I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!

I am back in Norway for the holidays, and what a voyage home it was. I am as many know, a big supporter of SAS, and a big complainer about “low-price” airlines like Norwegian with their crappy service and no leg room. SAS proved again to be an awesome airline, and they got me home. Storytime:

I plane from Stockholm to Oslo was supposed to take off 0945, so I had to check in before 0900 to be able to board, and to leave my bags at the baggage drop before 0900, or else I wouldnt get my bags with me. Standard procedure! What I did though, was to set my WORK alarm for 0700. OK, big mistake. That alarm only wakes me up monday-friday, because I dont want to accidently wake up at 0700 because I forgot to turn off the alarm. So I overslept!! I woke up at 0805, 55 minutes before the checkin deadline! Shit, I was going to miss my plane.. Worst thing, my tickets were non refundable. So I got up, put on some clothes that were laying on the floor, and just ran out the door with my bags (forgetting lots of clothes). I got to the bus stop, looked at the timetable, and what a luck!! A bus arrived after one minute (they run like every 15min at that time). So I rode the bus to the Metro, the Metro to the city terminal, and RAN like a frikkin moron to the Airport Express train. 12 minutes to the next train, scheduled to leave 0835. That means that I will be at Arlanda airport underground station at 0855. Which leaves me 5 minutes to get to the departure hall, print baggage tags, and skip the line at the baggage drop to leave my bags. I decided to go for it! So I checked myself in via WAP on my cell phone, and when arriving at the airport I ran to the bag and tag machines and got myself a boarding card and bag tags. I then just ran to the business class bag drop and skipped the line yelling, I need to leave my bags asap!! People were nice and let me go first (big line) and I made it! 55 minutes after I woke up I had managed to get out to the bus stop, take the bus to the metro, take the metro to the train station, and take the train to the airport. Must be some kind of Swedish record, haha =)

Ironically my plane was delayed 20 minutes, but that doesnt mean that you can check in 20 minutes later. This created another problem. I had a 45 minute stopover in Oslo where I needed to get my bags, go through custom, and leave my bags at the bag drop again before going through the security check again. When I got to the tax-free area I had 19 minutes to my plane to Trondheim left, and the sign said “Boarding”. No way I am making this. Takes 20 minutes to get my bags. But luck stroke again!! I was called up on the speaker system: Please come to the arrival service. Turns out SAS had applied for my bags (and all other travelers from Stockholm having a short stopover) to clear customs and go straight to the plane towards Trondheim. And the customs people agreed! So now I had 15 minutes to get to my plane. I ran through customs (uhm, not that good idea), up the stairs to the departure area, and was greeted by the worlds biggest security check line. Desperate as I was I just skipped the divider lines, and yelled to some security guards: I need to skip the lane, I have 12 minutes until my plane took off! SAS had graciously also moved the gate for the plane, so that it was right behind the security check, awesome! I was granted a pass to go first, and when I reached the gate it was closing. I think SAS held back the plane, cause I arrived at the gate 1130, takeoff time.

So I got myself home, with great help from SAS! Now you realize you have not showered, and that you kinda smell bad due to the fact that I had been running all day. No worries, mission accomplished. Now that I think back on it, it was pretty exciting and fun running around trying not to miss my plane

Thursday already, only two days until I fly back home to Norway for Christmas. It is going to be nice; I am really looking forward to two weeks of vacation and relaxation. The last couple of weeks has been hectic, lots of stuff going on, lots of activities, lots of beers =) But somehow it came crashing down leaving some disappointments to end 2008.

Some of my latest projects didn’t go as planned, including my acceptance at the Jedi Academy. I was informed by the reception at the Jedi Temple that another candidate with higher midiclorian count than me was accepted to train as a Jedi, Which sucks! So for now I stay put! Maybe future opportunities will present themselves so I can find another way to become a Jedi. The whole ordeal with a certain Senator didn’t go as planned as well. Politics can be tricky, you just need to find a politician that agrees with your arguments, and gather support in the Senate.

I can’t believe that I have been living in Stockholm for almost a year now. This is home now! Södermalm… It is going to be weird to not be able to ride the Tunnelbana (Metro) to get to places, even though driving around is going to be just as fun!

Tonight we have a small Christmas party with work, going out to eat and have a few drinks. I am working tomorrow, so I am going to take it easy, and maybe bail out early for Quiz night at Wirströms. Depends on how much fun I am having in the moment, it’s only like a 10min tube ride to Quiz place anyway.

This weekend was filled with Christmas and Lucia spirit. By the share numbers of shoppers in the streets you wouldn´t believe that there was a financial crisis. I have almost completed buying christmas gifts myself, only missing a few now. Sweden celebrates Lucia, and Saturday was the day where homeless walked with torches,

and children’s choir sung Lucia and Christmas songs. Makes the shopping experience more enjoyable when people are cheerful and in the christmas mood.

Else Saturday saw a vacation proposal, the return of the great road trip! It´s just on the drawing board for now, but the general idea is a reunion road trip, doing the north states, the same gang. Sounds awesome ey? I know I would love to do a road trip again. Things we missed the last time includes Monument Valley, Mount Rushmore, Washington, and all the northern states. So much to see!

Else I am looking forward to Christmas, and going back to Norway. It is going to be nice to get away for a while, lots of stuff going on. Two weeks at home, perfect!

Since we are in a depression, I am trying to help out as instructed by government, media and Jason Calacanis? Go on a shopping spree, spend money! I am building myself a new wardrobe, as I have changed my style at work. No more billabong :/ In with the laidback office style =)

I just like the photo, then I realized my beloved iPhone shot it. Pretty good for a crappy 2mp phone-cam. Just dont click the photo, then you see the limitations I miss summer…

It is Sunday, yet again. The weekend has been calmer than usual, probably due to my neck almost killing me, and a small cold trying to get a hold of me. I ofcource refuse it, and I feel pretty good now! So what is happening in sthlm? The weekend kinda started Thursday, with the excelent quiz night at Wirströms pub in GamlaStan. This quiz was no exception, and I had a good time as always. Some drunks threatened to ruin the evening, but they left early in the quiz, to our satisfaction =)

(on my way to GH4, yeah I´m a proud geek:P )

Friday I thought I had to replace my neck with a new speciment, somehow it has locked it self up, and the pain, bah, I´m getting old, haha! It´s much better now thanks for asking. So a calm weekend with no partying at pubs and clubs was arranged, actually pretty nice for a change, and you save allot of dough. The evening was spent with some buddies playing Guitar Hero 4! That game is awesome..

Saturday was as always Premier League Super Saturday, 3 games were on, bets were places, and the good ol´ chill on the couch. Later I was introduced to the austrian “karsk” as a friend from Austria made Glühwine, with a pretty hefty alcohol level if you´d judge by the taste (and the bottle). Pretty good though, and excellent with the Lasagne she made =)

Today though, I have been eating breakfast at the kitchen table with my laptop for about an hour and a half, listening to the new Stewen Wilson solo album “Insurgentes”. I am impressed, as I find myself unable to go take a shower, so I can listen some more to this beautiful music. Highly recommendable!!

The plan? Ride the tube to town and find some clothes, stay clear of the stores selling tech and lenses, avoid Apple stores, and just chill with the christmas “shopping” spirit!

I’m sitting here at work, listening to music and surfing the web. Lunch hour came late today so I just bought something and ate at my desk. Checking out the stats for my blog, relativly small number for the web, but I think it’s allot. 50 000 unique visitors and 500 000 hits this year so far! I also finally added links in the menu. This was a project of mine, that I have though of the last one and a half years, but never found the energy to change the header file to include static links

Winter came and went here in Stockholm. We had a couple of days with allot of snow, was pretty cozy. But then, as last winter, everything melted and now it just rains and rains. Like an eternal fall, just more dirty and wet, and everything looks lifeless. It gets dark before work ends, and it is actually dark when I go to work, so I dont see the sunlight anymore except out the window at work. Not that it matters , it being cloudy and raining for ever. A great darkness that will not lift until we write March/April. Lots of people feel this on their mood, me on the other hand, I welcome it. I can sleep at night now!

I actually did some jedi business today. I had a long conversation with the wise Wookies, where we negotiated trade agreements and how the goods were to be delivered, since this has been a touchy subject lately. After hours of aggressive negotiations (with the trade federation) we discovered the problem with deliveries, and tomorrow might bring a solution. The Wookies are a bit hard to understand, but they are wise and helpful. And the amount of work one can do with a lightsaber in one day, amazing.

Alas..

I sense a disturbance in the force! As the days go by, Master Yoda has yet to deliver the good news to me. So it looks like I am not going to get accepted as a padawan learner after all. Man, I had my mind set into hunting down the Sith.

Even though, as the title says, sith lords is my speciality, so I will pursue the dream and stay put. You got to wait until the force shows it´s will and opportunity presents itself. Never surrender, never give up! Whatever your goal may be.. May the force be with you!

Cant wait to play HL i source