First off, as we are to write about ANYTHING, I want to apologize to the people doing their Peer-to-Peer feedback using my blog. I totally missed this assignment.. But at least I'm on it now!!!

So.. Write freely about anything... Maybe I should take this opportunity to treat this blog like a blog or a diary of some sorts...

I left Karlstad a few days earlier than most of my friends, to go back home to celebrate Easter. We don't really celebrate, it's just a good reason to go home and spend some time with family and friends I suppose.
It's sort of bitter-sweet to leave Karlstad. It has really become a home to me.. and not like other students might see Karlstad, as a home away from home, but it has really grown on me. My grandma would probably start to cry if she saw this, she wants me to live here in Kville and build a house nearby - actually doubt that will happen.

My plans for this vacation are like plans for a vacation should be, relaxed... to some extent. Got an exam next Friday so there won't be any rest from that. Never is... Other than that, I'm hoping to get some time to see old friends I haven't seen for a very long time and to really fill up my lungs with some salt-water air!!

My grandma just called... We're having mackerel, spinach and home-grown boiled potatoes...
Don't think life gets any better than that ?! =)

Blog Assignment I

Such a difficult assignment… When I think about what life might look like in 5 years I automatically focus on my personal life, how it will look different from what it looks like today, my achievements, and not any technical developments.

In 5 years I will have finished my Business Studies.

Hopefully I will know what to do with my education.

Hopefully I will know where I want to work and live.

Hopefully I will be on my way there.

My goal is not having spent one day looking back wondering “What if?” - having no regrets.

My brother always talks about the Mayan 2012 Apocalypse; he is so sure it will actually happen. It is such a scary thought that the world will end December 21 2012. This would leave us with about a year and a half before it is all over and you can’t help but think about what you would do, or what you would do differently, if this actually does happen. Is studying really the best thing to do, or should you be out living life, travelling, seeing the world, before it ends?

I feel that this doomsday prediction in one way goes hand in and with my “no regret”-life philosophy.

So my achievements and goals for the next few years is to live life to the fullest, never wonder “what if”, and to live every day as if it’s my last.

When it comes to thinking long-term (not considering the Mayan Apocalypse) you would probably get more technical, thinking about inventions to make every-day-life more efficient and easy for everyone. But for me, I thought about my hometown Fjällbacka and about surrounding, old, fisherman-communities. All I want is for these towns to prosper and expand and become more than they are today which is ghost-towns in winter and huge tourist-towns in summer. At the moment you go from one extreme to another. I would want for big companies to put their factories there so that more people could work, and above all, so that people wouldn’t have to leave Fjällbacka because there are no jobs there. I wish I could stay in Fjällbacka forever, but you have to be rational… When I finish school in 5 years, there will hardly be any business-related jobs there, and I will have to do, like so many others before me have, move to bigger cities.

When looking at the history of these towns, and the fact that more and more people leave them, I do know that the likelihood of the sort of expansion I wish for is slim to none, but a girl can dream, can’t she?

blog assignment 3

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. 

Fire and Ice, Robert Frost

Introduction of Eclipse

I have actually, in a relatively short period of time, read the first, second, third and half of the fourth book in the Twilight Saga; Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.
- I LOVE them!
Most people have probably heard about it, but I’ll just give a very brief introduction.
Bella is that main character. She moves to “the wettest place in the continental US” (as gorgeous Edward describes it) where she meets said gorgeous person. However, turns out that Edward is a vampire, but a good one! They don’t feed on humans or anything… good (dead) people. Another character who gets a lot of the attention, especially staring in the second book, is Native American boy Jacob, who (believe it or not) is not completely human either! He’s a werewolf!! How crazy is that?! And then, the three of them have to deal with the craziest things that happen.
I have a tendency to get really, really passionate about things, when I come across something that interests me. And at the moment it’s like that for me with the Twilight Saga. It’s not like I’m like those die-hard fans that have posters of team Jacob or Edward all over their rooms, but I would still say I’m a pretty devoted one. It’s quite ironic how this passion of mine came to be… My brother told me a few years back, that he had just seen a movie, called Twilight, and he wanted us to see it. I asked him “what’s it about?” and he said it was about vampires and this girl etc. etc. And I just thought there’s NO WAY I’ll sit down, for 2 hours, to watch a movie about VAMPIRES?! Is he going crazy?! He kept on bugging me about watching the movie and I still refused.
This last fall, I spent 2 months in Thailand, and after a month I got really bored and had absolutely nothing to read so I went to a bookstore and I saw they had all four books in the series. I thought; well, soo many people have read the books and seen the movies so… I’ll give them a try. 2 days later, I went back, bought the rest of the books, AND the Twilight movie. – I was a girl on an Edward-high! 

Blog assignment 2

Okay, so a few things came to my mind when I watched this clip...
Firstly I actually had a problem concentrating, because the images looked like they were vibrating, and I can get really annoyed at things like that. All in all, though, it was very cute and pedagogical and quite easy to understand.
The part of consumerism was the most interesting to me, because I'm very interested general behaviour science and also in the behaviour of consumers. It really fascinates me to read or hear about why people do or act in certain ways on different occasions. I wonder if there are any behaviour science-classes at Uni...

Secondly, a feeling popped up as I watched the clip and that was annoyance towards America actually. America is world-leading in both negative and positive senses as Americans consume the most in the world, and production is super-high. But at the same time, when America and Americans should be the one for other countries to look up to, they don't do enough to set a good example, and that really annoys me. Of course we could, here in Sweden, do more I guess, (I'm honestly not that in to the whole debate about the greenhouse effect and other environmental discussions) but I'm thinking that its hard for such a small country to make an impact and a change in other countries. The bigger countries should really be the ones taking the lead when it comes to this.

Annie Leonard also gave an example of  when she was buying a radio for 4.95, and when she really thought about it she realised that she didn't pay enough for the product and the production of it. I have never thought of it that way, I've always just gone for the less expensive product. It was really an eye-opener and I hope I'll remember to think about this, not just today but tomorrow as well.

...Ironically enough, I'm soon headed off to Ullared to do some Christmas shopping...

adding to the previous blog...

You know what guys? In my last blogpost i talked about not being against the issue of surveillance but honestly, I've changed my mind. I work extra at a restaurant in town and last time I was there, when closing up, a guy came down from the office and told the rest of us that he, and the manager, were looking at surveillance films of the night. That really offended me because I was not told that they had cameras around the restaurant and I instantly thought "have I done anything I shouldn't have?" It was really the worst feeling...

Snooping bosses

As I read the article about the snooping bosses I started thinking about pros and cons to surveillance of the public. I once watched a movie about English football hooliganism and in the movie the main character is asked to put his hood on when entering a stadium and the reason for that is that London is the most watched-over city in the world.

-Is that really such a bad thing?

In today’s society it almost feels like you can’t trust anyone. And honestly, if there were more surveillance equipment in cities and public places around Sweden, maybe we’d all feel a little bit safer at night. With not only one, but two young persons disappearing, with out a trace, in Gothenburg in the past few weeks I’m thinking that there’s nothing to loose by putting some cameras up. By having surveillance cameras at bus stops, outside pubs and clubs and other public places maybe perpetrators would think twice before assaulting random, innocent people. It would probably also be very helpful to the police and court to settle fights and disputes.

In the article I also read about transmitters being embedded in to pretty much anything, from ID cards to hospital bracelets and I’m actually not totally against that either, as long as it’s done with the purpose of keeping track of say; young children, or maybe even teenagers. No, maybe the last one is a bit extreme, I don’t think teenagers would agree to that. My point is that as long as it’s used to keep someone safe and not misuse and stalk then what’s the harm? I guess it would be really difficult to keep track of who is using the device so I have a feeling it’s not going to happen.

The issue of the article was mainly about being monitored at work and I’m a bit torn on the subject. Again, I keep coming back to the same reason for monitoring or not monitoring. If the reason is to keep other people safe and from being hurt then the employers should do it, but not only doing it because they can or to show his or hers ranking in the company.

If you got nothing to hide, then why oppose?