Random updates for the last year and a half

Ok, since it has been way too long since my last update on what I've been up to so here goes.

• Going home for Christmas for 6 weeks is now a tradition. This Christmas will be the third year.
• Went to Costa Rica about a year ago to visit a friend. He's now moved on to Panama so I guess that is another trip I need to do. Here are some pictures.
• Went skiing in St Anton last winter with Stefan. Here are some pictures.
• Bought a new car. This time it is a BMW 335i.
• Spent New Years in Amsterdam with Joe and Nicole. Here are some pictures.
• Went to Coachella (Big music festival near Palm Springs) but was sick the entire time so that was not a pleasant experience.
• Went to Seattle a couple of times to visit Microsoft for a new project. The project itself was a little bit of a mess (We were developing an add-on against a non stable beta Microsoft release) and I've now managed to get off it.
• Went on a Napa trip. Here are some pictures.
• Have had visits from John, Henrik Johansson, Anna-Karin and off course my parents.
• Got a motorcycle license and then a bike (A BMW R1100R). Also went on a motorcycle trip through San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley and Las Vegas. Here are some pictures.
• Went to Maui with my parents. Really cool place. Here are some pictures.

That's pretty much the highlights of the last year and a half.

Switched to a new blogging software

I've switched the blogging software to Blogger. I've just completed the integration into my original homepage (Including the homepage news section) which was a bit tricky.

If you are subscribing to any feeds there is a new URL http://blog.henrik.org/feeds/posts/default. The new feed is Atom instead of RSS by default, but there is an RSS feed available as well.

One good news in this change is that I've enabled commenting again because hopefully with Blogger they will worry about the problem of spamming in comments and it's not something that I have to deal with myself as much as before.

Finally posting new stories on Blogger is a lot easier than with my old software (Where the only way of posting anything was to write it in HTML) so hopefully I'll be posting more often than before.

I've also tweaked the photos section so that it doesn't use SSL and thus will not give you a weird invalid certificate error message whenever you look at something. The SSL version is still available, but now a none secure version at http://home.henrik.org:7654/ is also available.

Swedish coverage of the American Election

It's been interesting following how Swedish news portrays the USA election compared to here in the USA. Even though here in the USA there has been a lot of stuff being thrown around in regards weird allegations and other miss information. In Sweden it seems like that is the only stuff being reported.

It's also very annoying to see everything being so ridiculously tilted towards one candidate. When I read news I tend to prefer it when it is as unbiased as possible. It's very hard to find any article at all in Swedish newspapers that says anything positive about McCain the last couple of months. For instance I read this article, now the article isn't that bad (It is about the Irish Bookie calling the election early). But the picture that went with the picture was the one to the right here. For some reason Aftonbladet in their infinite wisdom saw that this pictures which makes McCain look like some kind of grabbing lizard was the right picture to accompany an article that was about an Irish bookie. It would make a better sense with a picture of the bookie (Which is what the US news agencies I've seen ran with).

Also reading the readers comments on these articles are scary. It seems like people think Obama is some sort of second coming. However, I seriously doubt that almost anybody in Sweden can recite accurately any specific policy that either candidate is promoting. One of the comments I read was that the economy in Sweden would probably be better if Obama won. I would highly doubt that myself since Obama is the one of the two candidates which is against free trade.

In full disclosure I am leaning towards Obama myself (Although since I'm not allowed to vote who cares) but it is not with any vehement conviction. The main thing that tilted me over to his side actually is the running mate of McCain who frankly scares me. It's not because I'm sexist (I had very little against Clinton except she seemed a little too calculating). It's just that Palin seems like an idiot talking head and I don't want people like that to lead regardless of their gender.

Laguna Beach disaster videos

The videos on the site here show some pretty disturbing footage of the fire of 1993 and the flood of 1995 here in Laguna Beach.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Sitting on the plane going home to Sweden for a month and a half. Need to renew my visa so I am taking a longer trip home this time. SAS has free internet access on the flight now so I'm actually posting this in flight, how cool is that? Will be coming back to the US by February.

Also put up some pictures from this years Christmas party available here.

For the people that are joining me on Thursday we have a table reserved at Humlehof on Folkungagatan at 7pm. Hope you can make it! If not, I'll hopefully see you soon (If your in Sweden).

Going home...

I today got notice that my Visa extension was approved so I can stay in the States for another 3 years. By a strange twist of events this means that I can come home for Christmas this year as usual. Also, this time I'll be going home for a little bit longer than usual. I'm heading home on the 19:th (Arriving on the 20:th). Hope for all in Stockholm to join me for my birthday on the 21:st as usual. Then I'll be staying all the way until the 28:th of January. Part of the time in Karlskoga and part of it in Stockholm. So hopefully this time I wont be as rushed as my usual visits.

Halloween party

Another Halloween has passed. We had another party at Doug's place. I've got some pictures over here.

I've also been to a wedding between John-John and Enid, some pictures of that over here.

Two months into my electric scooter purchase I am also pleased to note that I've managed to cut my gas usage to about half of what it was before. I've filled up my car once since the beginning of September and I still have more than three quarters left of my current tank. I think this purchase will actually pay itself of in about a year.