90 days of challenge. 90 days of 90 days jokes.

Today I started another blog with a friend of mine. I haven't decided yet if I will post a link to it here. Anyways, we are doing a 90 days challenge, which I had thought to start this past Monday, but didn't manage so well. Then I met my friend for a trip to the planetarium (saw jupiter's belts! and 4 biggest moons!) and told her about it, and she was so damn excited, that we are doing it together and it began today with an hours exercise walk early in the morning. Which right now is 7:30. But since the days are rapidly increasing in length (almost 7 minutes per day!) we will hopefully be getting up even earlier to do the daily walk.

So. 90 days challenge to live like we wanna live, to turn those desires into the habits of a healthier lifestyle.... or so we plan.

I also 1) applied for swedish citizenship today, which cost 1500 kronor, and 2) bought a new (used) bike. Even though spring has come waaaaaaay to early for 63 degrees north, there is still a lot of ice all over the ground, and I am totally scared biking on it. So much so that I might actually start wearing my helmet. 

It is important to keep things in perspective.

Today I got to go on a tour of my university's book bindery (is that what it's called in English?) which made me realize that I might just try to get a job there instead of being a librarian or whatever.  I say "whatever" because it is basically impossible to get a job as a librarian here.  Anyways, it was SOOOOO completely awesome.  About 10 years ago I had a great short term job in the art department for Colorbok, making prototypes for the stationary and little bookies and funny little things there.  This type of work is like, the less silly and more official version of that, so I would love to work as I book binderer.  Bindist?
Next up, a really interesting lecture about the evolution of preserved writing/press/books, where we got to look at old ass books from the 1400s to the 1800s.  Including a Gustav Vasa Bible (above), which was the first version of the bible in Swedish.  Even my heathen and generally bible-hating heart can appreciate the word of god in this form (I mean, I do love books).  Apparently this thing cost about 7 horses when new!  We also got to look at several other books, including a little mini book about 5x3x0.5 inches in size, (or maybe smaller), about Cicero, from the 1700s - one of the first "pocket books" made in Sweden and another book worth about 200,000 dollars, made in pre-chapter and pre-paragraph indentation times... some time in the 1400s.  The man who donated it to the library bought it for about 50 dollars sometime in the 1940s, and it was by far in the best condition of all the books we looked at.  I got to feel the paper, and it was so sturdy and... fresh looking.  The print job and the paper combined looked like something bought from a really expensive paper shop nowadays.  It was fantastically made and preserved.

The lecture ended with the following piece of work - a job announcement from the University of Göttingen, 1748.  I'll try my best at translation.

Competency requirements under the hand-press era could be very high, which Matthias Gessner, a librarian at the University of Göttningen in 1748, gave expression for:
"He (the librarian) must have a noble and generous heart, which can overcome his avarice, and who is able to put the library's interest above his own.  He shall have a kind attitude towards library borrowers/patrons and the ability to give them good service.  He shall also have a feeling for beauty, accuracy and cleanliness.


He must have mastery of Latin, Greek, French, Italian, English, Spanish as well as the other biblical languages.  He must be able to understand the nordic languages and be able to work with documents in German dialects, middle-ages Latin and the Slavic languages.  Yet, most important are  abilities/understanding of the history of learning.  The librarian shall not merely know author's names and titles of representative work, and know which editions are best:  he shall also be able to show that he has knowledge within all branches of science.

Happy Equinox

I love autumn the most.  The first picture was taken yesterday on my way to the grocery store, the other two from previous years, although that mushy is a late august mushy, but that is basically fall here.

Amerikuhh

There are a lot of times I wish I would just move home to the United States and give up on this pipe dream.  There are also a lot of times I am so thankful I live in Sweden.  Which are sort of like the times that I realize how much harder my life would be if I moved home:

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

http://gawker.com/5840024/ron-pauls-campaign-manager-died-of-pneumonia-penniless-and-uninsured

Now that I'm all forward-thinking 'n stuff, I think about having kids.  A lot.  A lot more than my anti-marriage, anti-reproduction self of the past would think possible.  So, how could I consider leaving the relative safety of this place for the possibility of not have health insurance for my kids over there?

Not gonna do it.  Above all, the message that I like to send home, with a mischievous and cynical twinkle in my eye, is that living here is easy.  It's efficient, and without paperwork, comparatively.  Welfare states are good for lazy people.  You just show up to the emergency room, or call and make an appointment.  It frees up your time so you can be more creative and start things like Spotify or The Pirate Bay.  Or be ABBA or The Knife or Lykke Li.  Or my acquaintance Lovisa and her brother Jakob:

Freedom is:  having nothing left to lose?  just being able to show up?  making music videos on islands in the Baltic Sea?