Reunited, and it feels so good

Faith No More, live at Brixton Academy four days ago. The big question is what he does to the poor security guard about four minutes in...

The countdown has begun. Less than two weeks left.

For a while I spent my time getting all pissed off at traffic lights

Does this ever happen in Stockholm? Or any major city? I pulled up to a traffic light yesterday, in Sweden's Armpit, my hometown of old. Another car right in front of me. It turns red. We stop. I look right. I look left. Not a car, anywhere. No pedestrians, no bikes, no nothing. The crosswalk lights remain red. Our light remains red. After about a minute it turns green and we move on.

Now, I don't suffer from road rage, really. Like any driver I get pissed at my fellow drivers sometimes, and this could have raised my pulse quite a bit too. However, it felt surreal enough that all I could do was smile about it. For some reason it felt like I was watching from the sidelines, pointing at the suckers just standing there, waiting, for no reason. And I was the sucker.

If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker.
- Matt Damon, "Rounders"

Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried

They tell me tonight is an important night for Europe. They tell me how we cast our votes decides the future of Europe. This time, there may actually be some truth in that statement. Unfortunately, once again people prove they are morons.

My ambition when casting my vote has always to know where the parties stand on a few key issues, issues that are important to me. There have been times when I have considered myself fairly informed, and other times when I haven't known squat. This time, it was far more important who I didn't vote for than who I voted for.

There are forces at work today in Europe, forces that on many levels are the same as those that cast their shadow across the world in the 1930's and 40's. Right-wing extremism is an issue that makes file sharing look so insignificant it's almost ridiculous. Yes, I agree that there are privacy issues at stake, as well as the perceived freedom of the Internet, but making sure those swastika-toting, bottom-of-the-gene-pool-swimming motherfuckers don't get seats in the EU parliament is far more important.

Sweden seems to have understood that, though the jury is still out. Voters in other countries seem to have left their brains at home, though, when they went a-votin'. Denmark. The Netherlands. Have you learned nothing from history?

Economic difficulties and disenfranchised youth has been the breeding ground for violent fascist groups for a long time, and this time it appears it's no different. I for one despair if the Europe we're a part of will have political extremists and racists influencing our way forward. I can't see how anyone with half a brain would think otherwise.

Of course, I have to say something about them boys with parrots on their shoulders, eye patches and yo ho ho and a bottle of rum, me mateys. They're not my mateys, that's for sure. I agree with them on some issues, but as anyone that has had the time to discuss file sharing with me knows, I think illegal file sharing is a plague that needs to eradicated.

Now I'm watching preliminary results, and the Pirate Party has 7.4 percent. I fully believe that a lot of people voting for them know about the issues they stand for and can argue very well for them, but at the same time I believe a lot of people have voted for them just because they're too cheap to pay for music, movies, books. Thinking those things should be free for everyone and thinking the same amount and quality of said music, movies, books, would still exist, is extremely naïve to me.

Whatever. I've cast my vote and done my part for democracy. If I had some say in the matter, there would have been a lot more info more readily available on where the parties stood on the issues. And oh yeah, politicians wouldn't be two-faced liars either. Not holding my breath for that one.

Garlic bread? Garlic bread? Garlic? Bread? Am I hearin' you right? Garlic bread?

I like cooking. I'm not a ninja in the kitchen, on any level, but I like cooking. I've also done some baking over the years. My grand mother's chocolate cake, the kick-ass bread Mah Girl's mom has taught us, and the occassional muffin.

Yesterday Mah Girl turned 30 - hip hip hurrah! - and I had to bake a cake. Why? She made me one for my thirtieth. With the little bearded smiley I sign with on top, in chocolate Smarties. I was pleasantly surprised, and I've felt the pressure for three and half years.

I didn't really bake one. I made one. From pre-fab cake stuff. With chocolate pudding, vanilla custard and cream. It turned out very nicely. Especially today, with all the ingredients having spent 24 hours slowly melding together. Yummy yummy, I've got love in my tummy. Harry is a happy camper today.

Tonight we will celebrate Mah Girl properly, with a visit to Garlic & Shots with some friends, and then off for drinks at Lilla Hotellbaren. Come by Lilla after eight or nine, if you wanna join!

If I want a rush I just get out of a chair when I'm not expecting it

We saw the one and only Dylan Moran on Monday. It was...bliss. I laughed for ninety minutes. With a pause so Mr Moran could get some more red wine. And he spoke to me.

Not really to me specifically, but about people like me. I'm not quoting him to the letter now, but it went a little something like this:

There's a certain kind of man, around thirty (this is pronounced “tuurty” in Irish), who wears t-shirts meant for children, t-shirts that say “Zap” or “Pow” across the chest, and pants that you're not really sure if they're pants or shorts. What this kind of clothing says is “I don't ever want to get a real job, and I will be drinking milkshakes for the next fifteen years. Fuck off”. These men spend all their time with their friends, playing video games. These men are single. They will remain single. This is why there are so many women who never find the one. He's busy playing video games, drinking milkshakes. And if he ever has children all he has to teach them is how to get past the snakes on level six.

For the record, the night in question I was wearing a Skynet tee and my favorite baggy, long denim shorts. I like milkshakes. I like video games. I'm never having children. Never ever? Never ever ever. Mah Girl theorized that he saw me before the show and only avoided mentioning the beard to spare my feelings.

I have no problem with people seeing me as childish or as someone not capable of contributing to the continuation of the human race. There's too much crap floating around in the gene pool anyway, so why add my own flaws there?

I'm quite happy with who I am, on that level. Childishness is something to be cherished, cultivated, and used. Childishness is joy, and simple joys at that. I mean, come on, if you can't laugh so hard your jaws hurt and tears run down your cheeks at things (like when we play Lego Star Wars, for example), you're dead inside. And who would want to be that?

Is this love? That I'm feeling?

In a few weeks we'll be going to a couple of kick-ass music festivals. Two weekends in a row, with two separate groups of friends. So tonight we were looking over the expenses for the accommodations, since there's no way in any kind of hell that I'm sleeping in a tent surrounded by thousands of sixteen year olds drunk off their asses. It's not an age thing. Really, it's not. I felt the same way when I was sixteen.

Anyway. So we were looking over expenses, and Mah Girl marveled at how cheap the cottage we're renting for one of the festivals is.

“I mean”, she said, “it's that cheap per person and there's only three of us.” I looked over at her, and said “We're going with Stefan and Nils”.

She frowned and said: “I wonder who I wasn't counting?” Pause. Small smile. “It was probably you”.

Makes the heart all warm and cozy, don't it?

Game over, man! Game over!

So we look at a game trailer, Mah Girl and I, and she says:
"Sure, you can play that game. If we keep all the lights on. And get a flame thrower."



I don't care if this game sucks slimy Alien eggs. I'll buy it anyway. Probably three copies. One for the altar, and one extra in case the one I play breaks.

And I know the clip is too wide for the blog. It deserves that much space, OK?