My fair Lady and Beautiful towers

General announcement: I have bought two tickets to My Fair Lady saturday 10th of January. This is an open invitation to you guys to buy one of these tickets and go with me. I don't really care who so whoever pays me 430kr first gets it. Naturally, if there are more of you who want's to go one can buy the ticket from me and the others can buy their own tickets from ticnet.se. But there aren't too many left so you better hurry up! End of anouncement.

Yeasterday I went on sightseeing in Grängesberg. It sounds a bit odd, I know. This is what I looked at:


Not the old men, the windpower park behind them. Seriously, they're huge!


The one on the left is 105 m to the house and the wings are 45 m long, the same goes for that wing on the ground. The one on the right is 95 m + 40 m tall... And the view from those mountains is amazing!

Ignore those berry-picking smurfs.

All in all there will be 17 towers up there once they're done. There have been many complaints, mostly about how they look but also about the noise pollution they cause. Many people think they're ugly, and that they spoil the sceneries above. I actually find them quite beautiful, and I am almost as facinated of them as Da-Ryun is. What do you think? Take a look at this and tell me that I'm crazy when I say that it is just as beautiful as the two pictures above.

Report from the black forest

So, I'm starting to get strange questions like: Hey, what are you doing these days? Where are you? etc. Thus I started to realise that I haven't actually told anyone except Da-Ryun, Sara and Rikard where I am and presumed that the information had migrated. Obviously it hasn't, since Anton - who lives five yards from Rikard - aked me about this today.

This is the situation: I was to slow with my KE1201 - Gymnasiekemi A - (may the cursed thing forever burn in hell and sink into oblivion) and was therefore removed from the application-queue-thingy for Byggteknikprogrammet at Uppsala University. After a brief panic I then sent in an application to Lunds Tekniska Högskola i Helsingborg - the same programme. Because of my belatedness I was placed on 7th place on the reserve list and thus my chances of getting in were slim. Why, you might wonder? Because swedish universities has a fine institution called "överintag" which means that the university looks at the statistics to find out how many applicants usually fail to show up for registration and/or drop out in the first semester and decide on a number of students that will be accepted in addition to the number of places that they actually have on the programme. In Helsongborg that number is 10, which means that in order for me to get a late admission 17 persons would have to change their minds...

Therefore I somewhat reluctantly sent in an application for Byggingenjörsprogrammet att Högskolan dalrana, Borlänge. Truth to be told, I don't want to spend three years in Borlänge. I don't even want to spend one year in Borlänge. Why?! Have you been in Borlänge? It is probably the ugliest town in Dalarna - second to Grängesberg, that is. And it's boring. It has a high criminality rate. And student-wise it's dead. Seriously, for the entire campus in Borlänge about 100 hundred chose to show up at the introduction (inspark) - in Uppsala that was the number that participated in the introduction for my programme alone. And the lunch is expensive - 60kr if you eat there and 50kr if you take it with you!

The programme is OK, some of the teatchers are outright great, others are acceptable. The class is a little odd... In total we are 42, but half of them are going to become foremen (Byggarbetsledare) so next year we'll be about 20. A handful are over 40 years old. Because the school offers a sort of "tekniskt basår" concurrently with the programme 10 or so have not taken mathematics D... As I have alreday told Sara and Da-Ryun many (read most) of the girls are the irritating kind - you know what I mean?

So, for the more positive sides of the situation. I am studying something that I like! I mean, really, really like. That way I think it will be easier for me to motivate myself to actually study... I'm moving to a nice apartment/room. And because I won't move in until October 1st I will be able to buy a couch. And I baught a nice shelf from my cousin who is also moving. The place will be awesome and if you don't come to visit me I will forever hold a grudge! And finally, which is one of the main reasons I am even considering this - Borlänge is 1,5 hours away from Uppsala with train. And I will be able to buy tradera tickets for next to nothing.

That was all for now. If you want to discuss the suckiness of the swedish school system - please give me a call. Actually, give me a call anyway! Oh, and if you want to go downhill skiing at Romme (uttalas Romme med O som i Olov och Orolig - inte Råmme! tro mig, jag har pratat med lokalbefolkningen) this winter you don't have to worry about lodgings.

Economics of Information

Sometimes I love my economics book...

"when most people search for mates, they are looking for someone with whom to settle down. [...] search is costly (and therefore) examining every possible option will never make sense. [...] not even the most determined searcher can manage to date every eligible mate. In this and other cases, people are rational to end their searches, even though they know a more attractive option surely exists out there somewhere.

But herein lies a difficulty. What happens when, by chance, a more attractive option comes along after the search has ceased? Few people would rent a flat if they thought the landlord would kick them out the moment another tenant came along who was willing to pay higher rent. [...] people who are looking for mates would have similar reservations about entering relationships that could be terminated if a better option happened to come along.

This potential difficulty in maintaining stable matches between partners in ongoing relationships would not arise in a world of perfect information. In such a world, everyone would end up in the best possible relationship, so no one would be tempted to renege. But when information is costly and the search must be limited, there will always be the potential for existing relationships to dissolve.

In most contexts, people solve this problem not by conducting an exhaustive search (which is usually impossible, in any event) but by committing themselves to remain in a relationship once a mutual agreement has been reached to terminate the search. [...] And in most countries a marriage contract penalises those who abandon their spouses. Entering into such committments limit the freedom to persue one's own interests. Yet most people freely accept such restrictions, because they know that the alternative is failure to solve the search problem."

Thus it is that the following diagram summarises how to best proceed in the Quest for Love:

Divine Inspiration

It is 23 pm on a Friday night - unusually early for the kind of creative productivity urge that I'm experiencing. Some of you have been bombarded with lengthy text messages - I hope I'm not bothering you all too much. I wish Da-Ryun had finished watching McLeod's daughters, then I could have told you about my emotional state that is very similar to what I felt when I watched the last few episodes of that. But alas! I can not do that without giving her spoilers.

It's a strange feeling - being all alone in a dark room. All is silent and the world is somewhere else. Hundreds of thoughts flash through your mind and time stands still. And at the same time I know that there is not time enough in this life to do all the things that I am thinking of. Somehow I am going to have to sift through all those thoughts and pursue and explore the ones that are worthwhile. At one point in the X-Files Scully tells Mulder that Agent Dogget is worthwhile. I realize now what a huge compliment that is. I hope people find me worthwhile sometimes.

I have finished reading the Great Gatsby and I think that I need to read more of those Great American Novel's - there is a lot to learn about the American people in them. I have also watched Charles Dickens' Bleak House (BBC mini series). If you wonder why I chose that one out of all the BBC production-style dramas that are available it was because it stars Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully for those of you who did not know that already). I do that sometimes, or actually quite often. If I see something that I like in terms of movies and TV-series I look up other movies and series with the same actor/actress because I find that that is a good way to separate what is worthwhile and what is not.

I have also watched a few talk-show appearances with named actress. That is an other thing that I like to do - when I like an actor or actress I like to read about them and watch interviews to get a feeling about their personality, you should try it sometime! In any case I found that Gillian Anderson is quite an interesting person, if you have nothing better to do you should check out her appearances on David Letterman in chronological order, then we can talk about it.

As I informed Da-Ryun about half an hour ago I am going to read a DC comic series called Fables. It uses characters from folklore and since I am currently reading HC Andersens fairy tales I thought that it might be interesting. I hope I'm right. I hope it's worthwhile :)

Strangest of all is that I find a strain of thoughts going through my mind repeatedly. It is really just a few concepts, loosely tied together, but I think that I have a story to tell. It's interesting, I've never felt that before and I might just sit down and write it - if I dare. If I find it worthwhile.

Now I am going to watch Pay it Forward - a very good movie. Very worthwhile. How do I know that? Because it is one of those movies that I pick because of the cast - Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey. And also because I have seen it before :p

The Severed Head of a Horse

Watching an episode of the X-Files I was inspired by the mentioning of the weight of a severed head to find out the approximate weight of a male human upper-body. Why this instant leap? Anton wanted to know how big and heavy his Centaur character is. I don't know if you got an answer but here is what I came up with:

The human torso in itself weighs about 2/3 of the total body weight (from now on referred to as TBW). An average man's arm weighs about 6 % of TBW and the head with neck weighs about 5 kg.
For a rather large man, say 90 kg, that would amount to: 60kg (torso) + 2*5,4kg (arms) + 5 kg (head) = ca. 75kg (Yes, I rounded down. It's a nice and even number.).

So uhm, how much does a horse's head and neck weigh? No luck in my googling so I made a very rough estimation: Torso, once again 2/3 of TBW (seems reasonable, in my opinion). That leaves 1/3 for legs and head and neck. My guess is that the legs weigh more than the head and neck, but not by much, 3/5 as opposed to 2/5 of 1/3 of TBW? Let's go for that. That amounts to 2/15 of TBW. Anton was looking at big horses so big horsie it is. Nordsvensk weighs about 600-650kg (I think) so for that breed the head with the neck would weigh about 87 kg (let's make it 90). In that case a Centaur would weigh about 15 kg less than a horse with equal build (with an error margin of 100 % that's still only +/- 30kg).

In finding all this info I got stuck in a trivia hunt (as is often the result of combining late night with boredom and an internet connection). I will not wouch for the credibility of these following statements but I find them interesting (but mostly useless):

On average (a. from now on), women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Right-handed people live on a. 9 years longer than left-handed people.

The a. human can live up to 11 days without water, given a surrounding temperature of 60 F (about 15 C).

An a. person would die from total sleep deprivation after about 10 days, while it takes a few weeks to die from starvation. (That would mean that sleep is as important to the body as water, right?)

The a. human can lose up to 1/3 of her blood without dying.

The ashes of an a. cremated person weighs about 4kg.

The brain has no sensation of pain (not even if it is cut).

The only human body-part that never change size from birth to death is the eye(ball).

The thumb has its own control-center in the brain, separate from the rest of the fingers.

We filter out about 99% of our perceptions. (Imagine what we could do if we just changed that by 1-2%! More than that would probably lead to autism.)

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as replacement for blood plasma. (Could be useful, if a hemophiliac got stranded on a paradise island. But how do you define "young"?)

Intelligent people have more zink and copper in their hair. (Really?)

More than 2500 persons are killed every year from using right-handed products. (WTF!?)

Dog-Training

After having spent, I don't know, 4 hours trying to determine the constants A, B and C for which (5cosX+9sinX)^2=Acos2X+Bsin2X+C I had lunch. By then I was looking for something else to do but couldn't come up with anything. Then I realized that I would be doing everyone (I mean it, every single person on this planet) a huge favour if I could dicipline our dog a little. But seriously, how long can you go on with Sit! Stay! Lie down! Come! and Search! without geting bored? (About five and a half minute, since he already knows them fairly well, and our house is only so big) He obviously needed a new trick in the repertoire. So I spent an other 10 minutes practicing Stand! Ok, so it's completely useless, so what? It's cool. This dude has hind legs with the movability of an acrobat so he's pretty good at it. Sometimes when we're out walking and he wants to take a look around but the grass is to high for him to see anything he will stand up, balancing on his two hind legs, looking around for a few seconds and then fall back to all four. He looks a bit like an over-sized meerkat...

Perfect timing

I don't think that I have ever caught a train with so small a margin. Literally ten secconds after I sat down in the first available seat the train started moving! Mind note for next time: take the 7:40 bus, not the 8:00 for a train that leaves at 8:28. I was dead all the way home, sadly chance worked against me as circumstances forced me to remain awake for the entire day. Now I have caught up with my sleep and is reasonably alert. I even went up at 9:15 this morning!

I was hoping to be able to return to you guys on thursday but alas! Once again things are not going as I planned. My trip to Uppsala has been postponed to said thursday because my parents are going on a cruise monday-wednesday. Then it turns out that my precence is expected at my grandmothers' on saturday. With all this in mind my new ETA is 17:55 on sunday, July 20th, see you then, I hope. A humble suggestion on my behalf: bring swimwear!