miscellaneous (61)

Just miscellaneous stuff ranging from the mundane stuff (memes, announcements, blog tests) to (slightly) more interesting random trivia, or things I read about in the paper, and personal blog entries.

Sorted chronologically, newest first. 61 posts.

Looking beyond the black dog
10/12/1
December 1. Another whole month had flown by in the blog world, but it feels rather that we trudged ‒ TRUDGED ‒ through another long month. November is otherwise anyway the gloomiest period of the year in Sweden: dark, wet, vanishing sunlight. Our attempts to go back to "normality", as we call it, couldn't have been more ill timed. Read more>>>


Where did October go?
10/10/29
It's a long story. I spent the end part of September and the first half of October in the hospital with Marcus; he came home mid-October with not-so-good prospects; we had troubled nights, and there were a couple of acute visits to the hospital. It's just these past two weeks that things are going back to normal again. The whole month felt like a long, uncertain time. Read more>>>

The meaning of life?
10/8/30
I believe in the vastness of the future, and I'd like to believe I have the wisdom to enjoy the present. However, I can't really get myself to believe in the fatalism of always-better plans. If there was a better plan out there for human beings, I would say that it would have been beyond our human condition to know that such a plan exists. Read more>>>

Warning for icicles
10/1/25
Even when there are long and very cold winter seasons that gives thick layers of snow for weeks, you know that snow's not going to stay on forever. At one point, when the temperature just gets a few degrees warmer – even though it's still minus zero – the snow slowly, slowly, slowly melts in the sun. Read more>>>

Frost
10/1/21
Haven't been able to upload these frosty pictures from last week. In the meantime, Norrköping is back to 1-digit degrees below zero, and there's sun. Watch out, it might be icicle pictures here next, if I manage to catch those in photo before they fall to the ground! Read more>>>

Monopoly - and Mellanopoly
09/10/15
As we were cleaning out Marcus' dad's old storage room looking for old stuff that used to belong or have been handed down to Marcus, we found, among other interesting childhood memorabilia like old handwritten projects (in the days before everybody had printers), a very old Monopol board in a yellowing box... Read more>>>


Fashion advice, please?
09/9/20
Yes. It's about me and my hair. I've been in a pony-tail for most of my life, and since about two years ago, I thought I'd get bangs and wear my hair down. I think bangs are great! Problem is, I can't seem to keep them on my forehead like bangs should be. They want to go to the side, or worse, to both sides (which looks strange when I tie my hair). Hair advice, please?... Read more>>>

Joy the cat
09/9/9
I have been thinking a lot about the swim school for adults organized by the local swim team – in fact I've been pondering over (and delaying it) for about two years. The topic came up again over lunch with colleagues last Wednesday, and when I rang the swim team that same afternoon, they told me they had one slot left for a class that started the next day. Did I want to take it? I was taken by surprise. But well, why not?... Read more>>>

Butterfly effect
09/8/22
We should have made a lamb stew in a clay pot today, a two-and-a-half hour project that should have been tonight's dinner. We were here at home and just got so long into the process as to submerge the clay pot in water (step zero, that is) when the whole project had to be put to a stop, and my dinner became a 6-piece McNuggets and a McDonald's blueberry pie. The reason? This stranded boat... Read more>>>

Eyeballing 102
09/7/16
We're going to visit a couple of blog friends. We'll be back on the midnight between Monday and Tuesday. Just so you know where I am so you won't miss me, and just so you know you can expect travel pictures when I'm back... Read more>>>

Replanting herbs
09/6/26
I'm going to try to find out if we can grow herbs in the kitchen all year. I don't have a reputation for having a green thumb and I've never grown anything from seed. I have, however, grown some decorative plants in the apartment from cuttings, and judging from the fact that they're all still thriving, I guess that I could be a decent enough gardener to upgrade to edibles... Read more>>>


a rainy June
09/6/14
I was watching the news the other day. This month of June, which has been disappointingly rainy and cold (seldom up to 10 degrees before lunchtime!), is the coldest June Sweden has had in 50 years. And we're supposed to be enjoying the summer in the sun!... Read more>>>

Looks eerily familiar!
09/5/11
Sometimes I browse through the archives of PhD comics by Jorge Cham (PhD is short for "Piled Higher and Deeper" and pokes fun at life as a PhD student). I can't say that I can relate to all of the strips, but I today I found something that eerily reminds me of myself!... Read more>>>

Vårtecken = signs of spring
09/4/7
Spring officially starts when it has been plus-degrees for more than 7 consecutive days (even if it means 1 degree). This happened a few weeks back. The rising temperatures and more sun hours trigger signs of spring such as: use of roller skates, opening of ice cream bars, abandonment of winter clothing, the occasional sight of bare legs, and flowers... Read more>>>

Animals take over Chernobyl
09/3/26
From time to time, there are great documentaries on TV, one of them I want to write about now. I saw it on TV the other day and we thought it was so good that we watched it again on YouTube yesterday. It's a 2008 Dutch documentary whose English title is Chernobyl: Life in the Dead Zone... Read more>>>

The crib
09/1/1
Our new year countdown was spent on the balcony of our new apartment, beholding the city below and the fireworks which you see in the above picture. The apartment is shaping up. We're actually done with most of the interior decorating... Read more>>>


My life as a Sim
08/12/16
I'm just too excited about the move to think about anything else. Planning for things to buy have been made easy by some pictures we took of the flat (with the current tenant's furniture and stuff there). because I'm an impatient brat with too much time in her hands, I decided to do a little "moving" of my own before we actually physically move our furniture... Read more>>>

A walk in the snow, and a quick lunch
08/11/25
I like to walk on crunchy, newly-fallen snow – before it has the chance to get packed (in paths where people walk the most) and melt into a slippery ice sheet, or before the snow on the streets turn into muck. They say Germans go up here for "real winters," but the truth is, at least in our part of Sweden, the snow usually doesn't stay on the ground until after New Year... Read more>>>

I love my blog...
08/11/14
...and apparently, Esther of Ishtar News does too! She nominated me to the I Love Your Blog Award, a prize that bloggers give to fellow bloggers. It only takes one vote to win – the nomination, actually – but since I love prizes, I'm taking it! :-D... Read more>>>

Cold, cold nights
08/10/31
For the past week, the temperature here has really sunk. We have been waking up to cold countryside mornings, running double time to fetch firewood and admiring the frosty landscape. It snowed yesterday too – the first snowfall of the season... Read more>>>

To raise the bar and turn the steak in the pan
08/9/10
This is the 200th post on this blog that I've been saving to write on my new ASUS Eee 900. My sister Lea thought of giving it to me as an advanced birthday gift, and it was taken here to Sweden by Jeline... Read more>>>


To raise the bar and turn the steak in the pan
08/8/21
As a learner of Swedish, my ears seem to get attuned to picking up new phrases, especially when the words are repeated by the speaker. The case isn't different watching the Olympics. Several times in Stefan Holm's game, I heard the commentators say two figures of speech, "att höja ribban" and "att vända på steken," and began to wonder how these idioms are translated to English... Read more>>>

Something's definitely wrong here...
08/7/28
(a.k.a. Why you shouldn't hire cross-eyed people to work in a flag factory). On our sailing trip with Göran and Saga-Britt, the topic of conversation turned to the tradition of having a flag on deck to show the boat's country of origin... Read more>>>

Another Photoshop experiment
08/6/26
Because I have way too much time on my hands but am too tired to write a real entry. Brought to you by yours truly, Kricke, Photoshop, and YouTube Photoshop tutorials. Coming soon to a farm near you... Go to entry>>>

Pictures from Göteborg posted at Multiply
08/6/16
We haven't got the pictures from our friend's camera yet, but I decided to post the pictures from my camera anyway, before I forget about them altogether. Better late than never! Here are some photos from days 1 and 2 in Göteborg... Read more>>>

Town and country in May
08/5/23
When I'm bored, I experiment with old pictures using Photoshop. It's addicting. When I get some good results with some pictures, it becomes hard to stop myself from beginning on new projects. Since I'm stalling writing a food journal (it will come soon though), I decided to post a couple of my edited pictures today... Read more>>>


"Hemmaplan och bortaplan"
08/5/17
Ever wonder what my blog would sound like in Swedish? Wonder no more. Click on the link below to visit -- not Home and Away, mind you -- but Hemmaplan och Bortaplan, my blog's Swedish alter ego. Want to know what I mean? ... Read more>>>

Art and Reality
08/5/12
Walking in the streets of Norrköping, who would expect to see a picture of Norrköping itself? I see this graffiti each time I go to Swedish class... and this is a photo I took two years ago from the school library. The yellow building is called Strykjärnet ("The Iron"), so called because of its odd shape that resembles a clothes iron... Read more>>>

The Pinoy Erasmus Mundus website. Check it out!
08/5/9
I thought of writing a series of miscellaneous recollections from the Erasmus Mundus year that I wished I could have written about before I started this blog. My first contribution to the Pinoy Erasmus Mundus blog is of course, on food. In an inspired moment, I made illustrations for it too... Read more>>>

An afternoon in spring
08/4/6
As typical with spring weather, some days are sunny, some days are drizzly, and some days are cold and grey. The weather can't seem to make up its mind, but at least it gave us a sunny weekend of 10-15 degree warmth, which we took advantage the other day in Marcus' godparents' garden... Read more>>>

On the brighter side of things
08/4/2
And then, some weeks ago, another PhD application ended up unsuccessful. I haven't got the official letter yet, but I already knew the results since I asked the program director by e-mail. It was a bad day for me, and I emailed my thesis supervisor for some moral support... Read more>>>


Oh lookie!
08/3/17
Wala lang. I'm not a Marcos loyalist (though we did visit two of their mansions during our Philippines trip two years ago -- one was built just to hold the guests for their daughter's wedding), but this just reminded me of the two things Swedes know about the Philippines... Read more>>>

Find me a funnel collar
08/3/15
There hasn't been any sit-ups for the past two days, and no spinning either. Just days after I wrote about my new fitness program, I unexpectedly had an encounter with the Swedish health service. What they (and I) thought was just a bad allergy -- I had a mystery allergy that made my eyes close shut a year ago -- was actually chicken pox!... Read more>>>

Rant number 1,952 and counting
08/3/8
I just feel like I could take my vacation right now, delay my thesis for another semester, gorge myself with Snickers and wafer chocolates, then nap in the couch, day in and day out. I'm in a mixture of apathy and boredom. I go on with my day to day activities and yet feel so under-stimulated... Read more>>>

What's new this week
08/2/27
The 3-week long nationwide book sale started yesterday, and all bookstores are participating, including Swedish-based online bookstores like Adlibris and Bokus (which are offering free freight because their wares are already cheaper than in regular bookstores)... Read more>>>

This is just to say
08/2/2
The hardest and most exhausting thing I did this week was to scrub the corns off my feet today. They were just so hard to take away! I swear I even grew some millimeters on my biceps just by filing my feet for the better part of an hour. I think I scrubbed too vigorously in the end though (with some kiai and all -- that's how emotional it was), mostly because I got too impatient for the hardened corns to disappear... Read more>>>


Much ado about trash
08/1/17
As their new year's resolution, our building administrator decided that all we tenants should begin composting. So last week, we returned from our walk to find composting kits placed outside every apartment door. The welcome-to-composting-kit consists of a sorting guide, two bundles of compostable bags, and a compost waste basket, which is a plastic container about the size of a handbag with a breathable lid and a wire handle... Read more>>>

I could go on and on and on...
07/12/09
In one of the earlier Sherlock Holmes adventures, the new flatmate Dr. Watson, was shocked to discover that Holmes, who could tell where a man had been in London by looking at the mud stains on one's shoes, was totally ignorant of the fact that the earth revolved around the sun... Read more>>>

4:45 PM, a sunset photo
07/11/26
We talked about how such an ugly thing like pollution can cause a beautiful scene to come to existence. So I heard, there are red sunsets not caused by pollution too (like in high pressure areas?). I wonder though, if cavemen ever looked out of their caves to a sky like this. Go to entry>>>

BTW, my new look...
07/11/10
In time for my birthday, of course! Thanks, Gertie -- my otherwise 280-kroner haircut (that's a whopping 2K pesos, would you believe?) was a birthday "service" :-) I posted that and some pictures from this weekend at my photoblog (click here for the album)... Read more>>>

Sick or sweet?
07/10/29
I first read about Emma Megitt on the city's entertainment paper, there she was holding two stuffed toys that was the product of her masters degree in design. The characters -- a little yellow onion-shaped dude and his brown Bibendum-like friend -- seemed cute, until you realize that they're actually supposed to be pee and poo... Read more>>>



The H-Day
07/9/3
This morning, I drank my morning tea while listening to the radio. The hosts discussed the 40th anniversary today of Sweden's biggest collaborative project yet, the so-called "starting point for safer traffic" that took 4 years of costly government propaganda before its execution on September 3, 1967. It was the day when Sweden changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right side -- Dagen H... Read more>>>

What do you know...
07/8/12
It's Home and Away's 100th post! Hip hip hooray! ... but hey, who's counting anyway? ;-) I guess the me of one year ago just didn't see this coming. Thanks to everyone who's been keeping in touch and have been regularly viewing. I do try my best to keep you all entertained ;-D... Read more>>>

Joy's photo contest number 5
07/7/30
Nope, I swear I didn't edit this picture, but -- egad!-- what's that giant insect on the window? It's almost as big as a leaf! Look closely again at the picture (click to see full size) before you make your choice! It's a... Read more>>>

(another) Cure for the bored
07/7/9
The Swedish army band --where the talented young musicians go on their military service-- must practice a lot. Need I say more? Oh yeah, the cymbalist and the bass drummer are the funniest :-) Go to entry>>>

Joy's photo contest number 4
07/6/13
Long time no photo contest! This one I have been meaning to ask for a long time if I only had a good enough picture, so I just shot one today, finally... Today's question: What in the world could these be?.... Read more>>>

Intermission! I've been tagged...
07/6/1
...by Christianne, A Filipina in Stockholm whom I have met through this blog and met personally (heheh "eyeballed!") while running from one Stockholm tourist destination to the next with Kristine and Marcus some weeks ago... Read more>>>

Spring, easter and lots of good weather
07/3/31
Not all flowers and trees apparently bloom at the same time when spring comes. Certain types of flowers are an early sign of spring and even start blooming under the snow, while some others don't sprout out from their dirt beds until it's warm and comfortable outside. Not all trees grow leaves at the same time either... Read more>>>

All about exercise
07/3/28
Karin convinced me that it would be fun and exciting to go to this gym class called "Kombipass," which combines a 50-minute bodypump class (i.e. weight training) with 40 minutes of intensive spinning. Now I know why I have been putting it off since yesterday! Oh, my poor aching muscles!... Read more>>>

The evil midgets speak
07/3/5
Speaking of spring (and flowers growing, and birds laying eggs and all that), the entertainment magazine Nollelva--equivalent of Inquirer Super-- had come up with a wedding-themed issue in which they asked early gradeschoolers what they thought about marriage. Children are strange creatures... Read more>>>

Strange but True
07/2/11
1. Here in Norrköping, a zoo curator got seven stitches to the head after a giraffe fell on him. The zoo keepers were trying to anesthesize the giraffe to test it for tuberculosis, but the giraffe fell the wrong way and fell on the curator instead. The fall also killed the giraffe, who turned out to have no tuberculosis.... Read more>>>

Frost but no snow
06/12/17
It's past the middle of December and there's still no snow (with the exception of the north of Sweden, where it has started snowing since early October). In fact, after that freak snowstorm down here in October (which lasted a day, but left the streets snowy for about a week and stranded trains in Stockholm for days)... Read more>>>

Announcement
06/12/06
I've just transfered all the photos previously in Fotix to a new blog, so that all the photos can be in one site. I haven't uploaded any new pictures yet since October though, so it might not be of interest to those who have already seen the pictures. Also, I'm still deciding what kind of pictures I want to put on this online album in the future... Read more>>>

Joy's photo contest number 3
06/9/2
Sorry for this intermission, but I really couldn't help myself! What could be the winning caption for this photo? [ ] 1. "Hail, large mysterious floating object! Please accept our offering!" [ ] 2. "Help us, whale god! We've been cursed to look like fish!" [ ] 3. "Welcome, Ezperanza!"... Read more>>>

Not exactly the grinning Chesire cat
06/6/17
Anyway, I'm trying to be a little more creative in my picture-taking, since I realized that most of my pictures early this year involved smiling people around dining tables, tourist attractions, smiling people in sofas, more tourist attractions, smiling people in front of tourist attractions, and so on... you get what I mean.... Read more>>>

Joy's photo contest number 2
06/6/12


These two pictures were taken 21 hours apart. Which one is sunset and which one is sundown?
... Read more>>>

Para kay Camillo...
06/5/24
Sige, sige, papatulan ko na 'to.... Mabait ka naman sakin eh :-D Heheh. Pero wala na kong ibang ma-ta-tag na iba kundi sina Val, PJ at Carlo siguro... Read more>>>

Cure for the bored
06/5/19
c/o Dilbert. You must admit it is funny :-) Go to entry>>>

yet another test
06/5/7
A test on whether the picture will appear horizontal. (Easter Monday picture a.k.a. "Advertisment for Schwartzwaldhof Apple Juice" Go to entry>>>

test number 2
06/5/7
Can anyone tell me how to make the font larger? (Yes, after the pains of making the blog appear this way, I don't know how to enlarge the post fonts... Genius!)... Read more>>>

this is a test
06/5/6
a test a test heheh... After years of resistance, ("Blog? Kadirs!") sa blogging din pala ang bagsak ko. Auuuughhhh... Sabi ko nga, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. :-S ...For this sacrifice,baka sakaling mas sulatan nyo ako (for that awa effect). Go to entry>>>