Stockholm

posted by jack at 15:42 CET in / life

This is the sort of evening where Stockholm flirts with me. I've spent too long with colleagues I seldom speak to, talking about things we never talk about during work hours. It's so entertaining, I lose track of time, and suddenly it's too late, I'm missing my train, and I may as well wait. A few colleagues invite me out to a pub, but I'm just short of time; going there would mean I'd miss even the next train.

Leaving the office, the air is wet but remarkably warm for late April. I could take off my jacket, but I know that would be an invitation to Thor. In the alley, I witness a short but intense gang-fight. At first I can't tell the combatants apart (these people look the same to me in the gray dusk), but eventually I get clear sight of one of them: It's a fox. So close to the city. I clap my hands and shout, and he runs off, leaving the cat alone to lick its wounds in the bushes.

Walking on, here it smells like pipe tobacco. Not a person in sight, just grey concrete, but the scent is unmistakable. When is the last time I smoked tobacco in a pipe? Ten years? Fifteen years? Some habits leave a trail that you can never run from. Stockholm is more than flirting with me, it's kissing me hard and grabbing my crotch. Every vista, every beetle, every shout heard around a corner, reminds me why I live here.

The truth about my current appearance

posted by jack at 20:39 CET in / life

At a party last night, a friend of a friend made a startling observation about my current appearance, saying that I resembled a combination of Wolverine and Swedish journalist Göran Greider, in terms of mutton-chops and wild-hairedness. See image below for astonishing proof!

You have no idea how hilarious this revelation was.

Notes from mirror-world

posted by jack at 09:49 CET in / life

In London on business this week, first time in England. Here are some observations:

• This whole cars-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road thing is really disconcerting. I thought it would be easy to deal with! Notions about traffic, and which way cars will be coming from, seem to be more ingrained than I thought.
• Hyde Park is really bloody dark at night. And the gates are closed. I believe these two facts are related.
• England has some great chips (which I'll not yet call 'crisps'), such as the "Walkers Sensations Vintage Cheddar & Red Onion Chutney flavour crisps" I'm eating right now.
• My fellow Americans are just as conspicuous in England as they are in Sweden, with the loud talking and whatnot.
• I feel nervous sitting in a pub by myself for any length of time, for fear of being that conspicuous. I keep to myself, consume my consumables, and leave quickly.
• Shops are open until 7! or 8! Marvellous! (<- note olde englyshe spelling)
• It's tempting, when I see the small numbers (compared to Swedish currency) on price-tags in shops, to think I'm looking at dollar amounts. If only.
• English taxis are much bigger on the inside than you'd think just by looking at them. I think this is the true origin of the Tardis.
• Whoever's doing up my hotel room wants me cold. Last night before going to bed it was just 20 degrees C in here. I cranked it up to 23 but was cold all night. Coming back from work today, I found that the heat was off, the window was open, and it was down to 16. Brrr.
• The curse of "reality TV" seems to afflict England at least as much as Sweden. Based on casual channel-flipping a few times the past few nights, it seems like at least 2 of the 5 channels on the hotel TV are showing some sort of "reality TV" at any given time.
• A surprising number of bathroom sinks here feature double faucets, one for hot and one for cold. This invariably leads to comically waving hands back and forth, Mr-Bean-style, to get the right mix of temperatures.
• I miss my family. This is the first time I've been away from my kids longer than, say, a long workday followed by an evening out! Dang.

is that a mod in your pocket?

posted by jack at 12:31 CET in / life

I used to be a big Palm user, keeping all my contacts and calendars in sync between my desktop machine and my handheld. Over the years though, I've switched almost exclusively to using a laptop instead of a desktop machine, and always have a bluetooth cellphone with all my contacts in my pocket. The final nail in my Palm's coffin, though, was getting an iPod which took over the last regular use I had for my Palm (Bhajis Loops notwithstanding).

So now that I've got no Palm in my pocket, I've got a new problem. What do I do if I want to just jot down a name, phone number, or URL when I'm on the go? Use my cellphone keypad? Eek. Thanks to a tip from Andy Hunt, I've found an excellent technology: Paper! PocketMod lets you create your own personal folded notepad/calendar/whatever to carry in your pocket. Just pick what you want to have on your pages, and print. An online guide shows you how to fold and cut the paper, and off you go. Normally I never carry a pen or pencil around, but since I started using PocketMods, keeping one in the same place at home where I keep my wallet and keys, I can't help but stick it in my pocket along with a pencil in the morning. Now I can once again capture those important yet fleeting ideas that will surely lead to fame and fortune.

building a playhouse

posted by jack at 06:21 CET in / life / pictures

Together with my father-in-law, we built a playhouse this summer! Instead of just dumping the pictures into a ready-formatted .mac page template or something, I decided to share them using Tabblo. Click the thumbnail image to the right to get to all the pictures.

All in all, this new Tabblo service is pretty cool. You can upload a bunch of pictures, create a nice layout of your own design (including text boxes of varying sizes), and Tabblo provides slideshows, downloads of the original fullsize images, etc. And of course it's free!