Birthday

So, I am now 43 years old.

An odd number of years, so I don´t celebrate much. My life is usually in stages and I feel like I am in the middle of the end of one stage.

It is business as usual today.

Scribble, doodle and scratch

When I am in a meeting, especially when I am listening to boooooring people, or when I am on the phone, especially when I am listening to whining clients, I constantly am scribbling, doodling and scratching on any loose piece of paper. Since the higher (well) parts of my brain are concentrating (sort of) on what I am hearing - the pen is pretty much doing what it wants to do. I usually doesn´t have a clue what the result will be. Here are some examples of this.

This a friend called an "alcoholic mongoloid bear" - before she knew that I drew it, but that is pretty much exactly what it is.

Otherwise it is mostly ugly people that I draw, like this guy who is a little pissed off:

Or someone who maybe had too much:

More angry people, these must come from when I am having a difficult client on the phone ...

And then there always are the occasional alien.

Or maybe some perverts.

Now, I don´t pretend this to be any form of art, but it is relaxing and I enjoy doing it.

And hope you did too.

Smile and the world smiles at you!

Well, maybe not - sometimes you get a weird look back.

But on internet we have these small things that are called smilies that can do the smiling for us.
Or - they are more correctly called emoticons, because Smiley is a registered trademark for those that makes those real big yellow things (http://www.smileyworld.com/) , and also because this characters can express more emotions than smiling.

First was of course the legendary :-) and :-( that was invented back in the early 1980-s by Scott E Fahlman (19 September, 1982 to be exact) and then I guess the ;-) for a wink and :-/ for a little more worried thought.

There are sometimes versions without the hyphen, that is :) :( ;) and :/ - but to me they look a little goofy.

But there soon came more - big laugh :-D , cool one B-) and the shocked one :-o (or :-O ) - the neutral :- and the amused one. :-p.

These kinds of emoticons are used especially at IRC and in email. On forums and IM-clients they are usually replaced with a more graphical version. Of these there are millions. Some of them are also animated.

The basic ones are of course: and - corresponding to those above.
Others are: .

Some of my favourites among the old style are the depressed one and the suspicious one and the very sarcastic rolleyes .

More and more you can see the bigger versions with a little shading to make them look 3D and some are even animated.


Others that I find very accurate in their expressions are:


There are lots more, but I think you have the idea.

Some people thinks that these are distracting and I agree when they are used too much. But once or twice per paragraph can be ok, or at least once or twice per message.

Pictures do sometimes say more than words.

Links:
http://www.smileyworld.com/emoticons/ -- huge list of more or less used emoticons.
http://www.smileyworld.com/emoticons/story.asp -- the history of emoticons
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/sefSmiley.htm - Scott tells the story himself

http://web1.prag025.server4you.de/ - german site with lots of graphical emoticons.
(WARNING: Lots of popups and cookies on this side so enter only if you are protected.)
http://www.my-smileys.de/ - another german site - same here, lots of icons but popups etc.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/atil/forum/s.htm - french site with 1200+ animés

I Love my dishwasher!

Yes, I do.

For a long, long time I didn´t have one. I washed everything by hand. With a brush and hot water running.

And of course, when I was bachelor - it sometimes piled up. And when I was living with someone - it was a source of arguments. Somehow I always ended up washing the dishes.

But, when we moved to this current apartment - I was determined that we should have a dishwasher. First we bought one from one store, after a week of waiting - it finally arrived.

Then the clumsy installer managed to turn one screw the wrong way so something broke. He promised to come back "later", but after waiting two days - I called the store and asked them to remove it. They tried to placate me, but I had lost all confidence in them.
We went to another store - and they came and installed a new one. No problem since.

So, right now it is working quietly in the background doing what I used to do. Not fast, but more efficent and the dishes are much cleaner.

And I can sit here and write this.

I do love that machine.

Forum forum forum

Are you like me?

That you go to various forums on the internet - and mainly read, but sometimes you register and then start writing?

I think forums are an excellent form of communication. It is somewhere between blogging and chatting, and doesn´t need any big procedure for an user to start using. Just register and then you say your opinion.

Now, as I mentioned in my first post in this blog - I frequent two forums more than any other:

Flashback: An once underground forum that has become one of the biggest and broadest in Sweden. The main theme is freedom of expression. You have a right to say your opinion.
As long as any laws are not broken.
http://forum.flashback.info/scandinavia/ - Swedish Original
http://forum.flashback.info/english/ - International

RB-forum: A small off-topic forum where a small group of friends talk about our lives and sometimes comes into more serious topics. But this is not the place to discuss world hunger or politics. Just chill and enjoy. This is only in Swedish.
http://ruskigbuss.suddenlaunch.com

Other forums that I am registered at are:

Above Top Secret: A huge general purpose forum - but inclined to conspiracy and politics, but also science and more or less looney threads. International crowd, but lots of Americans.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/

And then there are a few that I visit in my capacity as an IT-consultant, but I save that for another post.

Now I going to fix myself another drink! Cheers!

Introduction

So, I finally caved in - and set up my own blog.

Now, this is something I am doing in the middle of the night, instead of doing what I am supposed to do - and the reason I got up in the middle of the night, and that is to finish a project I have been having hanging over my head for six months now.

Anyway, I am an (younger) middleaged guy that is working as a computer nerd for the last twenty years. I am short, fat and ugly - so I am all yours girls. I also used to have glasses but that I took care of a couple of years ago - by doing laser surgery on them. Best thing I ever done.

Right now I am sort of out of a relationship, I managed to scare my cohabitual girlfriend away to another country. Ok, she said something about taking care of her fathers business since he is getting old, but I don´t know. Well, we talk every other week on the phone, and she has been back a couple of times, but basically I consider myself single.

I am not living with any animals either, other than the occasional bug and housefly, but I am used to living with cats. I grew up with cats, and I hade a cat friend living with me for 13 years. He was really belonging to my then girlfriend, but when we split up - he choose to stay with me. I will probably post some pictures of him at some time.

I am also kind of out of work, although I am as busy as ever. I have started my own little company, which is basically only for tax purposes and since Sweden is well known for its very low taxes - you can imagine how well that goes. I am also partly hired for another company to do the interface of their system - and I usually pops in there three or four days a week. But, I am now looking for a little better situation - that is - I would like to have a regular paycheck.

What I do best is working with databases, interface design and I am sold to the devil, that is - I am mostly using the tools that Bill Gates has put out. Nothing wrong with other companies - but I choose that path. And Adobes Photoshop of course.

At the little spare time I have - I sleep - and then I frequent these forums that has a space for opinionated people like me. The two major ones I go to - is my own - where me and a small select group of nice people chat around various subject - this is the link I have as my homepage - and it is all in Swedish. The other one is also a major Swedish forum called Flashback, which also is now starting its International version. You will find me on both. On the swedish one I am also one of 40 moderators.

Other than that I read books and listen to music. Once in a while I go out on a binge. Been a while now, though.

That is it. I better start to finish that pesky project before the customer drives to my home and holds a gun to my head.

Links
My profile on the Swedish Flashback
My profile on the International Flashback