan for the next (but this time it will be the first step again) step.

So? How do we know which step is the right one to take? I guess the correct answer is we never know. If we knew, we could probably make a ten year plan and go with that. What we can do is finding some areas that we would like to work on, prioritize according to our own liking and just go for it. And evaluate in the end. Did this change/action take me in the right direction? Do I feel happier, more satisfied with my life or what ever was the goal we wanted to achieve?

Lean development talks about cutting waste. Cut waste from your life. Anything that does not add to the value of the product is waste. Documentation is waste if it does not help your customers get more value out of the product. Similarly anything you do that does not add to the value of your life is waste. Of course, value of life is a very complex measure. Value of life is most often about balance between work and spare time, between friends and your own time, between doing things you like and things you have to do (because you will regret it later if you don't), etc. But if you can find something that you do that does not create more value of life, then ask yourself why you are doing it.

There are loads of parallels I could draw between agile developing and the way you can think about and live your life. I will probably return to this subject some day because it interests me and I think that this is an interesting approach to talking about life and what is important in your life.

Concrete things to do then? Write down the core values that you have and wish to have more of in your life. Write down a list of possible solutions to problems you find in attaining more of these core values. I did this. I will not share all of this list with you all, but one thing that got on the list was to have order and structure in my life because it makes sooo many things easier and it feels good to know where I have things, what I am about to do the coming week, etc. And the problems? Normal everyday stuff. Boring stuff mostly. But from another view fun things. Fun things once I get them done, because then I can feel good about my self and about the order I get in my life. Thus I have a mental list (some of it on paper) where I can see that, for example, I would like to get my apartment in order (paintings, curtains, flowers and other "do once"-things) and to keep my apartment in order (dishing, washing clothes, cleaning, etc). I also see stuff on my mental list that would allow me to grow as a person, to learn new things and to get new experiences. Thus I take Chinese classes, I go to wine tastings and I start learning more about billiards in a structured way. And so on. A lot more interesting things in my head, but those I will keep to myself.

So. Sorry for my rambling. It probably took you a full 15 minutes at least to get here. I'm impressed if you did. Let me know if any of this made and sense. Let me know if you would like to hear more thoughts on the subject some time. Otherwise I know that I will warn you in the start of the next blog post on this subject so you can stop reading in time. :)

Energi

Jag förstår inte riktigt var all min energi kommer ifrån. Känns som om jag har rätt mycket till det mesta. I normala fall brukar man bli tröttare så här i höstrusket, men jag tycker det rullar på väldigt bra.

Söndag var väl undantaget då - hade en riktig bakisdag. Spenderade hela dagen hos Sanna och Helena och tittade på tv, åt pizza och väntade på att bli lite piggare. När jag kom hem på kvällen och duschade och la mig innan nio kändes allt bättre - till slut.

Men energin var tillbaka redan dagen efter - vaknade strax efter fyra (efter sju timmars sömn kanske - plus en hel slappdag förstås) och kände mig inte trött. Läste en timme, gick upp och jobbade lite hemifrån och sen åkte jag till jobbet. Tror nästan jag lyckades komma med en av de första bussarna som går ut dit - jag var definitivt den första jag såg på Ericsson på ett bra tag när jag kom dit strax innan halv sju. Sen jobbade jag till fem, åkte ner på stan och pluggade kinesiska i två timmar, åkte hem och åt en snabbmiddag och sen spelade vi fotboll i Ryd i en timme. Gick hem och kröp i säng rätt direkt - lååång dag men inte trött på ett obehagligt sätt trots allt.

Idag har det fungerat bra också. Lite seg i morse efter fotbollen - men pigg i skallen som vanligt. Jobbade ganska lagom länge, gick på stan med Jenni och har nu på kvällen plockat och städat och fått i ordning lite med sällskap av Jenni.

Resten av veckan då? Ptja, onsdag-fredag är i alla fall inbokade med kurser (onsdag), biljard med kompisar (torsdag) och examensfest (fredag) och sen tänkte jag ta en lugn helg och sådär. Men någonstans undrar jag var all min energi kommer ifrån ändå - allt är så kul, jag känner mig nyfiken och pigg ännu mer än jag brukar och jag hinner med väldigt mycket med min tid känns det som. Men mer tid vore förstås gött! Aja, jag ska inte beklaga mig antar jag! ;)


Förresten så önskar jag mig ett par mjukisbyxor att mysa i hemma samt att ha när man tränar eller på väg till träningen!

Önskelista cont'd

Bygger på önskelistan lite med följande:

- Ny väckarklocka.
Anledning: Den nuvarande är perfekt förutom att den bara går att snooza två gånger - max tio minuters dra sig på morgonen alltså.
Krav för en ny väckarklocka:
Digital - inga tickljud!
Tydlig display - ska vara möjligt att se vad det står i ett mörkt rum utan linser
Lång snoozetid - åtminstone en halvtimme, gärna mer

- Skjortor
Behöver fler snygga skjorter. Storlekar brukar vara M, vet inte vad det blir i exakta mått. Plus för tight fit.

- Kläder i allmänhet - jeans, t-shirtar, tjocktröjor, etc.

- PlayStation3 - helst med tillhörande HD-platt-TV - med lätthet den dyraste önskningen på listan och inget som jag tror att jag kommer lägga pengar på närmaste tiden.

- Resor eller inspiration till resor

Önskelista

Tänkte på allmän förfrågan (okej, bara mamma, jag erkänner) skriva ner lite av min önskelista inför jul här. Egentligen är den bara en rak kopia av min införskaffningslista, vilket antar att många saker där säkert ligger utanför rim och reson när det gäller prisklass, eller så är det saker som jag borde välja ut själv. Vill man gärna ge mig en sån sak får man självklart gärna ge mig ett bidrag eller ännu hellre en shoppingrunda där saken i fråga införskaffas tillsammans.

Here goes iaf:

- Växter - lättskötta och med lagom stora tillhörande krukor, jag har redan dödat en pga. för liten kruka (och kraftigt beskärande).
- Gardiner
- Handdukar (stora och små, gärna matchande i någon ganska neutral färg - kanske jord/beige eller något åt det hållet? Minst två av varje - jag vill ha matchande set! ;) )
- Hörnlampa till soffhörn
- Golvläslampa till läshörn i vardagsrummet
- Ramar till de två kartorna som ska upp på väggarna. Eventuellt en anslagstavla till världskartan så att jag kan sätta på nålar om var jag varit.
- Duschskynke - ljust och åtminstone 2 meter långt - gärna mer.
- Ny bärbar telefon till hemmet - den gamla visar inga siffror och har rätt dålig batteritid numera. Och lär väl stråla skallen sönder och samman jämfört med de nya.
- A4-pärmar till diverse pryttel och papper
- Snygg vattenkanna som går att ha framme (och använda)
- Köksknivar - typ Global fast billigare. ;)
- Vinterjacka till snowboardåkningen i nyår
- Ny dator - den sjunger på allra allra sista versen nu och dör titt som tätt.
- Lite mer tid att göra allt jag vill hinna göra på fritiden - om någon har lite som ligger på lager vill säga
- Bilder på syrran och familjen


Kommentera gärna om ni inser något som jag glömt så här på rak arm? :)

Mandarin

So. The Mandarin studies I started some weeks ago are proceeding. I love it! I learn a lot every time and between the lessons (1,5 hours every week) I try to read and do exercises something like 15-20 minutes a day. So here goes my first attempt at introducing myself in Mandarin Chinese. It will be written in pinyin and without tones - signs will be a later project I guess. ;)

I will attempt a direct translation as well as a translation into readable English, so that those of you that don't read Mandrain fluently can get a feeling for the beuaty of the language.

Ni hao. Wo jiao Anders. Wo cong Ruidian lai. Wo zai Linköping Daxue xuexi le. Wo gongzuo Attentec. Wo ershisi sui. Wo jia you si kou ren. Mama, papa, yi ge jie jie he yi ge nü pengyou. Wo airen ershi'er sui. Ta zai Wien. Wo xianzai zai jia kan dian shi. Wo mingtian zuo gong gong qi che.

You good. I call Anders. I from Sweden come. I at Linköping Bigschool study finished-tense. I work Attentec. I twotenfour year. I family have four measure-word persons. Mama, papa, one measure-word elder sister and one measure-word female friend. I love person twotentwo year. He/she at Wien. I now at home see TV. I tomorrow go public car.

Hello. My name is Anders. I come from Sweden. I studied at Linköping University. I work at Attentec. I'm twentyfour years old. My family has four members. Mother, father, an elder sister and a girlfriend. My partner is twentytwo years old. She is in Vienna. I am now at home, watching the TV. Tomorrow I will go by bus.

Still pretty easy sentences, but considering where I started I've come quite a long way I think. I just hope to be able to keep it up - and perhaps to use it for real some day.

Vinprovning

Det har blivit mycket vin nu. Icke att förväxla med Wien. Iofs mycket av Wien också, men nu tänkte jag skriva lite om vin istället.

Under min inflyttningsfest (jadå, oroa er inte, jag ska lägga upp bilder snart) så blev jag inbjuden att vara gäst på en vinprovning med Munskänkarna i Linköping. Självklart låter man inte en sådan chans gå förbi, så igår var jag på vinprovning tillsammans med 110 andra vinintresserade. Min första riktigt vinprovning och vilket sätt att börja på!

Temat för kvällen var Ribera del Duero - det vill säga ett vindistrikt i Spanien som ligger strax nordväst om Madrid. Vi hade först en föreläsning om området, vinerna och druvan som vi skulle testa under kvällen. Mycket bra föreläsning, med både engagemang och stor kompetens. Efter föreläsningen följde en provning av fem viner från regionen. Alla var mycket goda, även om två stod ut lite klarare än de andra under provningen. Dessa två var Alenza Gran Reserva 1999 som blev min stora favorit (dock är priset på 499 kr/flaska lite avskräckande) och Alion 2000 som var väldigt prisvärd (men fortfarande lite dyr med 280 kr / flaska). Å andra sidan kan man ju som någon sa skippa att dricka vin när man går ut på restaurang och lägga de vinpengarna på Systemet istället så får man riktigt fina viner.

Det var väldigt intressant att vara med under provningen - vinerna var suveräna och det var intressant att se hur mycket som kan skilja fem viner från samma område och gjorde på samma druva (Tempranillo). Man kunde se skillnader i färgen (från mörkt djupröd till lite mer tegelfärgad), känna skillnader i doft (röda bär, kaffe har jag skrivit på det ena, animaliskt, champinjoner har jag skrivit på ett annat och på de andra står det läder, ceder och kola - mycket varierat alltså) och självklart också i smak (hallon, röd citrus, syra, etc).

Jag lyckades också placera alla fem vinerna rätt, något endast ett fåtal därinne lyckades med. Jag får skylla det på nybörjartur - det enda jag var riktigt säker på var Alenza Gran Reserva som enligt mig var i särklass bäst och som jag kunde säga direkt var det finaste. Men det var å andra sidan många som gissat att Alion var det dyraste, så det var kanske inte helt trivialt.

Så idag var det dags igen. Under den efterföljande middagen igår (lammstek, potatisgratäng, mmmmmm) så fick jag höra talas om att de också höll kurser i vinprovning. En nybörjarkurs gick i år - andra tillfället var imorgon (idag alltså) och det fanns nog plats kvar. Så sagt och gjort - idag har jag varit på kurs och lärt mig grunderna bakom vinframställning och vinprovning. Vi pratade först om framställningen - odlingen, skörden, transporten, pressning, jäsning, lagring och så vidare. Skillnaden mellan lagring på ståltank och ekfat. Skillnaden mellan ekfat från Amerika och Frankrike. Hur man framställer roséviner. Och så vidare. Mycket intressant! Sen gick vi in på att prata om Bourgogne och vad som karaktäriserade detta område. Mycket intressant även detta.

Sen till det riktigt intressanta - vinerna. Vi hade fem vita viner från Bourgogne och Bordeaux som vi fick smaka av och försöka luska ut vad det var. Det som gjorde det svårare igår enligt min åsikt var att de dels låg i samma prisklass 89-99 kr, dels att alla var vita och jag har druckit väldigt lite vitt vin. Men det var gott. Och trevligt. Och lärorikt. Favoriten blev en chardonnay från Bourgogne som lagrats på ekfat och som hade tydliga inslag av smör och nötter i lukten. Det här låter som mumbojumbo och i början tyckte jag också det. Man tittar på dem och ser att alla har exakt samma vit-gula färg. Sen luktar man på dem och alla luktar vitt vin. Sen smakar man och det är ytterst små skillnader mellan vitt vin och... vitt vin. Men när man hållt på ett tag börjar nyanser framträda. Det ena hade en liten grön nyans som man inte såg först. Det andra var marginellt mörkare och djupare i sin färg jämfört med de andra. Och lukterna! Som de förändrades. Från att bara lukta vitt vin så kände man äpplen så tydligt som om man just bitit tag i ett färskt äpple, nötter och smör som om man ätit smörkola, citrus som att man bitit i citronskal och nässlor och krusbär som om man stod i mitten av en trädgård mitt på sommaren. Otroligt! Smakerna förändrades också och blev tydligare och tydligare ju mer man fokuserade på dessa känslor och förnimmelser.

På det hela taget väldigt trevligt - tre tillfällen kvar och sen ett litet prov så har jag nog ett första gradens diplom eller vad det nu heter. Yey! :P Och vitt vin blir det nog oftare framöver - Couvent des Jacobins Bourgogne Blanc för 99 kr var otroligt spännande och prisvärt.

Nästa tillfälle är om tre veckor. Ska bli himla skoj. Tills dess är det kinesiska, jobb och lite fritid emellanåt som gäller. Och kanske en privat vinprovning - har ju kvar några viner från vinlotteriet på jobbet fortfarande.

Wien över helgen

Hade en trevlig långhelg i Wien. Åkte dit på torsdagkvällen och kom hem igen måndagkväll. Skönt att man kan åka dit under en så kort stund. Också skönt att känna att man kan träffas utan att göra något speciellt - vi såg på lite filmer (Finding Neverland - första filmen på länge som fick mig känslosam och att börja drömma), gick på caféer och restauranger, tog promenader och hade det allmänt mysigt.

Blev fascinerad över resan hem. Det går förvånansvärt snabbt. Klockan fem sitter man på Wien flygplats och väntar. Klockan elva ligger man hemma i sin säng efter att ha åkt över hela Europa. Och då var det ändå långsamt tåg mellan Sthlm-Linköping som tog längst tid! Var på Arlanda i högst tre minuter sammanlagt - skyndade mig från flyget, hade inget bagage och kom precis på en Arlanda Express som skulle gå. Hade 18 minuters marginal på centralen, så hade blivit tajt med tåget efteråt. ;)

Träffade en intressant man på flyget som var från ett arabiskt land - lite osäker på vilket. Oavsett så hade han under de få och korta diskussioner vi hade väldigt många intressanta åsikter. Här kommer ett utdrag från våra samtal:

On the subject of Wallenberg:
- Who is that? (pointing at an image in Dagens Industri that I'm reading)
- Er, that's Markus Wallenberg, one of the members of one of the richest families in Sweden.
- One of the richest...?
- Yes, and one of the most influential I guess...
- Ah, so he's the mafia!
- Hmm, yes, perhaps not as in many other countries.
- Of course he is - how else could they be rich and influential?
...

On the subject of the Swedish heritage:
- You are from Sweden, right?
- Yes.
- The vikings, right?
- Hmm, yes, we are the vikings. Or were. A long time ago.
- But you know what you are famous for, right? (makes a signal for hacking and slashing and killing)
- Yes, I know. A long time ago though...
- So... Why did you stop?

On the subject of Anna Lindh:
- Did they find out who murdered her [Anna Lindh]?
- Well, a guy called Mijailovic...
- No, I mean, who was behind it?
- Er...
- The mafia? The government? The Swedish CIA?
- Well, the only version I've heard is that he was mad...
- And you really believe that?
...

On the subject of girlfriends:
- Ah, you were in Vienna for the weekend only - going back and forth?
- Yes, exactly, visiting my girlfriend.
- But then you have a girlfriend in Sweden as well?
- No...?
- Why not? That would be more practical, no? And she would not know anything, right?
- Well, we don't do that in Sweden. One girlfriend is enough for me.
- Really? That's strange...

On the subject of Swedish tolerance and democracy:
- So what do you think of Islam?
- Er, well, nothing in particular. I don't know that much about Islam to be honest.
- I see. But you have muslims in Sweden, right?
- Yeah, sure, we have quite a lot of immigrants and some of them are of course muslims.
- And you let them build mosques and you show tolerance for them?
- Yes, Sweden is mostly a very open and tolerant society.
- See - that's the problem with Sweden and Europe and democracy. You are too tolerant! They are dangerous - they will take the power and tell you that you cannot be a Christian and start producing bombs and bomb you. They don't think like other people....
... discussion continued for a while, with me saying that it's mostly people thinking like that, that causes problems, fighting, etc. He didn't seem to be convinced though...


Så, förutom dessa diskussioner var det en trevlig flygning. Var iofs intressant att ha diskussionerna med honom också, men förvånansvärt att man kunde tänka så fundamentalt olika i alla frågor som kom upp.