fantastic news site, swedish news in English and finding this site made me realise that my longing for news came not only from the UK but also a desire to find out whats happening here (not always easy as newspeak is usually fast and littered with idioms). Anyway, heres a sampler of the news from Sweden...Robot attacks man's buttocks in Swedish factory....in a more tabloid newspaper you can imagine the title perhaps being ' robot rage attack on mans' buttocks' or 'Terminated - one car workers bloody end'

test 

Messing about with the blog

After being rather passive about the whole blog thing, really just scratching the surface of what I can do here, I felt some time with the blogger website would be interesting...thus, templete changes etc....more to come. the whole blogging thing is incredible, check out the rich variety by clicking on 'next blog' on the bar upstairs. disturbed alcoholics from russia one click away.

I reloaded the 'hello' software which means i can post photos again - which is nice. last time this ate our pc, remains to be seen if the same thing happens again.

you'll notice the change in format, i got tired of the light house.

typing one handed - baby in arms.

As the toll to sweden of the tsunami continues to rise, something like 3000 swedes are still missing, you've got to wonder at the incompetence of the foreign office here which said (within days of the disaster) that all swedish tourists had been accounted for.

swedish gripe: cash machines in sweden seem to be horribly unreliable. this morning, on a quest for coffee, i was forced to scamper from one side of the square to the other looking for a functioning machine. this is not the first time. raaahhh, annoying.
recent consumerism: winners and sinners 2 (j.chan movie) and the english patient
weather: 4+, blue skies






very exciting this.....horahh for the european space agency BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Huygens probe course 'looks good'

2005. Back in Malmö after 10 days at the summer house. Having no tv, or very little, was a real blessing but we nevertheless found ourselves being sucked into watching the unfolding nightmare in Asia. Terrible.

recent thoughts: Da Vinci Code, being made into a film with Tom Hanks. We'll come back to this.
recent movie: Extended version of King Arthur, 5.5 out of 10, I think, though the juries still out. What killed it for me was Clive Owen being acted off the screen by Ray Winstone, most of the other actors, trees, horses, and just about everything else which appeared in the frame with him.
book: more Malazan action but also Peter F Hamiltons Pandoras Star. Also The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg.

at some point soon I'll be setting up another blog which will have the first few chapters of my horribly derivative fantasy novel. You have been warned. Working title is 'Struggle Below - one mans battle with prunes'.


any film which has zombies and the line 'any of you cunts want a drink?' is a winner......brilliance, haven't looked around this site much but sure to be amusing...Shaun of the Dead

Top Tip: If your car battery goes flat (which you only realise when it has been packed with Christmas presents, pram, baby and assorted baby equipment (including pram, lift, clothes, stun gun)), call a taxi company who will charge you 100 SEK to jump start your car...cool.

pork chops, brie and cashew nuts are all food stuffs which have a slightly sinister aspect to them. Mince (lamb or beef), cheddar, and grapes are all foods which seem quite jolly. Kiwi fruit, lockets (cough sweets with a foul vomit inducing centre), and meringue are all clearly quite mad.

interesting. We're preparing for the exodus to the summer house so unless I can hijack a wireless network there will be no blogging for the Jule period. Peace on Earth, seasons greeting etc etc.

recently watched movie: I indulged myself yesterday and bought two DVDs from the super low price display at Hemköp, Highlander and the Big Blue. Highlander, top movie, but its suddenly looking old - also, Christophe Lambert is difficult to take seriously any more. The last movie I saw with him was Druids, where he played (I think) Vercingetorix. Actually not true, I saw him in something more appalling but my brain has excised all recollection of the movies name. It involved jungles, and monkeys (and it was not greystoke).
weather: fucking cold, theres a storm coming.
music: radio 4
book: still slaughtering my way across Genebackis with the Malazan empire.
No link

its early, a night of broken sleep and strange dreams (Mr Sandman is depositing his load nightly now, rather than a sprinkel, I wake up with a bed full of gravel, or night soil as its known). Last day at work before the Christmas break which means, yet again, silence here as we run for the North and disappear until new year - alone, in the summer house with only thick fantasy novels and the playstation for company - and the laptop, aiming to write a short story by the end of the holiday, something inspired either by Erikson (expect lots of loving descriptions of 'blood spattered armour') or crap detective thriller (expect noirish 'the rain ran down the window as he looked out onto the dark, lonely streets').

things making life easier: the video shop has installed key pads to enter your personal number so I don't have to struggle with '7' anymore, with occurs in my personal number no less than 3 times and, with my accent, can sometimes give people the mistaken impression I was born in 1921. In explanation, (for those of you who don't live in Big Brother countries (in the Orwellian rather than the furtive sex under duvets on prime time sense)) the first six digits of your number are simply your birthday, the last four the unique part.
music: none, way to early
weather: its dark, 4 degrees
film: Shaun of the Dead. Bloody excellent. I waited long enough to see this, but in my defence I don't think it got released in Sweden for much more than 10 minutes. The last zombie movie I saw was 28 Days Later (thats the title, not some strange temporal comment) which scared the hell of me, the last comedy I saw was well, I'd love to say Dodge Ball or something else which shows I'm up with the Zeitgeist but I have not seen a new comedy for ages. Anyhoo, Shaun of the Dead was very very funny and K, who has not seen any Zombie movies, thought it was excellent. I guess a good chunk of the humour comes from an appreciation of 'spaced' but also the fact that this was set in the UK - Crouch end rather than LA, thank you! It was scary in places too. Factoid, Simon Pegg will play a Zombie in Romeros new movie, Film Threat - Reviews, will apparently features humans holed up in a walled city protecting themselves against the dead (so we've had Shopping Malls, Pubs, Mansions, Farm Houses and now walled cities - whats left, entire planets? hmmmmm). Finally, this would be a really good time to revisit Bad Taste by Peter 'Look at my Ring' Jackson and see if its still funny, given that the last time I saw it was over 12 years ago. Last factoid, the new movie from Pegg and Wright will be called 'Hot Fuzz', I kid you not.




looks pretty cool, probably a lot better than the spotty wizard and a good hold over until His Dark Materials turns up....inspired me to go and read the books as well.....Film Threat - Reviews

The comment about Dead Poets Society obviously needs to be taken in context. Clearly any film with Robin Williams in is a pile of pants.

I started watching the Astronauts Wife last night (the movie, before you think I've become 'my name is Michael Caine, and I am a nosy neighbout') but gave up about half way through when I realised that 1. I was very tired and 2. This was in fact a cheap rip off of Rosemarys Baby - possibly one of the best horror movies ever made. I'd also already watched Mona Lisas smile, not by choice I hasten to add as Ks friend K brought it around (also with toffees and icecream so it was not all bad) but even so, such excriating pointless shite. The film started only in that it obeyed the laws of physics and went from a state of not beginning to beginning, after that it ceased to have a middle or indeed any form of ending other than, after the passage of time, it stopped. This was a truly terrible film with any messsage about the emancipation of women or challenging the establishment lost in a slush of weak script, tired cliches and too much acting. Dead Poets Society is far superior. Fortunately I'd watched Conan the barbarien the previous day so happily fantasied about combining the two films. This culminated in Arnold hacking off Julie Roberts head (rather than James Earl Jones) in front of the assembled cast of all the St Trinians films. Splendid.

holy vesicle bioreactors radioactiveman! BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Artificial life' comes step closer

this just creeps through the news rather than instigating the debate which it hints at.....having lived for almost a year now in a country with a very different attitude to alcohol I do sometimes wonder if we drink a bit too much in the UK....BBC NEWS | Wales | Mobile hospitals to treat drunks

So after a few nights of battling sleeplessness I retreated to the sofa last night...six hours of sleep, the most I've had in weeks and sufficient to let the creative juices flow at work today, all going very well and it looks like my contract is being extended throughout next year, very very good news.

music: none
book: Deadhouse Gates, a Malazan tale of the fallen. Speaking of books I've put down Banks new book after a few chapters and feel unwilling to pick it back up, I'm sure I will but it has not gripped me in the way his other SF did. Sadly, I almost feel like he's trying to hard.
weather: damp, dank and daylight is in short supply
top tip: rather than using a knife, use scissors to divide a pizza - much less mess and you can pretend to be a surgeon.



repeat after me, this is not funny....this is not funnyBBC NEWS | Scotland | Krankie hurt in beanstalk tumble..I expect there will be some terrible end to this which will make me feel stricken with guilt but right now just keep repeating...this is not funny

Its Skåne, its december and as a result its cold and overcast. After 5 weeks of hospital, then a further two of NeoNatal we have been firmly at home - as nuclear family (whatever the hell that is) for the last few week or so. I return to work tommorow, not something which totally fills me with joy - given the extreme cosy factor I've been enjoying but still, we can't live on air.

As a result of the broken sleep my mind is feeling rather cabbaged and I wander around being a little 'punchy' (as in punch drunk rather than violent). My various projects continue at different states of activity, the quest to build my own PC continues with a loose idea of specifications and the spring campaign of bouldering is being gradually built up to by feet off training on the fingerboard. The sit up regime begins again on monday (which, in the words of Mr T in rocky II will lead only to 'Pain') and my copious mental and scribbled notes for a novel will begin to take some concrete form. Speaking of books I see that Pullman has written two new kids stories, should be worth checking out (you can probably visit his site ....here). I noticed, on the bbc site, that they are removing direct references to god from the forthcoming film, as there was a concern it would offend. The film makers actually stated that this was a result of stronger, more religious beliefs in the US .....God botherers.



weather: overcast and 5 degrees
music: none
book: Deadhouse Gates: A Malazan Tale of the Fallen (again!)
Thought: Just counting for Elias, we will use approximately 10 000 nappies in the next 3 years - if we have another child soon this figure will, of course, double. Nice to know that we are creating a rich vein of shit for some future civillisation of scatophillics to mine.


always worth a look....NASA - Home

this is priceless, the more ignorant racists get showered in 'slurry' the better...BBC NEWS | UK | Kilroy-Silk attacked with slurry

and so shaking off the dust off the site I RETURN with a difference and differently......more to follow but never fear the blog is coming back to life.


cool flash....Alexis Tr�panier

Normal service still not continuing - imminent arrivial of child into the world. Maybe I'll start some kind of diary as life as a parent, and then maybe not as theres plenty of blogs which cater for that particular wierdness. Postings will start again at the end of next week and then increase in frequency from then on..........

recent movie: Spiderman II 6.5 out of ten
recent book: quicksilver, Neal Stephenson...bloody excellent
weather: sunny, 3 degrees above freezing
music: Everyday is like sunday, Smiths

how fucking cool is this - new project (as if I haven't enough!) is to build my own PC...which of course means creates a monster as theres no need for half measures so presently looking at Pentium 4 with 384MB ram, or something, I have not a clue what clockspeed is or what 16 bit means, which is the point of doing this...Computer Cases, PC Cases - Starting at $24.99!

one of many sites devoted to the dark materials trilogy books.....and, again with the life under a stone, the movie!!His Dark Materials .org

Yeah, I know I said there would be no activity but lifes full of excitement isn't it - check out this blog, very interesting and at times disturbs......Jon's Jail Journal