I’m sorry for the long absence of posts.

Right now, my day consists of authoring of thesis, sleeping, eating and hanging out with friends that brings inspiration.

The thesis is coming along ok. Right now, we’re a bit behind but working on getting back on track.
Yesterday we had our last “opposition seminar” on the thesis and got a lot of great ideas and feedback. We’re working on applying that to the thesis as we speak.

I’ll post more info as progression is made. Hopefully, I’ll be able to translate the thesis into English so I can either post it here or send it to you guys who’s been asking for a draft/copy.

Anyway, I hope you all are safe out there and that you take care of the onces you love!

I’ve been keeping myself busy this last weeks. Mostly with training at the gym doing “2-a-days”, but also, trying to find material for my thesis and browsing through it.

I’m a “reality show”-oholic. Actually, I’m more of a “TV-Show”-oholic.

I love TV-shows. They make me forget about the troubles of the day and gets me relaxed. Over the years I’ve followed everything from House M.D., The West Wing, Boston Legal, 24, Futurama, Heroes to Numb3rs.

And now, “Roomservice“.

Roomservice is a Swedish TV show, starring a carpenter, a painter and a interior designer (the interior designer is changing from episode to episode) where they “invade” a persons home (with consent) to redecorate/redo a room, everything from kitchens, living rooms, bathrooms, you name it. They ask the owner of the place a couple of basic questions about how they want their place re-done and after that, they go to work, designing.. It’s a blast. Especially if you like design and interior design. It’s a Swedish version of “Extreme Home Makeover” of sorts, (actually, I think there is a “Extreme Home Makeover” branch in Sweden as well, but that show is not as compelling or charming as “Roomservice”). I’m having a blast. Problem? I want to tear down my parents kitchen, living room, bathrooms and redo the whole house. I don’t think my parents would appreciate that. I’m glad I just got a small apartment at the moment. Not to much to be done!

So, over to the “turn for the good” part.

I’ve applied to another university, (Luleå Tekniska Universitet). I’m going to nursing school. Becoming a nurse as my mother. This in combination with my exam in “International Crisis- and Conflict management” (political science) will assist me in my struggle to help people. I’m not quite sure how to combine them yet, but I will. For you who only known me for a while (or just getting to know me) this might come as a bit of a surprise, but for you who’ve known me for a long time, you’ll know it’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time.

I’m very exited that I’ve made this decision and I’m really looking forward to it. But first, I have got to finish my thesis so I get my diploma this summer!

Time for a final episode of “Johnny and Mattias” from Roomservice! Then: Bed.

After being grilled for an hour on an opposition paper this friday I got into the car around 5pm with a friend, heading up for Jokkmokk. The reason was that one of my oldest and best friends turned 30, and this time, I was in Sweden to actually be at the event.

The trip wasn’t without complications. Around 9pm as we stopped for a 10 minutes dinner the cars battery light started to act up and by the time we were about 1 hour from home, the car just died. (Turns out the coal in the generator that recharges the battery went MIA) and I had to make an emergency phone call to my dad who came and picked us up.

Arriving late, around midnight, it was a blast to see the surprised face of my friend and the celebration lasted until early morning.

The day after, saturday, me and another friend got into a car, drove to where my car had stopped working, charged the battery enough to make me last home and into the garage where I did some emergency repairs, taking out the generator, replacing the coal and putting it all back together since we had to get back down to Umeå the day after (sunday).

It’s been nice to spend so much time at my home town. When I was living there, I dreaded the place and all I could think about was getting “out into the world, living life”. But after being away from home for such a long time, spending a month in Thailand and roughly 6 in the US, I have started to appreciate the comfort of home and friends. Being back in Umeå feels like a whole new challenge as I turn my attention to my last paper before graduating this summer.

I’ve spent a couple of hours going through all the news that’s been reported the last couple of days and I’ve also taken time to go over some new trailers for movies coming out this spring/summer and some of the clips that has got me longing to hit the cinemas is the following: Street Kings, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock, Leatherheads, The Fall, Chaos Theory, Where in the world is Osama Bin Ladin?, The Bank Job, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, How to lose Friends and Alienate People and finally, Midnight Meat Train. As well as Dark Knight that I mentioned earlier, this might be a good time for the movies..

Now I’m going to kick back for a while, watching Walk the Line since I’m probably the only one in the world who hasn’t seen it..

Today has been a slow day.. I went to bed around 9am last night and woke up around 11pm this morning. I don’t know why I was so tiered, but the sleep did me some good.

I went downtown after a brief read-through of the news and answering some of the mails that has been piling up over the week I was gone for easter holiday. Once downtown, I meet up with a friend of mine that I got to know during my stay in the US and we went out for a “fika” (basically, a good conversation over a cup of coffee and some pastry..) but instead, we ran into 3 of the guys that I study with here in Umeå and we all went out for lunch together. It was really good. After that, me and my friend spend some time wandering around the shops. It was good to get out for a bit and change the scenery.

By a accident, one of my friends told me something today that gave me closure to a problem, that I’ve solved, but haven’t really gotten to terms with. It feels good. A weight has been lifted.

I watched “Shoot ‘Em Up” today, and it was just as good/bad as I expected it to be. It’s definitely a movie worth watching, for the action if not. Don’t get the impression it’s a “realistic” movie though, because then you’ll be disappointed.

Tomorrow I get to defend one of my papers and do an opposition on another students’ paper. And after that, it’s the weekend!

I hope your all safe out there.

I’ve been working on my paper all day. I’m not making as good progress as I thought I would. There’s a lot more work to it then I initially presumed..

I’ve aborted the writing for tonight and been surfing around the net for a while to see what’s new. Right now, the Swedish media is covered in “Schlager” (European song contest country final) and I can’t stand another article on the subject. Isn’t enough enough?

The media is going to kill the interest for everything with “over exposure” they should be focusing on other, more important things, as world famine, war, disasters etc. etc. Not discuss the latest dress, drama and rumors at a song contest.. What is the world coming to anyway?

So, instead of getting all cynical, I decided to list some of the books I’ve wanted to read (or read, just “want” so I can re-read them!) for a long time, here goes,

Terry Pratchett - “The Color of Magic” and “Light Fantastic” - A wonderful trip into the Disc World Series..
Neil Strauss - The Game - This one, I haven’t read yet, but from what I hear, it’s not just thrilling, but inspiring(!?) too..
Stephen Mendel-Enk - Me uppenbar känsla för stil - Swedish book where violence as a male dominated doctrine is in focus.. Interesting..
Aleksandr Fursenko & Timot Naftali - One hell of a gamble - A book on the “Cuban Missile Crisis” that I didn’t have time, unfortunately, to read at the University..
Graham T. Allison & Philip Zelikow - Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis - The ground breaking theory of organization theory to explain the “Cuban Missile Crisis”, excellent work..
Matti Larsson & Lasse Wierup - Svensk Maffia: En kartläggning av de kriminella gängen - A book about charting out the Swedish Mob and it’s organization.

Time for this guy to hit the sack, there’s a new day tomorrow!

[EDIT]
Martin Gilbert - Churchill: A life

Forgot to add a book!

So I was out of it last night.. Was trying to finish up a paper - that was due today - and at the same time, simultaneously write on the paper that’s due after right after the Easter holiday.. I think I fried my brain. I got a massive headache around midnight and about 1pm I got to bed..

I woke up this morning, feeling slightly better though. After a (25 min.) shower, I was - once again - a human being. A lot thanks to music. I haven’t really reflected over how much music can inspire and bring you up a notch when your down. Do not take it for granted!

So I turned my paper in today and had lunch with a classmate where we had a lovely discussion about the creatures of the deep.. The giant squids that a couple of months ago got caught on tape when Japanese scientists was trailing bait for it, the impact sunlight has on sight and pigment of the creatures (and so on) we also briefly touched the subject of “The tallest buildings in the world” which also is a fascinating topic to discus, specially since I’ve had a childhood dream of designing and architecture..

So now I’m back in my apartment, the “Physics Alley” in Umeå, working on what I would like to call “The Easter Paper”.

After browsing through all the newspapers online this morning, I stumbled across a review of “Into the Wild” and even though the plot itself seems a bit “out there” I was caught by the music and the captive pictures.. Might be worth checking out!

Anyway, time for some coffee and back to work, I hope your safe out there!

Woke up at 7am this morning. And it’s such a beautiful morning too.

But cold. I left my window open by an accident. I wasn’t supposed to sleep so long.

Last night, after taking some of the girls in my class to the airport, I came home, had dinner, watched an episode of a TV-show called Numb3rs which is a tad bit corny but it’s also a “make you feel good” kind of TV-show.

And then I brushed my teeth and just laid down for a bit, putting my alarm clock at 11:30pm so I could get up and do some work. Last night wasn’t a good night for working - obviously - so I ended up waking up this morning, in jeans and t-shirt. Weird.

But now, it’s time for a shower, breakfast and back to work. I guess I won’t be seeing much more then my own four walls for the next couple of days. I have 1 small paper that’s due this Friday, then it’s Easter and after Easter I’m supposedly to turn in a bigger paper. And that’s the paper that’ll keep me occupied. I want to have it done before I get into my car and head up to Jokkmokk and my parents house for some serious relaxing and hanging out with friends.

If I have some of this weekend free, I would love to go to the movies and see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. However, that’s not very likely. So, if YOU don’t have anything to do this weekend, go see it. Checking in with what’s new this morning, I read what Bloggywoods thoughts on the movie was, and if you Swedish, you can read it here.

So, time for breakfast!