Baby

Jan and Fabiana, Congratulations on giving life to a beautiful (I`m sure) daughter!!!!

I am so happy for you. I want to go to Finland!! See you this summer, I hope.

This is milk that I am feeding you. It comes from Mordechai the milkman, whom you will meet one day. He gets the milk from a cow, which is a very strange and troubling thing if you think about it, so don't think about it...
This is my hand that is petting your face. Some people are left-handed and some are right-handed.We don't know which you are yet, because you just sit there and let me do the handling...
This is a kiss. It is what happens when lips are puckered and pressed against something, sometimes other lips, sometimes a cheek, sometimes something else. It depends...
This is my heart. You are touching with your left hand, not because you are left-handed, although you might be, but because I am holding it against my heart. What you are feeling is the beating of my heart. It is what keeps me alive.

(Jonathan Safran Foer)

I Have Become An Adult

Well, that took a while.
I enjoy fairytales.
Thus, I have become an adult.
No need to pretend that I am an adult.
Childish behavior ceased to be childish.
No longer caught in-between.

Now, how would Harry do matched against the White Witch?

Happy New Year?

New year.
New ends.
No beginnings.
Good bye, Forever.
What did I just do?
No answers.
Just new questions.
I ended it.
It's all about me.

Will somebody please give me a cigarette.

Let's Rock 2006!

The EU and the Swedish overnment is run by wankers!!

Sometimes I hate Sweden and the EU. Below is an article (unfortunately in Swedish) about a man who escaped from Iraq to Sweden. He came to Sweden, learned Swedish, got a job, wrote a letter to the Ministry of Immigration saying he wanted to pay tax and didn`t need welfare anymore. Then, the police discovered that he had been stopped by the police in Italy on his way to Sweden, thus making him obliged, by EU-law (Dublin-convention ironically enough), to apply for asylum in Italy. So, the cops send him back to Italy where he ends up living on a park bench, before finding refuge in the Swedish church. Idiots!!! FUCK the EU and the Swedish Ministry of Immigration, who according to the Swedish newspapers celebrate succesful deportations with champagne or cake.

On another note, the head of the EU delegation to the WTO meeting said that agriculture is just one issue among many, so no need to discuss it so much. Well, yeah...if agriculture constitutes one or two percent your GDP. If it doesn`t, i.e. if you are a developing country, it is the only issue. So, all you unelected EU leaders: start talking and please, please, please STOP subsidizing farmers and remove all tariffs on agricultural products. In fact remove tariffs full stop for products from developing countries. Free trade as interpreted by the EU, Japan and the US is a sham. Oh, and if you are a farmer in some freezing part of Sweden where there are a few rocks too many to make a living from farming, then stop farming!! There is no point!! Herd reindeer or move to the city. Don`t grow potatoes in the arctic!

Merry Christmas

From aftonbladet.se, 051222

Khalel kommer från irakiska Kurdistan. Han tvingades fly undan en maffiaorganisation som lovat döda honom. Han lyckades komma med en lastbil genom Turkiet mot Europa. Vägen gick över italienska hamnstaden Brindisi. Italienska polisen hittade honom ombord på lastbilen. Han fick sitta i arresten i sju dagar. Sedan var han fri med ett tillfälligt uppehållstillstånd och kunde resa vidare. En snöstormig vinterkväll ställde lastbilschauffören av honom i en skog utanför Göteborg. Khalel anmälde sig hos polisen och bad om asyl. Så började han lära sig svenska och till slut fick han också ett jobb och nya vänner i samhället Fegen. Och där kallar alla honom Kalle. -Jag ringde Migrationsverket och tackade för hjälpen. Jag sa att jag inte ville ha något bidrag längre. Nu ville jag betala min skatt och börja skapa mitt eget liv, berättar han. Men en dag hann EU:s Dublinkonvention i kapp honom. Italien var det första EU-landet han kommit till. Det var där hans asylansökan skulle behandlas, säger reglerna. Två svenska poliser hämtade honom. Han flögs från Kastrup till Milano. -I början sov jag i en park men sedan blev det för kallt, berättar han. -Jag sökte skydd i ett sjukhus. Jag fick sova över natten men eftersom jag var frisk fick jag gå. Han tog sig till Rom - där är det varmare än i Milano. Han hittade en smyg med varmluft, skaffade sig kartonger och sov bland alla andra uteliggare. Så fick han kontakt med prästen Alf Lindh vid Svenska kyrkan i Rom. Sedan några veckor tillbaka bor han på soffan i samlingslokalen. -Här kan jag ju se svensk tv. Någon italienska har jag aldrig lärt mig. Jag känner mig bara hemma i Sverige nu. Dagen före julafton ska han inställa sig i Varese och visa upp alla sina handlingar. Där finns ett entusiastiskt brev från företaget Weland i Smålandsstenar. Efter en månads praktikanttjänstgöring där fick han fast anställning.

Am I Daniel?

Middle-aged, smartly dressed, full head of wavy hair, the man was walking behind me.

- I hate Americans and Brits
- Are you talking to me??
- DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!!
- What??
- I AM MARRIED WITH DANIEL! WHY ARE YOU HERE!?!
- Eh...
- DON'T IGNORE ME. DON'T PRETEND I DON'T EXIST. I AM MARRIED WITH DANIEL.

He never stopped, he looked at me one last time, fuming, and walked briskly down the street.

I was left in a station full of people staring at me.

30

Now I am 30, Japan-time at least. My twenties are over, and I think it is time to summarize the last decade. I don't know what we are expected to achieve in our twenties. I read somewhere that F. Scott (I think) said that if a man (or woman I presume) hasn't done something great by the age of 25, he (she) will never do anything great. I don't know about that, and I don't think I achieved much of anything, but this is what I did:

I had 10 birthdays. I lived in 4 countries. I moved 11 times. I travelled to 15 countries I hadn't been to prior to my 20th birthday. I slept with X women. I loved a few. I married 1. I divorced 1. I had 7 jobs. I learned 2 new languages. I went to 6 weddings (only). I got 211 university credits (Swedish system). I read.....well, a whole heap of books (I think I learned a few things). I got drunk innumerable times. I played in 5 football teams. I got 1 conviction in court. I don't know how much money I made, but I spent most of it, without having any material possesions to show for it. I read 4 Russian novels. I started 1 blog. I made many friends, I lost many too.

That's all I can think of. Maybe in my thirties I'll achieve something.

Yeah Yeah Yeah

I am lazy and I know it.

I've been working like an idiot.

I made my DJing debut (haha). It's true. Not many people witnessed it, but there'll be more people next time. Me, Luke, and Dave (Aussies), play indie stuff at a small club in Shibuya. We'll be doing it once a month.

A student gave me an I-pod Nano (for no reason, I think). Crazy, but great. I put it on shuffle on the train today. Great rock exploded into my brain. I had to restrain myself, so as not to jump up and dance on the train.

I watched Motorcycle Diaries and decided I want to be a revolutionary. A romantic one, but I don't want to die and I hate guns. It's all peace love for me.

Tomorrow I will work for twelve hours.

I don't have time to think, which is probably good. Saves me from unhappy thoughts.

I hope all is well with all of you.

(I will write something more interesting some day. Have faith!)

Blue, White, and some Shades of Grey

I keep having this vision in my head. A vision of snow, mountains and darkness. I am travelling on a bus. A white bus with blue stripes. A Chinese bus, where the doors have to be opened by hand. There is no heating and it is freezing The smoke from the breaths of my fellow passengers cloud my vision. But, I am not in China. The men on the bus, there are mostly men, suggest that I am in Eastern Turkey, Iran, or somewhere in Central Asia. Leather jackets and empty eyes staring through the window. Sunflower seeds and cigarette buts litter the isle. I don`t know where I am going and it is cold. Unbelievably cold. The snow keeps falling outside my window. We pass through towns. Grey concrete and filthy cars. Russian and old japanese cars. Nobody speaks English. Men fiddling with their prayer beads. We stop on the outskirts of dead-end towns. Everyone is carrying bundles of something and boxes. Traders? I want to be on that bus, but why? Where am I? Why do I want to be on decrepit bus driving through the snow?