from floor 7

That's a wrap!

2009-07-20T23:00:00.002+02:00

I'll see you all at my new blog on Wordpress; http://anthony040.wordpress.com

PS Yeah, I couldn't think of a better idea for my 100th post.

A series of YouTubes

2009-07-11T17:30:00.001+02:00

Anthony040 is going on YouTube!

And do stay tuned to my YouTube account - got some good stuff coming up there soon.

Germany v. England - 4-0

2009-06-30T02:00:00.000+02:00

Final

2009-06-29T02:00:00.001+02:00

With the finals of the UEFA Under-21 Championships tonight at 8:30 CET between Germany and England ("Achtung, Brits!" or "Achtung, Fritz!"?), I thought I'd share this video from the FIFA World Cup 1998 made by the credit card company VISA in Argentina.

In the meanwhile, tonight's game is spectated by 21,000 fans at Malmö New Stadium and 70 million viewers around the world. Nah, I'm not too starstruck or whatever..

And yes, I'm rooting for Germany.

Transformers II

2009-06-27T15:30:00.001+02:00

Remember the Transformers-related video I put up the other day?

There's a sequel. (Nota bene: HUGE PLOT SPOILERS! But no mention it does have the theme song at the end. )

It has the theme song! YAY!

(Speechless)

2009-06-26T14:00:00.000+02:00

"I always wanted to do music that influences and inspires each generation. Lets face it, who wants mortality?"
-Michael Jackson

I've been thinking about what to write, in reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. This is obviously the biggest music story of the year, possibly of the decade - Michael Jackson was one of the greatest music stars that ever lived. No matter where in the world you might be, you could just say "Michael Jackson" and chances are the people around you will be singing "Beat It" or "Smooth Criminal" or some of his Jackson 5 material. Possibly even do the "Moonwalking", which he was so famous for.

In 1988, his fame started to blossom east of the Iron Curtain, when Soviet TV green-lighted a Pepsi commercial featuring Michael Jackson. Afterwards, there wasn't anyone who didn't hear about Michael Jackson. He sold 750 million records in a career that spanned more than 40 years - and, as Dave Chapelle once put it: He made Thriller. Thriller.

Released in 1982, Thriller was the most successful album Michael Jackson released...nay, the most successful album EVER. More than 100+ million units of Thriller sold around the world alone, more than double the number of the closest competition, AC/DC's "Back in Black" (45 million sold). Alas, all things come to an end. And yesterday, the King of Pop left his throne.

Despite some of the weirdness that was associated with him in the late stage of his career, you can't take away the fact that Michael Jackson was one of the brightest shining stars in the world of music. He inspired an entire generation of musicians and music fans, and we are now standing here wondering if there will be ever be someone like Michael Jackson again.

Thanks for everything, Michael.

PS To those that wrote that Jeff Goldblum and/or Harrison Ford died to try and get some attention after Michael Jackson - seriously, go fuck yourselves.

Transformers

2009-06-22T23:15:00.001+02:00

With the new Transformers movie coming out in cinemas this week- check this out.

And oh, Linkin Park wrote a new song which will probably replace the Transformers theme in the end credits, just like in the first movie.

It's been emotional

2009-06-20T00:05:00.001+02:00

Former football player-turned-actor/all-around bad-ass Vinnie Jones uttered those three words in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" - and I think those words are a perfect way to sum up the month that has passed since I got my new main computer; a laptop, a notebook. Acer Aspire One.

A lot has happened ever since, such as trying to find a good desk to do the work through my new notebook from. And now that I got the desk in place and doing all my work from the bedroom now (still not making any money out of it) - let me tell you of the month that has passed since May 18.

May 20 Early voting for the 2009 EU Parliamentary Elections begin. I'm in charge of keeping a steady supply of election ballots for the Swedish Pirate Party at a nearby shopping mall. Checking the voting station daily to see there is enough ballots for perspective voters.

May 27 Watching the Champions League finals between FC Barcelona and Manchester United. The incumbent bites the dust.

May 31 Football game between Malmö FF and GAIS from Gothenburg. Parts of the GAIS crowd shout racist slurs against the Malmö crowd, and they score a 2-2 draw. I get depressed, considering emigration.

June 3 Watching Terminator Salvation with my brother at a spanking new cinema in town. The movie was awesome, and it even has Arnold in it. There were too many references to the earlier Terminator movies for comfort, though. OK for new fans, but those that have seen the earlier movies might not be all that impressed.

Also, actor David Carradine dies. But I've already written about that, though.

June 5 Under-21 friendly game between Sweden and Poland. Swedish fans sing "Give Poland to Russia!" to provoke the loud Polish fans, I leave after 45 minutes since the sun is shining in my face and I already had a headache before the game.

June 6 Sweden v. Denmark in the World Cup qualification. Denmark win 1-0 in Stockholm, giving Swedes their shittiest National Day ever.

June 7 The EU elections take place all across Europe. The Pirate Party scores a stunning win in the election, getting 7,1% of the Swedish votes and getting a seat in the EU Parliament in Brussels.

June 8 Bad news. I learn that a close friend of mine, Taylor Bates (aka cerpussioner from Democracy Interactive) has fallen ill - liver failure. I learn that he is ineligable for a liver transplant, and that he has to wait six months for a possible transplant.

June 11 1:30 AM I break down in tears over Taylor. I'm afraid I might lose one of my best friends.

8:30 PM

I learn that Taylor has died. I mourn.

June 12 A god-awful day, but I still have some laundry to take care off. I think those four hours in the laundry room saved my ass.

June 16 Watching the first game in the UEFA Under-21 Championships in Malmö - Sweden v. Belarus. Crushing 5-1 victory for the home team, one of the Belarussian players kick a ball in a baby's face. Not very nice.

June 18 I buy a new working desk at IKEA.

And that's the month that has passed for me. How was your month?

64 Words

2009-06-18T19:30:00.006+02:00

Burma, present time. The Irrawaddy flows through the land. In another part of the world, the people of Iran are protesting their dictatorial regime. The world is watching.

Burma is watching.

The day will come, when Aung San Suu Kyi will finally assume her position as Prime Minister of Burma. Today is her sixty-forth birthday. I wish her good graces, and freedom to Burma.

http://www.64forsuu.org/

The Irrawaddy is flowing.

Watch more MySpace videos on AOL Video

Grasshopper

2009-06-04T16:30:00.000+02:00

Time for another celebrity obituary, I'm afraid.

Being a kid of the 1980's, I haven't seen David Carradine in some of the older movies he's made - I mainly remember him as Bill in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series. We've all seen the Kill Bill movies, have we? The Bride is left for dead after a wedding massacre, awakes from a four-year slumber and goes on a rampage that would make the R-rating blush. All while building up towards the final confrontation with Bill himself.

Here's a scene from the movie, I'll show you.

Kung Fu star Carradine found dead
Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room.

Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and genitals () on Thursday morning.

The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder. Mr Binder said the news was "shocking", adding: "He was full of life, always wanting to work... a great person."

After a career which included more than 100 movies with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Ingmar Bergman, he recently found fame again thanks to his role in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film Kill Bill.

30 years ago today...

2009-05-30T18:45:00.000+02:00

...Malmö FF officially became the greatest football club in Swedish history, when they played against Nottingham Forest in the European Cup finals - the tournament that preceded the current Champions League. Nottingham won after a goal from Trevor Francis in the last minutes of the first half, but declined to play the Intercontinental Cup finals against Olimpia Asunción from Paraguay - which led to Malmö FF playing the finals instead, and becoming The Best Team in the World if they were to win.

Alas, Olimpia won 3-1 on aggregate, but that didn't stop Malmö FF from being the second-best team in the world. A feat that will probably never be repeated again in Swedish football.

30 years ago today.

And the winner is...

2009-05-17T00:35:00.002+02:00

So the Eurovision Song Contest just finished a little while ago. Arash, Aysel, and Azerbaijan, whom I mentioned in an earlier post, finished on a strong third place scoring 207 points with "Always". Who won the competition? Belarus-born Alexander Rybak, representing Norway with "Fairytale". Rybak scored an astonishing 387 points, beating the previous record set by the Finnish hard rock band Lordi in 2006 (292 points) with "Hard Rock Hallelujah".

Note that he was born on May 13, 1986 - just like the author of this blog.

And of course, the Swedes are saying that this was "rigged" because Sweden finished in the lower half (21st place, 33 points), the competition was held in Russia ("REMEMBER POLTAVA!!!"), the winner was born in the USSR... If only Swedes knew how to accept defeat, instead of showing their Russophobia.

Seriously, though... Gratulerar, Alexander! Gratulerar, Arash! Gratulerar, Aysel!

And a happy Syttende Mai, Norge!!!

Video galore!

2009-05-12T15:00:00.001+02:00

On this day today, one year ago, an epic piece of video was released: Bill O'Reilly Flips Out.

Seriously, who doesn't love seeing the FOX News douchebag O'Reilly go apeshit and yell naughty words into the camera? As I'm writing this, 5.677.942 people all around the world can't be wrong. And today, May 12, I have another epic video to present...

Last year, a satirical feud broke out between two famous Internet personalities; The Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic. The battle officially started with this video released in 2008, followed by a video response from The Nerd himself.

The "rivalry" eventually resulted in a fight, then another fight...
And then the video I'm about to mention.

This shit is epic. This might possibly be the best video ever made. This is so good, that I'm not gonna bother describe it! I'm not even embedding it on the site, leeching invaluable bandwith...

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/6719-1-year-anniversary-video

Watch it, and be thankful that we have the Internets.

Outbreaks on a plane

2009-05-11T23:30:00.001+02:00

Swedish hooligans brawl on airplane

STOCKHOLM - Football fans assaulted a passenger and threatened flight attendants on a flight following a Swedish league match, police said Monday. The trouble started late Sunday on a Malmo Aviation plane with about 100 passengers, including fans of Stockholm club Djurgarden who were returning to the capital after an away match in Malmo, in southern Sweden, police and airline officials said.

Stockholm police spokesman Mats Eriksson said five people involved in a brawl were removed from the plane before takeoff but the ruckus continued during the flight and seven others were questioned by police upon arrival at Stockholm's Bromma airport. Eriksson said the fans were noisy, "didn't sit down, didn't fasten their seat belts and didn't follow directions from the attendants."

One passenger who tried to stop the hooligans was beaten up and taken to hospital after arrival but was not seriously injured, Malmo Aviation spokesman Olof Lofgren said. He said the pilot was considering interrupting the flight and landing at another airport, but decided to continue to Bromma were police were waiting. "We transport football supporters a lot, but I've never experienced anything like this," Lofgren said. "It's deplorable that adults act this way."

Eriksson said no one was arrested but some of those involved could face charges of assault, disturbing public order and even air sabotage, a crime punishable by up to four years in prison. Like many European countries, Sweden is struggling to deal with fan violence in connection with football matches. Buses and trains are often vandalized as rowdy fans travel across the country. "It's absolutely more serious when it happens on a plane than a train or a bus," Eriksson said.

Djurgarden lost Sunday's match against Malmo FF 2-1. Djurgarden issued a statement expressing regret about the plane incidents but added it had very little information on what had happened.

HO. LY. SHIT.

I saw the game myself yesterday, and I did notice the Djurgården fans being very cocky at the away section, yelling "We hate Malmö" during parts of the second half (the score was 1-1). When Wilton Figureido scored the winning goal for Malmö about 15 minutes later, the Djurgården fans went silent for most of the game. In the end, I was just thinking about the poor guys who had to dig up 20 SEK for the bus to the Central Train Station, since most of them had taken the X2000 train to Malmö.

But A) I didn't know some of them had taken the plane. And B) Why the fuck are they starting a fight on an airplane in a post-9/11 time, when even the slightest indication of plane disturbance brings out the freakin' Army?! Thank goodness the plane was only taxing at the airport tarmac when the fracas broke out, but... Jesus!

Anyhow, I managed to get some video from the game itself, which I will put up later this week. Good video.

Flashback

2009-05-09T15:00:00.001+02:00

Metro Sweden - August 2, 2006

Actor Heath Ledger plays The Joker in the next Batman movie, "The Dark Knight", writes E Online.
-Watching Heath Ledger's interpretation of this iconic character will be amazing, says director Christopher Nolan. The shooting of the movie will start in the beginning of next year.

Alas, if Heath could've been here to see the success that The Dark Knight turned out to be. I wonder if they have cinemas at The Great Silver Screen in Heaven.

Dun dun DUNNNN!!

2009-05-05T17:45:00.000+02:00

Dom DeLuise aka "Captain Chaos" 1933 - 2009

Potter spoiler

2009-05-05T00:05:00.002+02:00

Only in Japan!

2009-05-01T16:50:00.001+02:00

Wii Fail

2009-04-27T21:45:00.000+02:00

This is the reason why the next game console I'm buying is the XBOX 360.

Storm (aka I'm still alive)

2009-04-22T00:05:00.000+02:00

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Ten days

2009-04-11T19:15:00.000+02:00

No, I haven't been captured by Sweden's new Reichführer, Henrik Pontén, for using the Internet. (FRA, IPRED) I've simply not had anything to write about the last ten days. So I thought I would summarize the last ten days for you here.

I made a new Malmö FF widget, which you can see to the right of this article. Unfortunately, I can't do any live reports from the games at the stadium for the Twitter account. Yeah, I'm on Twitter now.

I've been bothered by Scientologists spreading their "Dianetics" propaganda, and told them to their face that "Scientology is Brainwashing". Someone has to say it.

I've noticed some people writing right-wing anti-immigrant blogs have nothing better to do than sit and press F5 until an article about immigrant violence pops up, so they can write about it and spread their hate across the Internet.

Winter is officially over now.

A world record attempt in most simultaneous teabaggings will take place across the United States on April 15. Only white people are allowed, it seems. Where is the love?

Leona Lewis does an amazing cover of Snow Patrol's "Run". Listen here.

Yeah, that's the latest ten days in my life. And one month to go before I turn 23.

2009-04-01T23:59:00.001+02:00

The Prometheus Project

2009-04-01T13:04:00.004+02:00

This is going to be tough. But here it goes...

The blog is shutting down. From Floor 7 is going off the air.

Why now already? Don't I have an exciting 2009 ahead of me?

I do have. But a lot of factors have come up lately that force me to take this decision.

The IPRED Law is coming to effect today. Which, combined with the FRA Law, makes Swedish internet even more monitored than it already is today.

But there is also another law that is coming to effect today:

The Prometheus Project.

A project that has only been known through blue prints and theories since 1982, but now - with today's modern global technology - finally coming to effect.

Sweden has been chosen as the testing ground, and Swedish Internet users have no choice but to accept that their Internet habits will now be monitored by the Prometheus Project.

Click here to find out more.

We will need a lot more hemp before we're through

Charity Smackdown - Wrap

2009-03-27T10:40:00.001+01:00

Charity Smackdown is now over, and here is the final scoreboard after ten days of fundraising:

#1 $9120 Corbin Bleu - Stand Up To Cancer
#2 $7925 Alec Baldwin - The Actors Fund
#3 $4225 Team Mashable - The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
#4 $2885 Brea Grant - Girls Rock Camp
#5 $2870 Kyle Petty - Victory Junction
#6 $1490 Team Elevenmoms - Share Our Strength
#7 $1105 Ernie Johnson - Samaritan's Feet
#8 $ 445 Hayden Panettiere - Save the Whales Again!
#9 $ 305 Linkin Park - Music For Relief

Congratulations to all the charities and congratulations to Corbin and Stand Up To Cancer - I just wonder why Music For Relief didn't make that much impact. On to our next charity - One Love For Chi!

$8,000 raised so far - and counting. There's no competition or time limit here, just our love and support.

Chi Update

2009-03-24T12:25:00.002+01:00

A couple of months ago, I wrote about Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, following a car accident in November that had left him in a coma. He is still in a state of coma, although he is slowly but surely recovering from his injuries. The family of Chi have now started a blog with updates on his condition: One Love For Chi. A website with the same name including a fundraiser to help pay for Chi's hospital bills has also been started; so far, around $3,000 have been raised from an initial goal of $20,000. From the site:

Our initial goal is to raise $20,000.00. (Just to clarify because some have made comments regarding the goal amount... this is just a 'starting goal' for us and is literally a drop in the bucket in comparison to what is needed.)

Chi has many times over 2000 fans and if each one of us can donate $10.00, $50.00 or $100.00+ (any amount helps) we can easily achieve our goal. We have power in numbers. Each little bit that we contribute will accumulate to help make a difference in Chi's recovery.

So as soon as the Charity Smackdown fundraiser is complete - just a few days left now! - I will put up a widget for you to help out too. And, of course, best wishes to Chi and the Cheng family.

Smackdown!

2009-03-20T01:15:00.001+01:00

Notice the little widget I put up to the top-right of the site? Charity Smackdown is a project where nine charities, some led by celebrities such as "High School Musical" star Corbin Bleu, actor Alec Baldwin, and world-famous rock group Linkin Park, are promoting their charities and having a competition on which charity that raises the most money. This fundraiser started on Monday and will end next Thursday, March 26.

Right now, the "Stand Up To Cancer" charity, led by Corbin Bleu (to your left) is in the lead - while the Music For Relief charity, led by Linkin Park, are dead-last...

Unless I have something to say about that! So I just sent a 15 dollar donation to MFR through the widget that you see - and I would suggest you help the cause out too. Music For Relief was founded in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and has gathered many musicians from different genres of music to help victims of natural disasters around the world. More below:

Founded by members of the band Linkin Park, Music for Relief is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to victims of natural disasters and the prevention of such disasters. Since its inception in 2005, Music for Relief has raised over $3 million for the victims of the tsunami tragedy in Southeast Asia, hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav & Ike, Southern CA Wildfires, Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the 5.12 earthquake in China, and the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe. For more information visit www.musicforrelief.org

Makes you wanna grab a Lincoln to help out Linkin, right? Yeah, that was a pun.
http://www.charitysmackdown.com/

48 Hours

2009-03-19T00:05:00.001+01:00

You know how some people say that something is "so bad, that it's good"?
It's not impossible that this is the video they had in mind.

For more craziness from Dan Potacke, check out explosionofawesome.net

Saint Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T19:15:00.000+01:00

Always

2009-03-12T07:00:00.001+01:00

Well, let's write about something positive here for a change.

If you are reading this in Europe, you probably know that the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in Moscow in May - artists from all over Europe (except Georgia) will come to the Russian capital to compete in who's performing the best song in Europe 2009. Forty-two different songs from forty-two different artists throughout Europe will be performed - which one will you be rooting for? I think I've made my choice already. Sweden? No, all the Swedish songs sound exactly the same. The same Marianne Records-produced Stureplan disco pop where the final verse is always sung a semitone higher than the rest of the song. Gag me with a spoon! No, who will I be rooting for this year?

Azerbaijan.

This Eurasian former Soviet Republic is represented this year by Aysel Teymurzadeh, who will perform the song "Always", with none other than my city of Malmö's brightest shining star in music right now - Arash! Arash has, with his style of pop music with Persian elements mixed into it (he was born in Tehran, Iran), become popular throughout Europe and the Middle East, and has performed at sold-out venues in Los Angeles, Poland, and Tajikistan. I kid you not. And if he can attract huge crowds all around the world - imagine what he could do at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Want some idea of how the live performance of the show might look in Moscow on May 16th? Here's a link to Aysel's blog, showing a performance of "Always" on Russian television. With that said, good luck to Aysel and Arash! You already have my vote - now let's see if we'll hear "douze points" to the two in Moscow.

And in case anyone is bitching about all the Eastern European countries voting for each other (Estonia-Latvia-Turkey-Ukraine-Greece-Finland-Serbia-Russia) - just lobby for the Soviet Union to be brought back.

PS I know how the conversation goes on sites like YouTube if even the faintest mention of Azerbaijan is made - a huge "virtual war" breaks out between the Azeris and their neighbors/rivals Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - and then the Turks comes in, and then the Greeks, and then the Macedonians, and then the Albanians... And so on and so on and so on. I'm not taking any political stances with this endorsement - I'm just saying that Azerbaijan has the best song in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't agree with me - fine. There are forty-one other countries to vote for - just don't start a big "virtual war" here; I will remove any such comments on the double.

Dreams

2009-03-04T19:30:00.002+01:00

So I had this dream last night that I was on the plane to Japan, ready to go. But the plane never quite lifts off to the air. It's stalling and shaking a bit, and later lands gear-up to the ground. Kinda like that recent accident in Amsterdam. Somehow, I think the dream is trying to tell me something. That I am trying to get away from all the problems on my own wings, but not quite capable to. I need to figure out my purpouse.

Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed on August 12, 1985. Nine months later, I was born.

Forget that I wrote this. I'm just having another bad day today.

Video Game WTF - Part 1

2009-03-02T00:05:00.001+01:00

This is NOT how to react when you get capped up there.

Movie review: Waltz with Bashir (2008)

2009-02-27T01:05:00.001+01:00

Title: ואלס עם באשיר (Vals Im Bashir)
Genre: Drama/Documentary
Length: 1h 30m
Country: Israel
Certification: 18+

There have been many milestones throughout the years in the genre of animated cinema. Walt Disney introduced us to the Disney animated features such as the Jungle Book, Fantasia, and the Lion King. 1988 saw the arrival of Akira, which pioneered the animated action genre and saw the popularity of Japanese animation explode around the world. And now, another milestone in the history of animated cinema is here: Waltz with Bashir.

The main character of this film is Ari Folman, one of Israel's most famous movie directors. At the age of nineteen, he served in Lebanon during their 1982 civil war. The civil war claims many casualties, and eventually claims the life of Lebanon's then-President Bashir Gemayel. In an act of retaliation, the Bashir-allied Phalangists move into Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and carry out a brutal massacre against the refugees. In present time, Ari tries to remember his experiences from Lebanon, but can only remember a swim in the beach of Beirut, with only the sun rising and the flares in the sky lighting up the night. So Ari starts to talk with some of his friends, trying to recover his memories from his service in Lebanon.

There are many stories to be told from Ari's friends in the movie - such as Ronny, who was forced to swim to safety after his tank was attacked and his comrades were shot down as they were trying to get away. Ron Ben-Yishai, the first Israeli journalist to cover the camp massacres, talks about when he called then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to inform him that a massacre had taken place. Frenkel, who in the middle of a firefight grabs a machine gun and sprays bullets all over the street while dancing "an insane waltz" - hence the title of the movie, "Waltz with Bashir".

This movie is not a glorification of war, or the armed forces. This is a movie about when young men are going to war, and how they are trying to cope with the situation. And in a comment that some might find controversial in the aftermath of the recent events in the Gaza Strip, one of Ari's friends makes a comparison of Sabra and Shatila to Auschwitz.

No matter what you might think about the situation in the Middle East, or the conflicts between Israel and Palestine or Lebanon or Syria, I strongly suggest that you should watch this movie. It gives you a glimpse into the chaos that almost tore the whole Middle East apart, and to this day still does so. And do give the soundtrack a listen too; the score written by Max Richter gives this movie an even more epic feel, as is evidenced by the track "The Haunted Ocean", which plays during Ari's flashbacks to that early morning in Beirut.

It's a shame that this movie didn't win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in the recent Academy Awards - but it has done well, nonetheless. It was considered one of the best movies of 2008, and has also won a Golden Globe award for the mentioned category. And despite the movie being officially banned in Lebanon, there have been some private screenings of the movie in Beirut, and also in other Middle Eastern countries that normally wouldn't allow Israeli movies to be shown. These screenings have done well there, and Folman had this to say:

"I was overwhelmed and excited. I wish I could have been there. I wish one day I'll be able to present the film myself in Beirut. For me, it will be the happiest day of my life."

And I couldn't agree more.

Having made WALTZ WITH BASHIR from the point of view of a common soldier, I’ve come to one conclusion: war is so useless that it‘s unbelievable. It’s nothing like you’ve seen in American movies. No glam, no glory. Just very young men going nowhere, shooting at no one they know, getting shot by no one they know, then going home and trying to forget. Sometimes they can. Most of the time they cannot.
-Ari Folman

2010

2009-02-26T17:45:00.000+01:00

An economic crisis.
Poor people everywhere.
Anarchy in the streets.
Boots on the ground in the streets.
Marching in unison.
1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4.

And a right-wing that are dominating the Internet debate in Sweden.
On September 19, 2010, Sweden is going Fascist.

Movie review tomorrow. Not related to what I just wrote here, though.

2009-02-23T04:08:00.000+01:00

Congratulations, Heath...

Help!

2009-02-20T19:15:00.000+01:00

I can't take the place I live in anymore. It feels like living in an asylum, with all the sick people in here. It feels like the Truman Show, as I see the same things over and over again.

The same old man taking the elevator when I'm on it. The same man in a wheelchair rolling through a street where heavy car traffic passes by, risking his life. The same neighbors kids that always scream and shout in Arabic when they're in the hallway.

I need to get out. I need to get out of there NOW. Is this a plea for help? You damn sure it is.

I was planning to write from the hockey tonight, but I'll put that on hold 'til later. Last game's info can be found here, and tonight's game will probably pop up soon.

For now, I need to get at peace. 'Cause I need a break. A long break.
But I'll be back soon - not too soon, I hope.

Brr!

2009-02-18T03:20:00.003+01:00

Couldn't quite sleep tonight, so I checked some of my e-mails and noticed the outside temperature through the Weather Widget I got with Vista. Is it cold over here, or what?

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo38/040anthony/-14_celsius.png

Lucky there's a Christian Bale!

2009-02-16T22:30:00.001+01:00

Phoenix rising 4

2009-02-14T00:30:00.000+01:00

Malmö Arena sold out. Big game tonight against AIK, one of the teams from Stockholm - ranked second in the league. We're ranked seventh. Like I said, big game tonight. Oh, how will this go?

PERIOD 1

0-1 #21 C. Sandberg 1:05

Aww, shit! AIK scores after a minute. The fans are still singing and supporting the home team, though. Come on, Malmö...

1-1 #42 J. Urbas 4:48

Equalized! One of the youngsters that have helped the "Babyhawks", Jan Urbas, scores 1-1 for Malmö and the crowd are on their feet. Alright, lets take the lead now...

2-1 #15 D. MacLean 5:29

BOOYA! Don MacLean strikes again, and Malmö takes the lead! Happy days are here again, the skies above are clear again...

2-2 #72 E. Ryman 15:37 4/4

WTF?
Following a fight between Alvarez and Bång (didn't Michael Phelps get in trouble recently for smoking such a device?), AIK equalize. Dammit, I thought we were doing good.

PERIOD 2

This period is going nowhere, folks. The two teams are just pacing back and forth and back and forth and back and forth... I really don't see anything happening soon-

3-2 #44 N. Hardt 18:48 5/4

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!

Can this get any better?!

4-2 #10 R. Alvarez 19:59(!)

Yes, it does! With just one second to go of the second period, Nilsson-Alvarez scores 4-2 to Malmö! This is getting better and better and better!

PERIOD 3

Attendance: 12262

After seven minutes into the third and final period, Fredrik Karlsson sends his stick up the face of AIK's Beck, and gets a 2+2 minute penalty for Hooking. Bad idea. However, AIK are unable to produce anything during the one-man advantage, and what happens when Eriksson returns? AIK gets two players into the booth. And who scores the first goal, in a 5-on-3 situation?

5-2 #71 F. Eriksson 12:38 5/3

Fredrik Karlsson! And one minute haven't passed since that goal when Olsson steps forth.

6-2 #20 M. Olsson 13:27 5/4

Malmö IF - AIK Solna 6-2 (2-2, 2-0, 2-0)

FIVE VICTORIES IN A ROW! One, two, three, four, five!
Next game? Nybro next Friday - and they got a 7-1 trashing from the "Babyhawks" - as the local media have refered to them as - back on February 5. This game should be just as successful as tonight's game.

Friday the 13th? Yeah, whatever.

Phoenix rising 3

2009-02-11T22:30:00.000+01:00

Bofors Bobcats 3 - 4 Malmö IF (2-1, 0-1, 1-1, 0-1)

PERIOD 1

1-0 #82 M. Andersson 3:31
1-1 #71 F. Eriksson 6:42
2-1 #23 F. Höggren 16:36

PERIOD 2

2-2 #15 D. MacLean 12:07

PERIOD 3

3-2 #27 B. Östlund 6:22
3-3 #10 R. Alvarez 19:06

PERIOD 4 (SUDDEN DEATH)

3-4 #07 J. Damgaard 3:55

Attendance: 4339

Way more exciting than the recent game against Nybro, with Malmö struggling against Bofors maintaining a home lead before scoring a critical equalizer goal in the dying seconds of the third period, and then scoring a Sudden Death goal through Jesper Damgaard after three minutes. The next game is against AIK on Friday at home, and the game is sold out.
All 12,000+ seats there.

So with four games played after 1/29 - four victories in a row. How about a fifth on Friday?

You can't beat that feeling

2009-02-07T20:45:00.001+01:00

aka How to waste tons of Coca-Cola and put it up on YouTube.

At least they didn't drop Mentos into those bottles. Imagine what that would look like!

EDIT: Listen to the guy at 1:09 - I had no idea Stallone spoke Serbian.

Phoenix rising 2

2009-02-05T22:00:00.001+01:00

Malmö IF 7 - 1 Nybro Vikings (1-0, 2-1, 4-0)

PERIOD 1

1-0 #20 M. Olsson 6:06 5/4

PERIOD 2

1-1 #81 R. Kimby 7:38
2-1 #86 T. Wallgren 8:05
3-1 #71 F. Eriksson 11:19 5/4

PERIOD 3

4-1 #86 T. Wallgren (2) 6:01
5-1 #86 T. Wallgren (3) 14:21
6-1 #27 C. Söderberg 15:22
7-1 #10 R. Alvarez 19:40

Attendance: 7244

Malmö IF climbs up to the 7th place in the league, and grabs hold on the final play-off spot. Next game: Bofors on February 11.

Mian-hamnida

2009-02-02T15:55:00.002+01:00

I really wanted to go there. I really wanted to see Korea.

South Korea's Sunshine policy towards the North has been in a virtual coma for the two months since the inauguration of conservative Lee Myung-bak as president of the South. Lee wants to act tough and teach Pyongyang a lesson on a Confucian golden rule: reciprocity.

Lee believes Pyongyang failed to learn from the carrots Seoul patiently dangled during over the past 10 years. South Korea, in Lee's mind, held onto a naive belief that such goodwill gestures would eventually be reciprocated by Pyongyang. Now, it's time for a reality check, hardliners are clamoring, and many are describing the time spent on the Sunshine policy as the "lost 10 years".

Yes, I am well aware that South Korea is still in a technical state of war with the North, and that one single spark could set the two Koreas ablaze. A remnant of the Cold War-era style of politics: Brothers and sisters, fellow peoples, separated by ideology. I am well aware that the two Koreas have been in a state of war since the Korean War ended in 1953, and yet restrained themselves and just went on with business as usual. The Arirang Festival. The 2002 FIFA World Cup.

North Korea warned Sunday that South Korea's confrontational policies may trigger a war on the divided peninsula, a message coming two days after the communist country vowed to abandon all peace agreements with its southern neighbor.

Relations between the two Koreas have been strained since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office nearly a year ago in Seoul, pledging to take a harder line on the North. Tension heightened Friday when the North said it was ditching a nonaggression pact and all other peace accords with South Korea.

This will probably not make me very popular in Korea, as I will be visiting Japan as planned. I have read about the atrocities carried out by the Army of Imperial Japan during World War II against Korea and other Asian countries, and I am shocked that there are some elements in Japan that still celebrate that chapter in Asian history. As naïve as it might sound - I had nothing to do with it, and I shouldn't have to worry about it.

Though I condemn the Japanese atrocities of World War II. 60+ years ago.

I am sorry to see the game of politics and regional domination stop me from visiting Korea. I hope to visit there someday, hopefully in a more peaceful Korea. Until then...

죄송합니다

Phoenix rising

2009-02-01T22:00:00.001+01:00

Back in November, I wrote about when I attended a hockey game between the Malmö Redhawks and the Växjö Lakers at the new Malmö Arena - that game was a disaster, since the Redhawks suffered a 1-5 defeat at home. And after that game, there were more defeats and more fans staying away from the new stadium, refusing to see the poor performance from the Redhawks. On January 28, Redhawks suffered a 2-4 defeat against the lowest-ranked team in the second-tier league, Mariestad BOIS, after maintaining a 2-0 lead until the last period of the game, when they conceded four goals within 20 minutes. The day after, January 29, Redhawks management announced that all the players would be released and free to go to other hockey teams, following a poor financial situation.

On January 29, 2009, Malmö Redhawks died.

On January 29, 2009, Malmö IF returned, like Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Malmö IF had morphed into Malmö Redhawks in 1996 as part of a "new image" for the Malmö hockey team - but success for the team was nowhere to be seen. Then a new hockey arena was built, but Malmö had already fallen from the top league, Elitserien, to the second-tier league Allsvenskan. And even in there, there wasn't enough success to get fans dedicated to follow their team throughout the season. And then that day came, when players were free to leave. The following players decided to ride into the sunset:

Marcus Paulsson. Robin Weihager. Henrik Karlsson. Jonas Höglund. Johan Björk. Mathias Johansson.

The rest decided to stay and fight another day. What do you get when you take out all the well-paid stars and replace them with younger players and players with team spirit? That's right, you get a team. Malmö won their first game after 1/29 against Huddinge with 2-0, and won earlier today against Sundsvall with 4-1. Here are some pictures from the game, courtesy of the MIF fansite Höknästet:

This is what the league table looks like right now:

Malmö could very well climb up to the 7th place and grab hold of the last play-off spot before the play-off season starts in March. And if the lads keep their spirits up and fight through the remaining games of the season, Malmö might not only dodge their hockey team going down from bankrupcy. Just a couple of days ago, Malmö Redhawks stood with one foot in the grave - but now, Malmö IF are standing with one foot in the play-off. And maybe, just maybe, returning to the top league next season...

Oh-oh

2009-01-30T03:50:00.001+01:00

Oh, for fuck's sake.

North Korea scraps all accords with South

North Korea said on Friday it was scrapping all accords with the South, the latest in a series of verbal attacks on its neighbor that analysts say are more aimed at grabbing the attention of new U.S. President Barack Obama. One analyst said the latest rise in tension increased the chances of a military clash on the heavily armed border that has divided the two Koreas for more than half a century.

"There is neither way to improve (relations) nor hope to bring them on track," North Korea's KCNA news agency quoted the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea as saying. Tension had reached "such extremes" that "inter-Korean relations have reached the brink of a war," KCNA said, using a phrase commonly carried by North Korean state media. South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment.

If China and Taiwan can start getting along better, why can't the two Koreas do that either? Instead, we have a hard-line president in Seoul who believes that the Sunshine Policy is bullshit and that the North should be given the finger instead - and we have one of the world's largest armies to the north that is still in a state of war with their neighbors to the south. All it takes is one "Fuck you" from President Lee and the two countries go to war again.

With a city of 25 million people smack in the middle of the mess.

I don't know what President Lee is thinking with, but his attitude towards the North will eventually result in tourists staying away from visiting Korea, knowing that this reckless attitude might spark a conflict between the two. I know I am sitting here right now, thinking whether I should cancel my Korean leg of my Asian vacation or not. I really want to visit Korea, but not if Lee Myung-bak and Kim Jong-il are conspiring to turn the Korean peninsula into a battlefield.

25 random things

2009-01-27T04:45:00.000+01:00

(So I got tagged with a "25 random things about me" note on Facebook, and I'm going to return the favor now. Hope I don't start any violent rebellions with what I'm about to unleash to the world now.)

01. I have a tendency to say "Pizda di materina" ("Mother f---er" in Balkan slang) pretty often, if I can't think of any other profanity to use.

02. I'm a real national anthem buff. And being part-Hungarian, there's hardly a time I don't tear up when I hear the Hungarian national anthem. Look it up on YouTube if you don't believe me.

03. I once did a mid-landing in Ghana on my way home from Uruguay when I went there at the age of 2. And this was when that country was still a military dictatorship.

04. I can see Denmark from my house!

05. If I rent a movie that immediately starts with an anti-piracy PSA when I put in the disc, I don't bother watching the movie at all.

06. I think Eric Cartman is the most overrated cartoon character. EVER. A fat-ass 9-year old Hitler wannabe whose voice sounds like Michael Savage? Yawn.

07. I hated math in school. Especially when it got more and more advanced - I was just trying to graduate, not becoming a rocket scientist.

08. I'm the oldest of five children, and yet one of my brothers is getting taller than me. (Does that mean I can call myself a little brother now?)

09. I think the latest few seasons of The Simpsons suck. It has become a cartoon, not an animated sitcom. Yes, there is a difference between the two.

10. I'm a vegetarian, but I don't mind watching Gordon Ramsey's shows.

11. I have, as far as I can remember, not been stung by bees. And I don't want to either - the word is that hurts like hell.

12. I got my dad a copy of "Casino Royale" for his birthday, with an autograph from Mads Mikkelsen on it. (The picture of Mads holding the DVD is now up on his Wikipedia article - but without the DVD.)

13. I hope to attend the world premiere of the Astro Boy movie in Japan on October 23rd. Hey, one has to plan something awesome for their Asian vacation. :-)

14. I almost drowned while bathing at the beach in Alanya, Turkey, and I wasn't able to swim. At least thats what I think my dad told me.

15. Oh, and I'm still not a very good swimmer - and I don't know how to ride a bicycle either. But I can stand on a pair of inlines, if you'd like to know.

16. I try and stay up every New Year's Eve way past midnight to see the first sunrise of the new year. Even if it goes up at 9 AM.

17. I don't watch MTV, since they have turned away from music videos into reality shows. Do I really want to see "Viva La Bam" and watch Brandon Cole blow up his pedo uncle's cars? I don't think so.

18. I think McDonald's should kill Ronald McDonald, if they really want to brand themselves as the "cool" place to eat hamburgers.

19. I get amazed when I see a new skyscraper. Even if its a skyscraper that is only 20 floors tall, but its covered top-to-bottom with huge glass windows! (Mind you, I can see a 54-story skyscraper from my living room.)

20. I have a feeling I'm going to get a daughter when I become a father. And I'm going to name my kid Lucie. [cue Ricky Ricardo jokes]

21. I am shit scared of dying early and suddenly, without being given the chance to leave some kind of legacy to the world. 22 years is a long time, and I'd hate to see it all end tomorrow.

22. I am agnostic, but I will probably believe in God again when Jesus Christ comes down from heaven, rips open the ground, and throws Fred Phelps and his bastard church in there. That would make me a believer, for sure.

23. I might be Swedish, but I only have one piece of furniture that I bought at IKEA; a book shelf in my living room.

24. I love to be as effective as possible. Hell, I might be a hardcore perfectionist too, as I'm keeping track of everything. Even counting how many sips of water I take while drinking.

25. I'm passing the torch over to (your name here) to reveal your 25 random things, but I don't have a torch at home. So I'll just light this toothbrush on fire instead.

Oscar

2009-01-24T14:30:00.000+01:00

I was thinking about writing my own list of movies that I think will win in the upcoming 81st Academy Awards, but I'll just say that Heath Ledger will win an Oscar for his role as The Joker in The Dark Knight - making him the first posthumous winner of an Oscar since Peter Finch in "Network".

"Why don't you give me a call when you want to start taking things a little more seriously? Here's my card."

This is...

2009-01-21T14:10:00.000+01:00

This is my new favorite site.

January 20, 2009

2009-01-20T18:10:00.001+01:00

...and yes, we did.

Look-a-like

2009-01-19T12:45:00.001+01:00

As President(-elect) Barack Obama prepares for the inauguration tomorrow, I'd like to share a story about a Obama look-a-like in...drumroll, please...Indonesia! Yes, the very country where Obama lived as a child, when his mother Ann Dunham was married to Jakarta native Lolo Soetoro (1935-1987).

Ilham Anas is a photographer based in the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, who travels around the thousands of islands that form this South Asian country. But just like Obama City in Japan, the success of Barack Obama through the Democratic primaries and eventually the presidential election have brought a new opportunity for Ilham Anas.

Yes, Ilham Anas is in this picture. And if you checked out his personal website before you looked at this picture, you might figure out that Ilham Anas is the Barack Obama look-a-like I've been talking about. How has Mr. Anas himself reacted to his resemblance? In an interview with Reuters, Ilham Anas had this to say:

"When Obama won, my colleagues played a practical joke on me - they made me wear a suit, a tie, and took pictures of me posing as Obama. The pictures spread very quickly on the Internet - it was phenomenal. Then TV stations and an advertising agency got in touch with me. I never thought I would be a star in a commercial, then this happened. It's very fortunate. I was in the airport in Malaysia in transit and a man approached me and asked: 'Are you Obama?'. I was very surprised when he asked to take a picture together and bought me a meal," said Anas, flashing a broad smile.

Yeah, something tells me he's going to enjoy the coming eight years. And that commercial? He did indeed record a commercial in the Philippines, advertising a medical product taking place during a dinner with an actress playing their President Gloria Arroyo.

Another good link: http://obamainmanila.blogspot.com/

Kaching!

2009-01-15T21:45:00.001+01:00

It's always good to know when the team you're rooting for can do a really good cash deal when selling their players overseas. I'm rooting for Malmö FF, and they recently sold their star player, Ola Toivonen, for 49 million SEK to Dutch football team PSV Eindhoven.

Last season, Toivonen was the second best goal scorer in the Swedish football league, next to Patrik Ingelsten, Kalmar FF - who's been sold to SC Heerenveen. For 10 million SEK. Toivonen's former club Örgryte got that much from the sales clause when he was sold to Eindhoven! Where am I going with this? Malmö FF knows how to sell their players for the big money. Whereas many clubs might sell their star players for peanuts, Malmö puts the cards on the table and says "OK, but you're gonna have to pay up."

So congratulations to PSV Eindhoven's fans - one of Sweden's best young football stars has arrived. And he does look a little like Tommy Turnbull.

And in the meanwhile, we are probably going to laugh all the way to the bank and see which star player we can aquire. Except that money doesn't buy success. It pays the bills, but I guess that's pretty much it.

Feather in a hat

2009-01-12T18:40:00.000+01:00

So I'm planning to visit Japan and Korea later this year. What am I planning to do while I am there? Well, I noticed that the Astro Boy movie, based on the world famous manga series, is premiering on October 23 in Japan and the United States. Let's say that I'll hit a home-run and try and attend the premiere of the Astro Boy movie in Tokyo on October 23, when the movie is released on Japanese cinemas. Wouldn't that be a feather in my hat?!

(Photo courtesy of Imagi Animation Studios)

On a rant

2009-01-07T14:30:00.001+01:00

I chafed my foot during workout, so I feel like going on a rant today.

I found an article posted at Aftonbladet where a guy living in Stockholm, Fredrik, talks about how people there wait in line for the bus. Nothing too unusual, I bet the city where you sit and read this have people waiting in line for the bus. But one of the commentors on the article makes a very weird comment - #13, Aylala, writes at one point that "if Swedes are the Japanese of Europe, then Stockholm is the Tokyo of Europe!"

Scusi?

"Stockholm is the Tokyo of Europe!"

I don't think so. I've been to Stockholm myself, and its nothing like Tokyo there. Where did this guy get the comparison from? He suddenly compares the Stockholm bus system to the Tokyo subway system. WTF. I am well aware that both Stockholm and Tokyo have subways, but how can you make the comparison when you're comparing the bus system of a city with about 2 million people to the subway system in a megalopolis of 40 million people? How does that make any sense?

What's funny is that I'm doing a google on "Europas Tokyo" ("Tokyo of Europe" in Swedish), and most results don't bring up Stockholm. They don't bring up Gothenburg. Instead, they bring up the third largest city, which happens to be...

...where I live. (I know, the picture is fake - a guy can dream, can't he?)

Oh well. Got my latest two Lovefilm movies today: An Inconvient Truth and Doom. I know, you never thought to see Al Gore and a BFG in the same sentence, didn't ya? Well, except if Gore used the BFG on those who insist the global warming theory is fake because its Al Gore talking about it.

"You want to say that global warming is a liberal lie, Mr. Savage?"

Weenie roast

2009-01-02T15:00:00.004+01:00

DemocracyInteractive. Where people can come and talk politics, or comment on the latest weird off-beat news in the world.

Darryl - Moscow police reported today that a man's ex-wife set his penis on fire while he was sitting down naked drinking vodka and watching television.
anthony040 -
anthony040 - Well, Merry Christmas to him!
Darryl - The ex-husband told a newspaper reporter that "it was monstrously painful", and that "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this." I don't know the full details but I am willing to bet that vodka played a part in it somehow!
Darryl - haha ouch!
anthony040 -
TomALT - know why she's his ex
Darryl - yeah
anthony040 - My wife set my on fire!
Darryl - She decided to have a weenie roast
anthony040 - haha
Darryl -

(Note: "haha" translates to a loud "HAAA-HA-HA-HA!!!" at the chat.)

In the year 2000 - and nine

2009-01-01T20:00:00.002+01:00

Just thought I would kick the new year off on a funny note.
Meat Diddy...

See you next year

2008-12-29T01:30:00.001+01:00

So this is my last post for the year. Only a couple of days left of this year...wonder what will happen in 2009.
Hmm, already got stuff planned. Nice.

Well, time to get serious and look back on who I lost this year.

Abuela,

Mikael,

Tsedey,

I miss you. And I will carry the memories of you into the next year. One day, I know you're going to look down to me and be so proud. Until then...rest easy.

And to everyone else - see you in 2009.

Birdie

2008-12-25T15:45:00.001+01:00

Tashkent. The capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Home to the Bolshoi Navoi Theater, ranked 2nd of the ballet theatres in the former Soviet Union. Home to the statue of Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Empire which stretched from Turkey to Pakistan.

Home to annoying birds that fly into the pitch during football games!

No football players were harmed in the making of this video. Birds, not so much.

Got the turkey on?

2008-12-24T14:55:00.000+01:00

Got bamboo?

2008-12-23T15:30:00.003+01:00

Well, time for something nice to write about in Christmas times. Per BBC:

Two giant pandas have arrived in Taiwan from China, a gift from Beijing to a self-governing island it considers part of Chinese territory.

Together their names (Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan) mean reunion, underscoring hopes that their arrival in Taiwan will spur unity between the two sides.

But the gesture is not welcomed by everyone in Taiwan. The pandas were first offered three years ago, but were rejected by the president at the time. That decision was reversed after Taiwan's nationalists - the Kuomintang - won the presidency in May. Since then, diplomatic and economic links have improved. Last week daily passenger flights, new shipping routes and postal links between the two sides were established for the first time in six decades.

For next year, I wish more countries could follow the example that China and Taiwan are starting to set and come closer together. Heck, it wouldn't be too shabby if the two Koreas got peacefully reunited while I was having my vacation there. I know what I'd say.

I was there.

Special Comment

2008-12-19T20:50:00.001+01:00

It's hardly a secret these days that I don't like the road that Sweden is winding down towards. In the last couple of days, my city of Malmö has seen violent riots in the neighborhood of Rosengård - the main immigrant area of town. A basement mosque was shut down and this has triggered riots that have caused havoc across the area. The pictures tell the story of the chaos that is unfolding over Scandinavia as we speak - not very different from what is going on in Greece right now. But what is really shocking to see is how people outside of Malmö are reacting to the news - really showing the true face of Swedish people.

As you might know from earlier, there is a wave of far-right activism in Sweden right now. The methods differ from putting up racist stickers across towns and cities to putting slanderous racist pamphlets into citizens' mailboxes - such as was my case last week. Far-right extremists, openly advocating the overthrowing of the democratic system in Sweden in favor of a Nazi dictatorship, are gaining more and more momentum. Irresponsible responses from so called "anti-fascists" - I'm sorry, you don't fight violence with violence - overshadows the good forces that are trying to fight the wave of the brown plague that is spreading in Sweden. And it's not just the Fascists that are threatening nine million people and their freedom.

The controversial FRA law, that is intended to snoop every phone call and every kilobyte of Internet activity in Sweden, passed in the Swedish Parliament and comes to effect on January 1. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who until recently respected Swedish neutrality, now refers to the conflict between Russia and Georgia in August when stating why we need to sacrifice our freedoms. Before you'll know it, he'll demand the draft be reinstated and that Sweden joins NATO. You know, just to piss those damn uppity Russians off! Another law that has been approved by the dark forces to hunt down ordinary Swedes with blowtorches is the IPRED law, where Joe Swenson will be forced to pay thousands in fines just for downloading MP3's!

The political climate is getting colder in Sweden as well. Hell, it has probably reached the ice age already. In 1986, two months before I was born, Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death outside a cinema in Stockholm - the assassin was never found. In 2003, Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was fatally stabbed at a warehouse in the same city - a Swedish Nazi site wrote about the news with the headline "Traitor to the Nation Stabbed". This is what it is coming down to, folks. Sweden is staring into the abyss and as the saying goes...

If you stare into the Abyss long enough, the Abyss stares back at you.

...and it's been going on for a while now.

The reactions to the riots in Malmö from the people of Sweden have for the most part been appalling. Most Swedes don't even care for Malmö, thinking that the city is just a large area of farms and stupid rednecks speaking in a stupid accent - oh look; there's Kowloon Walled City in the middle of it all with all those dangerous Muslims! I know, I saw it on a video hosted by SiegHeil.se - FOX News did this story about Muslims in Malmö, and how they have "conquered the city"! Malmö is not Swedish, it's a Muslim city! Unless we take it back. And when we take it back, we're going to do what Mladic did in Bosnia! OK, there'll only be 80,000 people left in a city of 280,000 - but we don't care for Malmö! Fuck Malmö! We just want those damn Muslims out. And oh yeah - NEVER forget 9/11! 9/11, 24/7! Think about it every day! Watch YouTube videos of the news coverage from 9/11 and the towers falling every day and every night, to remind you that WE ARE AT WAR!

Really? Because Sweden hasn't been at war since the war against Napoleon in the 19th century. I guess truth has a bias people don't appreciate.

Nonetheless, Swedish bloggers have been spreading their venom and filth and writing things that you wouldn't even whisper to yourself on a deserted island. At one right-wing blog, one commentator referred to the Burundi-born Minister for Integration Nyamko Sabuni as a "ni...r whore", but refused to accept comments that attacked the far-right Sweden Democrats. Another right-wing blog demanded action against ALL immigrants in Malmö. Not just the ones that are involved in the riots - ALL of them. All in their little plan to try and perpetrate ethnic cleansing in Sweden. And a vast majority of political blogs in Sweden are far-right, showing that the darkest corners of the political spectrum are dominating the Internet debate here. Sweden could be in for a very nasty surprise in the next general election, held in September 2010.

Many Swedish nationalists are dreaming back to the days of The Swedish Empire, when Sweden controlled Estonia, Finland, Latvia, parts of Norway and Russia and small parts of northern Germany. Also keep in mind that the entire country of Norway was a part of Sweden between 1814 and 1905, in the Sweden-Norway Union. Wouldn't it just suck if these far-right pricks that I've been writing about came into the parliament and started to adopt the Zhirinovsky doctrine towards our neighbors? I.e., invading them and annexing their territory into a Second Swedish Empire? Now, I'm just speculating here. That might not happen. Something might happen that backfires on the far-right in Sweden and makes their influence disappear overnight. Not very likely, though.

I don't know what the future holds - I only know that my future doesn't lie in Sweden. I got potential. I got skill. I'm sure I could go somewhere and do just fine there. Certainly better than in Sweden. Japan/Korea? Nah, I'm only going on a vacation there. And there are douchebags in those two countries too. Only if I got a very well-paid job, perhaps. Who knows?

But as far as I'm concerned... When I, born in Sweden, am being treated the way I am just because I come from a certain city with a certain percentage of a certain immigrant population - jag älskar dig, Malmö. But Sweden can just fuck off. I am sick and tired of being pushed down and being referred to as a "gröthals" ("porridge throat") just because I wasn't born in Stockholm with a fucking silver spoon up my ass, like Alex Schulman - a spoiled brat who has become a huge celebrity in Sweden for saying that the Scanian dialect sounds like we're vomiting, or that we're retarded. Sweden likes to pretend that it's a politically correct society - and it should be - but apparently, it's OK to use racist slurs against people in the south. Especially immigrants who live in the south, like in Malmö. It's open season against those bastards.

I love my city, but I hate my country. If I only had dual citizenship. Hmm, maybe I'm on to something here. And why do I bum my readers out with this shit just days before Christmas? I apologize for this very dark article - I just wanted to spill my mind out for the world to see.

Stay safe, will ya?

A middle road

2008-12-17T17:55:00.003+01:00

So I'm reading that the original Swedish edition of Metro, the free newspaper with that green logo, are getting rid of Johan Staël von Holstein who had been writing articles there every Wednesday. What's the first reaction at the top of my head?
Oh, thank God! I couldn't stand that guy!

Every article he wrote involved him traveling all across the world doing multi-million business deals, and screaming like a crazy Baptist preacher about "IN THE NAME OF CAPITALISM AND THE NAME OF THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR!!! EURO!!! CAPITALISM!!! CAPITALISM!!! CAPITALISM!!!!!!! AND EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T AGREE WITH ME IS A COMMUNIST PIG WHO DREAMS BACK TO STALIN'S GULAG CAMPS!!! CAPITALISM!!! BYAAAH!!!!!!"

Now, I'm not totally anti-capitalist myself. Frank Zappa once said that "Communism doesn't work, because people like to own stuff". And let's face it, you have a lot of junk in your home that you don't know what to do with, but you appreciate it nonetheless. I know I got a lot of books I never read, but I keep them anyways. But the kind of capitalism that von Holstein promotes is the one where you run over everyone to get to the billions of dollars, and ordinary people like you and me will simply have to learn to live with it - if we don't have the entrepreneur spirit, then sod off with us.

Of course, the political intelligence of the typical Swede shows in this article at Resumé, where commentors react to the news by saying "Yeah, let's do away with capitalism and go Communist, just like East Europe did." Trust me, I'm not promoting Soviet-style Communism when I write this (again, people like to own stuff) - but I can't promote a carte-blanche capitalism where everything goes.

I'll try and find a middle road instead. Something most Swedes can't do, unfortunately. It's always really left or really right - never somewhere in between. We have a great future ahead of us.

Shake it, baby

2008-12-16T14:00:00.002+01:00

MALMÖ 16.12.2008 0620 CET

"What's going on? Why's the cage shaking? It felt like it was a small earthquake..."
-Henrik Torehammar, co-host of Swedish charity event Musikhjälpen (based on Serious Request in Holland)

I had woken up early and played a little Tycoon City: New York - building your own personalized Manhattan - and I moved my chair a little, and I just started to shake for no reason. And I wasn't the one shaking either, I just felt a little confused.

It turned out to be an earthquake that measured 4,7 on the Richter scale. By earthquake standards, that's not a large quake. Even the Japanese Government aren't bothered by such a nudge. By Swedish standards, it was the biggest earthquake in Sweden since 1904 when the Kosterö Quake reached as high as 6 on the Richter scale.

I thought something was weird when my Internet connection died during the night. That was two hours prior to the quake, though. Hmm.
Earthquake info: EMSC - USGS

Grumpy old men

2008-12-15T01:10:00.002+01:00

Since I subscribe to the RSS feed of Mike Shinoda's blog, I get to read the latest updates from Mike as Linkin Park are working on their new album, due out next year. On the blog, there are several posts including funny videos, such as this one involving "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek...

I don't know if those of you living outside the U.S. have seen the game show "Jeopardy," but this show is an American institution...which is why I was cracking up when Mr. Bravo sent me this clip:

I am familiar with "Jeopardy!", since they had a Swedish edition of the show here, and I have seen the hilarious sketches of Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek from Saturday Night Live. I was a little surprised to see Trebek act the way he does in the video - for some reason it reminded me of this guy.

(Do I even have to tell you this video is NOT SAFE FOR WORK?)

"You're disturbing my...whats left of my brain."

Shame

2008-12-13T16:30:00.001+01:00

Just got some neo-Nazi propaganda in my mailbox, and I thought I'd share this song with you. If you know the Swedish language, you'll get the lyrics. It is said that Timbuktu wrote this song after getting similar propaganda in his mail, so I guess its no more than right that I put up this song.

Timbuktu - Det luktar rök

All I can say is that days like these, when I get propaganda in my mailbox saying that I'm not worthy of living in Sweden - eventhough A) I was born in Sweden; B) The region where I live, Skåne, really belongs to Denmark - I feel fucking ashamed of being a Swede.

Back on track

2008-12-08T14:15:00.002+01:00

So I just re-installed my computer on Saturday, and have been putting back the old programs ever since.
I think I'll download Half-Life 2 on Steam while I'm at it too.

You mean it's working? For real this time? Because... I still have nightmares about that cat.

Shoutout

2008-12-04T12:45:00.001+01:00

Shoutout to comic artist Ryan Estrada and his latest website; "Living Englise Language Everyday", based on a book with the same name translating Korean phrases to English, with less than...er, verbally correct results. It's really fun to read the random phrases that Ryan puts up, though. Such as when I asked for a good Christmas gift - it is the X-Mas season, and all.

For more quotes submitted to Ryan - and the answers - click over here. For the "Living Englise" site - it can be found here.
And while I'm at it; don't forget to Digg the site. Only two diggs so far - Ryan and me.

People of the Internets, get digging!

161 bytes

2008-12-03T00:05:00.004+01:00

Editing the Wikipedia article for the UEFA U-21 Championships that are held in Sweden next year - opening game and finals held right here in Malmö - and added some seeding information before the big draw today. Hosts Sweden and Spain already have their positions set for the big tournament; the remaining six teams - Belarus, England, Finland, Germany, Italy, Serbia - are drawn into the two groups for the draw tonight. So I added the information to the Wikipedia article, when PeeJay2K3, who I've had some arguments with over removing my critical information from the article, did a little "cleanup".

Revision history of 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
15:51, 2 December 2008 Anthony040 (Talk | contribs) (13,527 bytes) (undo)
17:30, 2 December 2008 PeeJay2K3 (Talk | contribs) (13,688 bytes) (cleanup) (undo)

Adding 161 bytes to a Wikipedia article is considered "cleanup". Just to prove me wrong again.

Oh, stop it both of you! Stop it! You're like boys with toys!
-Natalya F. Simonova, GoldenEye

In the flavour zone

2008-12-01T16:45:00.000+01:00

The poll to the right is now closed...and the people have spoken.

This blog has a nice new car smell.

Macy's & Foster's Rickroll

2008-11-28T16:55:00.000+01:00

I know, I know... Another Foster's Home reference. But this is a good one.

Do you get any better product placement than that? My guess is that FHFIF won't be cancelled in 2009, as currently scheduled. Not when you got Rick freakin' Astley rickrolling your Macy's Day float.

And speaking of torture: Am I allowed to waterboard the bastards behind Firefox, since the damn browser crashes ALL THE TIME - I'm not saying that for effect, it literally crashes EVERY time I'm on YouTube! "Best browser out there"? Oh, bullshit!

Malmö Arena

2008-11-24T16:00:00.001+01:00

Wednesday evening, nothing to do, still checking the updates at DeftonesInStudio to find out the latest news about Chi (get well soon!)...what to do? Then it struck me that a new hockey arena had been opened in town just two weeks earlier - Malmö Arena.

The project of a lifetime for Swedish tycoon Percy Nilsson (above), this arena is described as "the best in the world", and has a capacity of 12,500 for hockey games and 2,500 more for other events, making this the second largest hockey arena in Sweden, after The Globe in Stockholm. (And yes, I'm aware that the smallest NHL arena takes 16,000+ in attendance.)

So I went to that arena last Wednesday to see the home team, Malmö Redhawks, take on the Växjö Lakers. It was a crowded game; 12,150 out of 12,500 seats were filled for the game. And for sitting in the upper tier of the arena, I had pretty good views over the game. Let's not talk about the game, though. Can explain why I prefer soccer/football instead...although I'll be heading back there on December 18th, when Team Sweden plays against the Czech Republic during Channel One Cup - that game will be the only game played outside Russia; the remaining five games will be played in Moscow.

Took some pictures inside the arena for you to behold, if you click on this line. But that's not all: I shot 22 minutes of video inside the arena during the game, to show what the game looked like and what the atmosphere at Malmö Arena is like.

I had to split this video into two parts, since the piece-of-crap Google Video Uploader is a EPIC FAIL of EPIC FAILing proportions, and wouldn't let me load this to Google Video in one piece. And don't get me started on YouTube - I love that site, but it's filled with douchebag comments all over the place. And I got better things to do than reading YouTube comments...

Anyhow, enjoy!

Yes, I know the sound is low in some parts of the second video. That's because Windows Movie Maker is ASS.
But that's the movie editor I'm coping with at the moment...

Winter 2008

2008-11-21T08:00:00.002+01:00

One degree above Celsius as I'm writing this, and this is what it looks like outside right now...

Good thing I'm prepared for winter.

PS Got a big video to put up on Monday - which explains why I didn't write anything on Wednesday. I was busy.

Art and the A-Bomb

2008-11-17T17:25:00.000+01:00

Today, kids, I have a history lesson for you. Or rather, a suggestion on how we can mark the beginning of what is now known as the Nuclear Age.

Tim Robbins

2008-11-14T07:45:00.011+01:00

Tim Robbins.

One of the most talented actors in Hollywood, with an Academy Awards statue from "Mystic River" to boot, well-known from many movies - but also for his political opinions. One of the most liberal actors in Hollywood, Robbins endorsed Ralph Nader in the 2000 elections, and John Edwards in the 2008 elections - this endorsement led to FOX "News" douchebag Bill Orally comparing Robbins to Joachim Von Ribbentrop, one of the operatives in Nazi Germany; a comparison that led to Keith Olbermann labeling Billo as "Worst Person in the World" - without any humorous comment to the right-wing douchebaggery.

That's when you know you've pissed off Keith Olbermann...but I digress!

Among the movies that Tim Robbins has shined his light upon, we find such timeless classics as Top Gun, Dead Man Walking, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Jacob's Ladder...and of course, one of my all-time favorite movies: The Shawshank Redemption. This movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but didn't win any at all, since it was up against another blockbuster from 1994: Forrest Gump.

And it's a shame, because The Shawshank Redemption includes many scenes that you will never forget once you've seen the movie. Andy (played by Robbins) playing an opera record and hooking it up on the PA, playing the musical beauty to the inmates at the prison; his reunification with his prison mate Red (played by Morgan Freeman) at the end of the movie; and of course, the scene where Andy, as Red describes it, crawls through a river of shit and comes out clean on the other side, after breaking through a sewage pipe to crawl out of the prison.

Classic. Just classic. Which begs the question:
What the fuck was he doing in the 1986 box office bomb Howard the Duck?!

Yep. Tim Robbins appeared in "Howard the Duck", playing the weird scientist Dr. Phil Blumburtt. And trust me: When you see Tim Robbins act the way he does in this movie, it gets you thinking that this is Tim Robbins' own "movie I recorded twenty years ago that's too embarrasing to watch".

The picture to the left is from where Paul is trying to talk to Howard - in "duck-language" gibberish. You have to see it to believe it - or fast forward to 8:48 in the video below to see it for yourself.

What. The. Fuck.

Well-wishes

2008-11-12T17:35:00.001+01:00

Would like to take the opportunity to express my well-wishes to the family and friends of Deftones bass player Chi Cheng, who is currently in a coma following a car accident last week - he has been making improvements lately, and we hope that he will recover from the injuries of the crash.

Word of good advice from the Deftones blog:
Today's good deed for Chi is to call someone you love, remind them of that love by saying "I love you," and like yesterday remind them to buckle up.

Stay tuned to http://deftonesinstudio.blogspot.com/ for the latest info on Chi's condition - and once again, wishing all the best for Chi!

Senior Football

2008-11-10T00:05:00.004+01:00

In lack of anything else I can imagine writing about right now, I'm going to put up some video again - shot these video clips at the start of the 2008 European Masters Games, which took place right here in Malmö at the end of August. The first day of the tournament included a friendly football game between the Swedish football team that won the bronze in the 1994 World Cup, and the Danish football team that won the 1992 European Championships.

The first video focuses on the Swedish team warming up before the game - notice the lady in the background at 0:50 trying to practice the national anthems of both countries, getting interrupted while trying to sing the Swedish anthem. Way to respect the art!

The second video features part of the game, and the game was actually narrated in the stadium during the game by the famous Swedish sports commentator Arne Hegerfors. Not every football game that can boast that - the video also features a goal attempt by Stefan Rehn, that goes outside the box. The game was eventually decided by penalties, where Sweden prevailed after playing 1-1 at full time.

2008: A dream come true

2008-11-05T15:00:00.004+01:00

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day - this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

Alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga: A belief that we're all connected as one people.

If there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't pay for their prescription drugs, and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent. If there's an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It is that fundamental belief — I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper — that makes this country work. It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. E pluribus unum. "Out of many, one."

Now, even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us: the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers, who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America.

The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too: We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States, and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope? I'm not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about something more substantial.

It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs. The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores. The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta. The hope of a mill worker's son who dares to defy the odds. The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

Hope! Hope in the face of difficulty! Hope in the face of uncertainty! The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.

I believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us.
Barack Obama, July 27, 2004

45 years later, the dream came true.

In the end

2008-11-03T22:25:00.005+01:00

Has it been fun, George, playing President?
*Mike Malloy

2008-10-30T01:45:00.001+01:00

How did I spend an early Thursday night?
http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo38/040anthony/obama30.jpg

Typo + Labels

2008-10-29T16:55:00.002+01:00

BRITNEY TO PLAY HERSELF

The life of the star is to become a movie, with Britney Spears playing herself as the main character.

According to the British newspaper Daily News, director Phil Griffin has accepted an offer on making a drama documentary about the last few years of Spears' roller-coaster life.

Peter Griffin is also behind the upcoming documentary on Spears, that will be shown on MTV in America two days before the release of her new album "Circus".

At least it can't get any worse than when Britney Spears made that appearance on Family Guy with her kid. {add manatee gag here}

By the way, I'm not so sure about the labels. You might see the labels at the bottom of the articles - this one is only labeled as News. Now I'm thinking - should I keep the labels or should I just scrap them all together before my head explodes from the tics of adding that particular label to that particular article?

Poll's to the right.

Barack Your World

2008-10-27T01:15:00.001+01:00

"They only come out at night."
And daylight savings time just ended.

Patience and band aids

2008-10-24T01:55:00.013+02:00

4:00 Waking up in the middle of the night. Toenail hurting - suffering from ingrown toenail - removing the band aid and blood is almost gushing out. OUCH! Showering it off and putting new band aid on it. Five hours until the doctor's appointment.

Freaked out big-time, can't sleep. Playing GoldenEye on my Nintendo 64.

8:00 Laying down in bed, trying to get some rest before the doctor's appointment in one hour.

14:30 Wakes up, noticing the time. FUCK!!! And the doctor ain't in until November 4... Do I really want to wait until Election Day to get my toenail checked again? Patience, Anthony. Patience, and band aids.

15:00 Heading to work, for a last day talk with the boss at 15:30. Talk went fine - since I might be moving to another apartment soon, I will most likely be heading there soon to buy some equipment for all the computer cables.

16:15 Walking into the official Malmö FF store close to the two stadiums - one of them being built as we speak - taking a look at a scale model of the new stadium being built. 1:160, and an attendance of 24,000. 18,000 sitting, and 6,000 standing.

17:00 Swedish hamburger chain MAX are opening their first franchise in Malmö, after about 40 years in the business. Bought a vegetarian burger, fries, and onion rings.

17:45 At home, and starts to eat the MAX meal. The fries and onion rings are alright, although a little too dry. The hamburger? It tastes like splooge! There's too much sauce on it, and I'm not a big fan of sauce. I prefer the white mayonnaise that Burger King put on their burgers...I know, product placement.

(If I ran ads on this site, your company might be advertising here. Just saying.)

(No, I'm not saying Burger King are advertising here.)

18:30 Heading to the store to buy some kind of laxative to get rid of that nasty burger. Since regular laxatives are not all that recommended by the doctors, I went up buying some strong mint gums and eating all the gums within 15 minutes.

19:00 Going to bed, letting the gum go to work. I think.

21:45 Waking up. Doing some work, doing something TMI, and thinking about what to add to this article.

And this should be well enough for a Thursday.

Famous people I saw today:
(left) Anders Andersson, football player, Malmö FF
(below) Thomas di Leva, Swedish New Age artist

Let's just see if I get any more tin foil-laced love letters tonight. Laters!

Welcome back, Jeff!

2008-10-20T20:20:00.002+02:00

A few weeks after getting fired - yes, I said that, FIRED* - from KPHX/KNUV and Nova M Radio, Jeff Farias is returning tonight. His show will be webcast on the website I put up, and there will be more on his website in the days to come, as Bily Foster - another Nova M employee who got the pink slip - is working on his site.

In the meanwhile, here's a teaser video which you can see on Jeff's site:

And of course, a big WELCOME BACK to Jeff Farias!

* = The remaining staff at Nova M insists that Jeff Farias and the other three that were fired simply packed up and walked out, which was NOT the case. I've spoken to Jeff personally about this, and he says that he was fired. Plus, Bily Foster refers to it as a firing on his blog too.

Multi-tasking

2008-10-17T19:00:00.001+02:00

It's Friday, and all I want to do today is relax after multi-tasking all day today. Running errands, installing new cable equipment in my apartment, trying to cope with the water being turned off for no reason - which makes showering very difficult.

BRR!

And speaking of multi-tasking, I have an announcement to make.
Starting today, I won't only write at From Floor 7. You can now also find some of my work at the Ghost of Wellstone blog - GOW being the nickname of my pal Kyle in Michigan. You can also find a link to the site on the "pals" section to the right, alongside other blogs whose authors I keep in good contact with.

With that said, I'd like to refer you to my first article at the blog:
Election 2008 (from the other side of the pond)

Planning vacation

2008-10-15T21:40:00.001+02:00

And the third and final presidential debate takes place tonight. Here's what the pundits are saying:

"I think what he [McCain] has to do is talk about the issues. [...] He's got to talk about his economic plan. Yes, he's got to convince voters that he's got the judgment to be president, but he's also got to convince voters to like him."
Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst

"The problem is that McCain has spent the last dozen days monomaniacally attempting to disqualify his rival, throwing Ayers, ACORN and "infanticide" against the wall in the hope that something would stick. Unfortunately, McCain is worse off now than he was when he first launched these attacks. The proof is in the pudding."
Andrew Romano, Newsweek

John McCain's last chance to hit a homerun and turn the poll numbers all by himself. [...] Count on a little debate tango in Long Island!
Per Bjurman, music reviewer-turned-reporter, Aftonbladet

And of course, Aftonbladet are asking their readers to send them information about the Swedish al-Qaeda leader killed in Iraq earlier this month. Not knowing that the CIA will probably hunt down the sorry sobs sending the info and interrogate them. All so Aftonbladet can have an exclusive scoop, and sell some more.

Greedy vultures.

Krugman? Paulson? Coffee, please

2008-10-13T15:10:00.000+02:00

So I woke up this morning and read that Paul Krugman had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. For some reason, I confused him with Henry Paulson - the guy who asked for a $700 billion handout to the American banks recently.

You can tell I need some strong coffee in the mornings.

Fahrenheit L/P

2008-10-10T00:05:00.002+02:00

Found this video at Mike Shinoda's blog and thought that I would share it with you. Fahrenheit 9/11 meets Minutes to Midnight in this video, described by Mike (Shinoda, not Moore) himself as "this might as well be the official video for the song; I think it's great."

26 days left.

Movie review: Carandiru (2003)

2008-10-03T00:55:00.000+02:00

Title: Carandiru
Genre: Drama
Length: 2h 20m
Country: Brazil
Certification: 16+

Friday, October 2nd, 1992

Chaos has descended in Carandiru, the biggest penitentiary complex in South America.
Over a hundred inmates dead and hundreds injured on the massacre.
The police arrived with helicopters and over two hundred armed forces.

In 1920, Samuel das Neves planned a new state-of-the-art prison to be built to deal with the criminality in Brazil and the city of São Paulo - the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, also known as the Carandiru Penitentiary. The prison opened in 1956 and was one of the largest prisons in South America when it was completed. 8,000 inmates lived inside the prison, forming a small community in the middle of the pulsing Brazilian metropolis. But all was not well at Carandiru - in 1989, physician Drauzio Varella volunteered to work at Carandiru, and he saw the poor health of the inmates in the prison. This was also at the time that the AIDS epidemic had begun to spread around the world - but as time would tell, disease wasn't the only threat to the inmates at Carandiru.

As you can see in American History X, when Edward Norton tries to distance himself from the Nazi gangs in the prison he's sent to, there are various gangs inside prisons and many prisoners holding an allegiance to the gangs they associate with. Mafia gangs, Texan gangs, Biker gangs - you name it. And rivaling gangs exist at Carandiru too, preparing for the big prison riot that would come one day. And on this day sixteen years ago, such a riot started at Carandiru. It's not known how many prisoners were killed in the riot itself, but most of the fatalities that day were caused by the brutal crack-down from the São Paulo Military Police. To this day, the Carandiru prison massacre is the deadliest prison riot to take place - although some are suggesting that a prison riot in Tajikistan five years later caused 150 deaths (officials say 24 deaths), whereas 111 were killed at Carandiru.

They took the jail block called Pavilhão Nove and opened fire on the inmates in a holocaust method of annihilation.
The government of the city of São Paulo cannot control the brutality of its police.

This movie is based on Dr. Varella's own experiences working as a physician at Carandiru - he worked there from 1989 to 2001, and his time at the penitentiary included the Carandiru massacre. Prior to that, the atmosphere inside the prison was one of part community, and part rivalry. Many stories are told in the movie, starting with a scuffle between inmates and moving on to Varella dealing with the various illnesses of the inmates. The movie also includes stories about how some of the inmates ended up at Carandiru, and features former inmates at Carandiru in some scenes. Other stories in the movie involve the relationship between the transsexual inmate Lady Di and an assistant of Dr. Varella, known as No Way - and a football game between two football teams in the prison just moments before the Carandiru massacre. Including the Brazilian national anthem, and all.

You can literally cut a physical slice of the atmosphere you see in this movie, with the scenes recorded inside Carandiru and the scenes outside, showing you what life can be like for the average citizen-turned-prisoner in Brazil. The climax of the movie comes in the massacre, when the military police storm into the pavilion where a prison riot is taking place, with police shooting down fleeing prisoners in cold blood. One scene in the movie features armed police storming into a cell with prisoners trying to hide, being gunned down by the police. One inmate survives, and is being told that he'll "live to tell the tale", only to be gunned down moments later as the cop "changes his mind". The massacre scene is graphic and merciless, as the military police gun down everyone in their sight playing "cops and robbers".

Over eighty percent of the inmates were not sentenced yet.
The bodies were filled with bullets and bites from the police dogs.
The police try to hide the massacre saying there were only eight deaths.

If you want to see a well-made movie about life in one of Brazil's most notorious prisons, and learn the story about one man's effort to bring light to the darkness of the inmates in prison, I strongly recommend "Carandiru". It will leave you thinking about what life really must be like for anyone sentenced to serve time at any prison, and how they can form their own community outside the general society. And how one bloody Friday afternoon can shatter that community.

"On October 2, 1992, 111 men died at the São Paulo Detention Center.
There were no police deaths.
The only ones who know what really happened are God,
the police and the inmates. I only heard the latter."
- Drauzio Varella

The violence of Brazilian cops is very well known outside Brazil.
This kind of extermination is a method that they use to get rid of the overpopulation in the jails.
The violence of the cops left the whole pavilion destroyed after the rebellion.

In the toilet

2008-10-01T03:35:00.000+02:00

A comedy video I made a few years back, featuring a machinima parody of the classic Nintendo 64 smash-hit game GoldenEye 007. Audio from Fresh Prince, Redneck Rampage, and - of course - Scarface!

Friday Music - on a Monday

2008-09-29T21:10:00.001+02:00

Since I got a movie review scheduled for Friday, I'm going to share some music today already.

Debate #1

2008-09-27T12:05:00.002+02:00

First presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain in Mississippi yesterday - who won that debate? According to some people in the corporate media, Obama won. According to some post-debate polls, Obama won there too.

Who did the corporate media in Sweden pick as their winner?

That's right, John McBush! One of the major pain-in-the-ass newspapers, Expressen, claimed that "experts say that McCain won the debate" - their experts? The Chicago Tribune, a conservative newspaper! ONE newspaper is apparantly enough to declare McCain the winner against that sexist pig Obama, who didn't do what McCain did and pick a woman for VP! He should've picked Hillary Clinton, but nooo...!

I don't want to come across as sexist here - trust me, I'm far from sexist - but Swedish corporate media were rooting for Hillary through the primary season, all for the reason of having a woman in office. So who cares that she's for attacking Iran, or opposing single-payer healthcare - we have too many men in power! Hell, we'd vote for Margaret Thatcher if we had the chance! And now, they are surging for McCain since he picked Sarah Palin as VP. Ain't that nice.

She prays for pipelines, wants to bomb Russia, shoots wolves from helicopters, wants creationism taught in schools, totally opposed to a women's right to choose, and so on and so on and so on... But that's just character! Go vote for your Democrat Party man-to-man-Brokeback Mountain ticket - we're supporting Sarah Palin! And John McCain! YES WE CAN, MY FRIENDS! This is the Twilight Zone.

Opinion polls taken in Swedish media give Obama a huge lead over McCain - but if you ask the media who they want in office, they are McCaining for the "Maverick". At this point, I just want to act like Noel Gallagher and say that everyone sucks except for me.

I don't know why, just feel like saying it.

2008-09-24T23:10:00.000+02:00

McCain threw away the election today. That's all I have to say.

I got this!

2008-09-22T19:20:00.000+02:00

Mike Patton

2008-09-19T00:05:00.013+02:00

How about a musical interlude?

Meet Mike Patton - not only the vocalist of alternative rock band Faith No More; he's also a pretty talented singer when it comes to Italian pop songs from the 50's and 60's, as you can hear from the videos of when he performed with the Malmö Symphany Orchestra at Malmöfestivalen 2008. He speaks fluent Italian, as he was married to the Italian artist Titi Zuccatosta for seven years, and had a home in Bologna before their break-up in 2001.

Aside from singing in various genres of music, Mike can - when needed - unleash his furious side for various voice acting jobs, such as when he did the screaming voices of the beasts chasing Will Smith in the 2007 sci-fi thriller I Am Legend. He's not the only rock star to do voice acting in movies: Former Sepultura vocalist Max Cavalera performed the loud screams for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in The Scorpion King.

Ladies and gentlemen - Mike Patton!

Hard at work

2008-09-17T23:40:00.002+02:00

Hardly have any time to write today from work, so I'll share with you a random LOLcat instead.

8 minutes

2008-09-15T18:55:00.000+02:00

Movies watched today: Carlito's Way and Austin Powers 1.

Had to repair my uncle's computer today, since it was suffering from a bad Internet connection. So I just pulled out the electric cord to the modem, waited a minute, put back the cord and waited another minute. Voila! All working again. How long did it take? Just eight minutes. That's all. So instead of spending hundreds on someone who might just complicate things while "repairing" - take a look at the modem. If it doesn't seem to work properly, just pull out the cord and wait a minute. That's all.

Alright, now I'm only waiting for the new Michael Moore book I ordered last week and the package that my friend Kyle (aka Ghost of Wellstone) sent me, that I'm really getting excited about. Should be here before my next blog posting.

Finally, I'll probably listen to some Pink Floyd tonight, in memory of Richard Wright who passed over to another kind of consciousness beyond our existence earlier today. Or at least that's what I think happens when a life ends.

Are we dead yet?

2008-09-12T05:45:00.002+02:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2710348/Stephen-Hawking-Large-Hadron-Collider-vital-for-humanity.html

Prof Hawking said the £4.4bn machine, in which scientists are about to recreate conditions just after the Big Bang, is "vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out."

And he sought to ease fears that the machine could have apocalyptic effects.

"The LHC is absolutely safe. If the collisions in the LHC produced a micro black hole - and this is unlikely - it would just evaporate away again, producing a correctoristic pattern of particles," he said.

"Collisions releasing greater energy occur millions of times a day in the earth's atmosphere and nothing terrible happens. The world will not come to an end when the LHC turns on."

If Stephen Hawking says it's safe, I'll believe him. No, really. I believe him. If anyone knows how all this cosmos stuff works, it should be him. So can we skip the corporate media predictions saying that the world is going to end when that machine starts working? Are we dead yet?

Last time I checked... No, we're not. But we better get back to work.

dot, dot, dot

2008-09-10T07:15:00.000+02:00

Yeah, I couldn't think of anything to write here. So I wrote this instead.

Mmmm... Green

2008-09-08T00:05:00.003+02:00

Anyone see John McCain's speech at the Republican Convention on Thursday? Man, what's up with that green screen?

No, not that green screen.

There! That's the one! What the shit?

All that's missing now is to take that green screen and add various backgrounds to accompany McCain's speech. DemConWatch has an article up about McCain's green screen, and even included a picture I submitted. Not exactly a work of art worth millions, but I'm no Bob Ross.

David Langley: Was Leonardo Da Vinci an American basketball player?
Mr Bean: ...yes!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_fy37l0THUjc/SMHUL72TRQI/AAAAAAAAAvE/DCiL6ERfd5Q/s1600-h/brit-pop_mccain.jpg

David Langley: Oh Jesus! Oh God! Oh! Oh Jesus, God! Oh, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth!

Headache

2008-09-05T00:05:00.003+02:00

Got a nasty headache right now, so I can't write that much today.
Good thing I have a music video ready for Fridays...

(OK, the first video I added was ass. So I added a new version instead.)

Can I has LOLcat?

Don from Duluth

2008-09-03T01:40:00.000+02:00

Don LaFontaine has died. If the name doesn't ring a bell, his voice surely will. He has made a name for himself as the "King of Voiceovers", for doing the voiceovers to most of the movie trailers played on cinema. Fans of comedian Pablo Francisco will surely recognize the voice, as Pablo usually performs a spot-on impersonation of Don during his shows. I saw Pablo Francisco when he was playing in Malmö about a year ago, and he would do the movie trailer voice during the show. Of course, it was absolutely freakin' hilarious.

And eventually, Pablo's and Don's paths would cross - and this video was made, which is also featured on Pablo's official website. Also, as featured in this article, a joint appearance with the two on Frank Caliendo's TV show, "FrankTV". So to celebrate Don's memory: A few clips of Pablo Francisco doing the movie trailer voice during his comedy performances.
Enjoy!

UPDATE: Pablo Francisco has commented on the death of Don LaFontaine on his website, and he makes the following statement:
My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Don LaFontaine "The Movie Voice Guy" who sadly passed away Monday, September 1st at the age of 68. The last time I hung out with Don was at his crib a couple of months back. We had the best 6 hours that any two guys could have. We talked about movies, how great life is, family and relationships. I met his wife Anita Whitaker-LaFontaine, who is one of the coolest people you could ever know as well. Don told me that day that he always wanted someone to do an impersonation of him and when he saw me imitate him on my Tonight Show appearance he told me it "made his day". I am honored to have had the chance to get to know Dan and will miss him.

In the beginning

2008-09-01T00:05:00.005+02:00

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning...

What, you thought this was a new Christian blog, or something?
See y'all on Wednesday!