Snubbed Again!

"That tired old spiteful German tart, she has done it again!"

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife, has been frantically repeating that sentence all day, to anyone who cared to listen. 

It is of course the lack of an invitation to today's Nobel prize ceremony and banquet that has upset the laird. He blames Silvia, the Queen of Sweden, and their long-lasting feud for being snubbed yet again.

This year the Commonwealth of Southern Charm even sent a delegation to the Nobel Prize Committee and the Royal Court of Sweden to ensure an invitation. Alas the mission was unsuccessful as no one could convince the queen to forgive the laird.

The Foreign Ministry of Southern Charm today summoned the Swedish Ambassador, her excellency Ms Kandinsky Beaumont, to meet with Wild Zepp, Minister of the Exterior, to inform her of the lairds great displeasure over this continued animosity and hostility.

Detention Order for Assange Remains in Place

Do you remember Julian Assange, the co-founder of Wikileaks, who after a visit to Sweden during the summer of 2010 is suspected of one count of rape, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of unlawful coercion?

Julian Assange;Photography Anthony Devlin/PA

The Stockholm District Court at the time decided to detain Assange in absentia for the suspected crimes.

Assange, who denies the allegations, has refused to come to Sweden for the investigation into the crimes and has, after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom decided that he should be extradited from the United Kingdom to Sweden, sought refuge at the embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in Britain since June 19, 2012.

Assange's Swedish lawyer had now asked the court to repeal the order of detention arguing that Swedish prosecutors have dragged out the case for an unreasonably long period by not interviewing him at the embassy and that it has entailed an undue infringement and adverse effect on Assange's liberty (citing his two year long voluntary "house arrest" at the embassy).

The Swedish prosecution had asked that the detention order should be upheld.

The Stockholm District Court today decided that the detention order should remain in place as the reasons for it offset the infringement and any adverse effects the measure entails for Julian Assange. The court also maintained that Assange's self sought and voluntary residency at the Ecuadorian Embassy cannot be regarded as a deprivation of liberty.

Assange's lawyer has informed that the district courts decision will be appealed.

Upcoming Events

My hometown in first life is Lund, located in the province of Scania, which consists of the peninsula in the far south of Sweden. It is believed to be one of the two oldest cities in present-day Sweden. Every fifty year or so there is a new stick, brick or piece of glass unearthed that predates the city's origin with another 100 or so years. At the moment it is believed that the city was settled in circa 990.

There have been few changes in the street system of the city since Middle Ages, although the old ramparts of clay that used to surround the city are mostly gone.

The city was made an episcopal see of the Roman Catholic church in 1048 and a cathedral was built here. Lund Cathedral School (Katedralskolan) was founded in 1085 and is considered to be the oldest school in Scandinavia and one of the oldest in Northern Europe. The school still exists and was indeed the senior high school of the laird himself.

The province of Scania formed part of the kingdom of Denmark up until 1658, when Denmark was forced to give it up to Sweden after a devastating defeat. Denmark didn't completely give up it's attempts to take the province back until 1710. The region did not become a part of Sweden proper until 1719, but had the status of conquered "foreign land" until that year.

Until the early 19th century, a ruthless policy of forced assimilation was employed by the Swedish government in what until then had been a linguistically Danish region. As part of the assimilation policy a university was founded here in 1666.

Lund University is today the largest in Sweden (and indubitably the best as it is the lairds alma mater) with more than 42,000 students, although not all of them live here. The 30,000-35,000 of them that do live here make out a big bulk of the cities population of 83,000 inhabitants. Every year we get a new influx of another 10,000 students as approximately the same amount leave to continue their lives somewhere else.

What the students do greatly effects the rest of us and mostly we love them for it.

Every fourth year since the late 19th century the students in Lund have a carnival (Lundakarnevalen) which usually brings a staggering number of visitors to the city. 2014 is another carnival year and it will be celebrated between May 16 through May 18. which means my small city is going to have circa 400,000 visitors during the three days, mainly on Saturday and Sunday when there is a carnival parade through the city center.

We will enjoy it, endure it and be happy to see the end of it - until we start longing for it to come along in four years time.

Victorious

Conchita Wurst from Austria kicked some bigots asses yesterday by winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with by far the highest score.

Austria came in first with 290 points, followed by The Netherlands with 238 points and Sweden in third place with 218 points.

Conchita received the coveted "douze points" from no less than 13 countries and the second highest, ten points, from seven other countries. She received points from every country (with the exclusion of her own Austria) except Armenia, Poland and San Marino. Good going, gurl!

The scoreboard from The Official Eurovision Song Contest 2014 website

The Batshit Ruler of Brunei

Once upon a time there was a king in a country on the fringe of the civilized world, who thought it was a great idea to show his religious fervor by making the books of Moses in the bible an appendix to the criminal laws of his country.

The king was Charles IX of Sweden and the year was 1608. By this legislation many offenses which previously had been considered as merely sins but had not been criminalized would henceforth be punishable by death. It meant a general brutalization of the Swedish criminal law.

The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah

In 2014 a ruler of a diminutive country on an other edge of the civilized world that gets kind of the same idea. This time it is the Sultan of Brunei, who is simultaneously the Prime Minister, who - despite international condemnation and domestic criticism - is pushing ahead with a bat crazy idea of introducing Islamic sharia laws as the penal code of his country.

The initial phase, which begun on May 1st, introduced fines or jail terms for offences ranging from indecent behavior, failure to attend Friday prayers, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. A second phase covering crimes such as theft and robbery is to be implemented later this year, involving more stringent penalties such as severing of limbs and flogging. Late next year, punishments such as death by stoning for offences including sodomy and adultery will be introduced.

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When the Much Honored Bock McMillan,laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Solace Island and Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, heard of this batshittery he was rendered speechless for a short while and then erupted: "The next time I meet that silly little twat Hassanal, I am going to go up to him, bitch-slap the living daylights out of him and tell the stupid cunt to get with the times."

Delicacy of the Day

This is what millions of Swedes have been eating today. Well, actually some untraditional bakers started making them right after Christmas and some likewise untraditional consumers have been stuffing themselves with them since that time too...

We call them "fastlagsbullar" or "semlor" (further north). They were traditionally eaten before the forty days of fasting prior to Easter started.

I only eat one of them a year and only on this day!

The recipe below for the delicacy comes from this website Hovkonditorn. Passion for food and baking. This is the traditional version of the buns.

Dough
5 dl milk
50 g yeast / 2 bags dried yeast
2 dl sugar
½ tbsp ground cardamom
2 tsp salt
1 ägg
200 g butter, melted
15 dl flour

Filling
almond paste / jam
whipped cream

Heat milk to 37C. Stir in yeast, melted butter, sugar, salt, and ground cardamom. Add flour into mixture until dough is firm and pulls away from the side of your bowl. Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch down the dough, then remove from bowl. On a floured base, knead dough lightly until smooth and shiny. Shape into round balls and let rise another 20 min. Brush with egg and bake in 225 degree oven about 10 minutes. Fill buns with almond paste or jam and whipped cream.

You can easily make your own almond paste; equal parts almond flour and powdered sugar whipped with an electric mixer, add a splash of water at a time to a good consistency.

Zlatan, Volvo & Wilderness

Music by: Zlatan Ibrahimović featuring Day - "Du gamla, Du fria" (The Swedish National Anthem)
Produced by Max Martin

Clip description:
"Sweden is our home. Mountains, vast forests, long distances, sun, rain, darkness, snow and ice. This inspires and challenges us when we develop our cars. The Swedish wilderness is our heritage and it is here we find our strength. Just like Zlatan Ibrahimović. This is our celebration of Sweden."

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Zlatan (the son of a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother who individually emigrated to Sweden, where they met each other, fell in love, married and built a family), is undoubtedly the most widely loved Swede living today, although his "Swedishness" is disputed by a small clique of xenophobic extreme nationalist. 

Zlatan is a professional footballer who at the moment plays for the French club Paris Saint-Germain and the Swedish national team. He has previously played for the Swedish club Malmö FF, the Dutch club Ajax, the Italian clubs Juventus, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan and the Spanish club Barcelona (briefly). Zlatan is regarded to be one of the best footballers of his generation in the world.

Volvo is a Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its principal activity was the production, distribution and sale of cars, trucks, buses, and construction equipment. In 1999 the car division, Volvo Car Corporation, was sold to the American Ford Motor Company, who in turn sold it to the Chinese motor manufacturer Geely Automobile (owned by the Chinese Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) in 2010.

Notwithstanding these facts, Volvo Cars is still a Swedish company with its headquarter based in Sweden and its production in Sweden and Belgium. (Some cars are also produced in China, but exclusively for the Chinese market.)

So Zlatan, driving in a Volvo and cavorting about in the empty Swedish wilderness while rapping the Swedish national anthem, kissing and cuddling a blonde woman and blonde children after taking a sauna in a log cabin in the woods and jumping into an ice hole afterwards is about as Swedish as you can get - at least for 95% of the population in Sweden. We love it and ignore the clique who don't.

The only thing "un-Swedish" about this commercial is that Zlatan is actually wearing trunks when he jumps into the ice hole, no decent Swede would ever do that. It's pure blasphemy against everything that is sacred, nature should be met in the flesh as every Swede knows! 

Catching Up with My Lives

After a good night sleeps my internal hard drives have started working again as they are supposed to do and I have started catching up with my lives.

So what has been going on while I was away in Uppsala for three days and zonked out for a fourth?

My parents, who live on the fifth floor in their building, have been trapped inside for four days because the elevator stopped working, apparently some safety fuse burned out. 

In modern day Sweden it has become customary for the service companies to keep as few essential parts as possible in stock, so they had to order it from the manufacturers in Germany or some similarly "distant" country, and not by express delivery or overnight shipping either. Instead my elderly parents and some of their similarly elder neighbors were held as prisoners in their homes.

My mother told me she had actually gone down to the mailbox, which in modern Swedish buildings are located on the ground floor close to the entrance, on the second day. Going down had been easy she said, but getting back up to the apartment again had taken her several hours in the stairs. I promptly scolded her for this adventurous trip, while at the same time understanding why she did it.

Luckily my parents - as always - had been well stocked with food and other essentials, except they ran out of milk, and could stay indoors.

However it seems to me that modern Swedish society seems to willingly making itself more and more vulnerable and unable to handle "unexpected" or other crisis situations. Our modern day society seems to live with the concept that everyone is young, healthy and fully functional, which should be apparent for everyone that we aren't as the population gets more and more elderly and modern technology exposes us to a larger dependency of spare parts. Nothing these days can be banged into place or fixed with a rubber band, you need an electronic card or something highly complicated.

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My dear friend and mentor in blogging, the amazing Eddi Haskell celebrated his seventh rezday on Wednesday January 22, 2014.

Belated congratulations to you my friend!

Eddi shares some of his accumulated wisdom on life in SecondLife in his celebratory Ask Eddi-post, Ask Eddi: What Advice Can You Give To Others After Being a Second Life Resident For 7 years?


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"Sailor in the wild..." Photography by Tomais Ashdene

"911, called." Photography by Tomais Ashdene

"Isle of Mousai" Photography by Tomais Ashdene

My husband Tom has been busy photographing and today posted this wonderful picture on his Tumblr. For more of Tomais photography please visit Flickr - Tomais Ashdene or Photomonkey SL (NSFW).

Note: I changed the photos because my hubby informed me that the two above were the ones he actually did while I was away, while the first picture I posted was done several months ago.

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My bosom buddy Apmel Goosson on his blog "My Avatar's Name is Apmel" in two posts informs his readers about the project that has been going on Tom's and my home-sim Southern Charm over the last week, which will come to it's conclusion with a concert by Ultraviolet Alter in an installation by Betty Tureaud today Friday January 24, 2014, 2PM SLT.

SLurl to the event

Apmel's posts can be read here: Oändligt långt från Southern Charm (in Swedish, but translation is available) and here Friday Tip: The Infinity Space over Southern Charm (in Swedish but translation is available)

Welcome to Sweden, Mr. President!

President Barack Obama arrives to Sweden this morning for the first bilateral state visit to Sweden ever by an incumbent American president. We had President George W. Bush here a couple of years ago, but that was for an International summit meeting.

Although we are well aware that the American presidents short visit to Sweden occurs only because of the the gap that arose in his plans when the Americans decided to show displeasure with the Russians for granting a temporary refuge to Edward Snowden (who leaked information about America's massive surveillance online) and cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Russian President Vladimir "Little Father" Putin.

Nonetheless we are thrilled to receive Obama as a guest and hope that he will have a wonderful stay with some straightforward and serious discussions with the Swedish representatives.

Alas the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls and sovereign ruler of The Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment with Outer Territories, will not be able to meet with the American President due to a "political flu", which has been brought on by the prevailing enmity between the beloved laird and the awful Silvia, Queen of Sweden. 

Important Community Information

Today the most important community information that reaches Swedish households in a non-election year was dropped into my letterbox. It is of course - as every Swede knows - the latest IKEA catalog, this time the issue for 2014.

Every Swedish household gets it, most of them will look in it to check what's new, many will start planning what to buy, some will go to one of the stores to look at it and possibly buy it. No matter what they do or how much they get involved they will all know that the new catalog has arrived.

Thats what's called excellent goodwill and brand awareness, no one beats IKEA in those areas in Sweden.

You can browse the U.S. edition here, IKEA Catalogue of 2014

The Cat & the Princess

Once upon a time, as all good stories should start even the true ones, there was an English cat living in Canada. He was a tall and lean man with a great capacity for love. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean in a small provincial Swedish town there lived a short and full figured princess with a weakness for tall and lean men and a similar capacity for love but no one to shower it over.

sirhc and Vampi posing for my blog project Naked Avatars in SecondLife
(see the tag Nakna avatarer i SL)

Little did the two know that the love of their lives existed and was waiting to be found. Universe saw this and knew it was wrong. This should not be like this, Universe felt, the two should be together and love and take care of eachother.

Universe thought about it a while and then it came with a brilliant plan and set it in motion. First it lighted a spark in the brain of a creative American computer geek named Philip Rosedale, something about creating a virtual world where he and his geeky friends and people from all over the world could meet and discuss their weird digital stuff and kill each other in war games and build stuff and have wild, steamy and passionate sex with fabulous women and tall, lean, men or cats or whatever they wished. Philip managed to convince enough of his wonderful geeky and creative friends about his vision and they set out to create the virtual world that was to become known and loved as SecondLife.

The idea took off, the world was created and the wonderful, creative and innovative computer geeks from all around the globe converged into SecondLife. They built stuff, they beautified it, they just went wild with all their ideas. And the friends of the geeks started to check in to see what it was all about and they fell in love with it too, so did their friends and the friends of their friends.

Both the English cat and the Swedish princess were sort of computer geek so they of course heard about SecondLife too and joined the fun.

Then one day the princess was out on one of her excursions into the dark side of SecondLife, some war sim or other, and she saw this lean, mean, killing machine of a cat. And she loved what she saw and heard and could not get the cat out of her mind. She started prowling around wherever he went and stalked him from sim to sim until one day she decided to take a leap of faith and just pounce on him. The poor, innocent and lovable cat did not know what had hit him. The princess was like a whirlwind, a tornado of excitement and love that took over his life, his thought and his dreams, just as he had - unknowingly - taken over her's.

The two started spending more and more time together, falling deeper in love as the days and weeks and months went by. They also started sharing their first lives on Skype, with the cam running 24/7, so they could look after each other and talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and watch a little. After a while they got handfasted in some weird wiccan ceremony and their love was sealed. Only Universe knows what kind of kinky heterosexual stuff went on in front of those cameras besides the two watching each other sleep, eat, wash, pee and all the other daily humdrum. Universe watched on and smiled and saw that all was well.

Then one day the princess woke up and couldn't see the cat anywhere in his apartment. He had completely disappeared from it, the camera was still running but the apartment was empty. She was not that worried at first but as the hours passed the worrying mounted, especially since the cat was sick and feverish at the time. When the hours turned to days she definitely knew something was wrong. She called out for help and assistance among her friends and an especially resourceful friend, a practical woman of course, lifted the phone and called the local police force in the Canadian town where the cat was living.

Vampi and sirhc and their alts for the blog project Naked Avatars in SecondLife

Despite the unusual circumstances the Canadian police were amazingly helpful and swiftly located  the cat and - after receiving his consent - informed the resourceful woman about his whereabouts and where he could be reached.

The beautiful cat had been found wandering the streets and not being able to find his way home in his sick and feverish state. He had been taken to hospital for treatment and was recovering when the Canadian police found him and informed him that a crazy princess in Sweden was asking about him.

Universe, that had been watching the whole story unfold, knew that something had to be done. The two could not be kept apart anymore, both needed the other to look after them and to look after the other. In some miraculous way a plane ticket was arranged  with a one way trip to Sweden. The still weak cat packed up his stuff and got on the plane which would deliver him to the waiting princess.

On this day, July 20, three years ago the two fell into each others loving arms at the train station in Helsingborg, Sweden, (See Bock in SecondLife; The kitten has arrived). Since then the two have stayed as inseparable as they were before, but now in both lives. The princess has taken care of the cats health and he has done the same for her. As it turned out the cat is an amazing cook, baker etc., etc., so he put the princess on an organic, nutritional and healthy diet. She is not as full figured anymore but feeling much better she tells me.

Universe is still watching over the two. It sees that they are doing well and it is happy, and so are the rest of their friends. For this is a true story, somewhat freely embellished but nonetheless true.

The princess is the lairds CTO Vampi Twine DeSantis McMillan McMillan (honorary) and the cat is his Sergeant at Arms sirhc DeSantis McMillan. The wonderful resourceful woman is PirateJenny Whybroe.

Happy 3rd Anniversary in Sweden, sirhc!

I hope you two will live happily together ever after. Love you both!

Swedish Snus Is Saved!

Snus, is a moist powder tobacco product originating from a variant of dry snuff in the early 19th century in Sweden. It is consumed by placing it under the upper lip for extended periods of time. The precursor of snus, the dry form of snuff inhaled through the nose, was introduced in Europe much earlier. Snus is not fermented and contains no added sugar. Although used in a manner similar to American dipping tobacco, snus does not typically result in the need for spitting and is different from naswar in that snus is steam-pasteurized. (Wikipedia)

Snus is widely consumed in Sweden by a large portion of the Swedish male population and some of the women too. It is considered a healthier way to consume nicotine and has the added benefit of not provoking spiteful comments or hateful glances like the ones smokers get for "polluting the environment".

Snus' sale is illegal in Turkmenistan and the European Union, but due to special exemptions, it is still manufactured and consumed primarily in Sweden and Norway.

The Swedish snus recently came under threat as the EU Commission in its proposed tobacco direktive wanted to regulate the flavors that could be used in snus. It was also suggesting a prohibition to add sodium carbonate, E 500, which is used in all Swedish snus to facilitate nicotine absorption. This prohibition would, according to the manufacturer Swedish Match, ultimately mean "the end of Swedish snus".

Todays meeting of the responsible EU ministers has in Swedish press been described as "a fateful day" for Swedish snus. However, the EU ministers today took Sweden's side, thereby leaving it up to Sweden to continue to determine the flavor and content of Swedish snus.

"I feel very happy", said Minister for Children and the Elderly Maria Larsson, to the waiting journalists on location in Luxembourg. "The joy is for the fact that the tobacco directive has been approved, but in particular the Swedish "victory" on snus. We actually saved the snuff to be free to decide on content, product marketing, ingredients, distinctive flavors and also sodium carbonate and the pouches can maintain their moisture."
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How's that for some first life drama?

Sweden's National Day

June 6 is Sweden's National Day, the Swedish Flag's Day and the International Kiss-A-Swede Day in SecondLife.

The two first will be celebrated in a slightly self-conscious manner all over Sweden (Unlike many other nationalities we Swedes always feel a bit apprehensive with overt displays of patriotism or nationalism - except when it comes to sport.) As you have already been informed, the laird has capriciously decided to cancel the celebration of the third International Kiss-A-Swede Day in SecondLife due to "bad weather".

All please stand up for what should rightfully be made the Swedish National Anthem if the world was a just and righteous place.

I Feel Best In Open Landscapes
music and lyrics by Ulf Lundell (lyrics translated to English by Bock McMillan)

I feel best in open landscapes, close to the sea I want to live

A few months troughout the year, so I can get peace within

I feel best in open landscapes, where winds are blowing full

Where the larks fly free up to the sky, and singing wonderful

There I make my own aquavit, and flavor it with St. John´s Wort

And drink it with pleasure, with herring and homemade bread

I feel best in open landscapes, close to the sea I want to live.

I feel best in peace and freedom, for both body and soul

No one comes too close to me, who shuts in and steals

I feel best when the day is breaking, where fields are filled with light

When cocks crow far away, where it´s far to the closest house

But still so close, that one quiet silent night

When you're sitting under the stars, you can still hear the laughter

I feel best in peace and freedom, for both body and soul

I feel best when the sea is swelling, and gulls are crying high

When the beach is filled with seashells, with the oceans sound inside

When the clear and the simple, can exist the way it wants

Where yes is yes, and no is no, and doubt is lying low

Then I tie a ring of leafs, and lay it on the closest rock

Where runes were cut for our sake, once so long ago

I feel best when the sea is swelling, and the gulls are crying high

I feel best in open landscapes, close to the sea I want to live.

World Champions 2013

Photo: Caludio Bresciani/Scanpix

Sweden wins the Ice Hockey World Championship by defeating Switzerland 5-1!

Congratulations to the Swedish national team and to their dearest fan, Mr. Apmel Goosson of Mount Whitney, SecondLife.

Dear Brad, You Are Not Alone!

In a comment today on Bock in SecondLife; Eddi Haskell dropped the bomb that even Brad Pitt, the most beautiful man in the world, has problems with nasal hair.

I have touched on this irritating affliction for men, nay mankind, in a previous post, Top Ten Reasons For Being A Male Avatar. So let me just take a moment to share with Brad: You are not alone you-sexy-studeliscious-hunk-of-male-beauty-you! Indeed I myself, and most adult men (and even some women I should think), suffer with you.

Wikipedia has this to inform on the subject:

"Nasal hair or nose hair is the hair in the nose. Adult humans have hairs in the anterior nasal passage. Its function may be to keep insects and foreign particles from entering the nasal cavity." (...) "A number of devices have been sold to trim nasal hair, including miniature rotary clippers, and attachments for electric shavers. The trimmers shorten the hair to such lengths so that they do not appear outside of the nasal passage. A pair of tweezers can be used which facilitates removal and an antiseptic cream applied after treatment on the end of a cotton-bud to reduce the risk of infection and soreness."

Not much help there, huh?

I first started noticing my nasal hairs when I had turned thirty, before that age I cannot remember ever being bothered by them. Since then I have tried a range of methods to remove them, all rather tedious, painful and/or unsuccessful.

1. Pulling
This procedure is extremely painful and takes a long time because you have to pull out each strand of hair individually. It is also a sorry sight to watch yourself weeping from the pain it causes.

Pulling can be done either with fingers or with tweezers. In both cases it is difficult to get a firm hold of the hairs and my nostrils aren't wide enough to allow two fingers to reach the the hairs that don't protrude and those that are too far inside the nasal cavity.

2. Cutting
This procedure can be done with scissors or a knife. I firmly recommend using a nail scissor.

This method allows you to shorten the hairs and you can take several of them out in one clipping. Alas you usually do not cut low enough and there is still the problem with the ones that are deep inside the cavities. There is also a risk of clipping into the membranes which is extremely painful and takes forever to heal. Besides can you imagine how much a cut inside the nose bleeds?

3. Nose trimmers (various models)
These are mostly ineffective, take too long and do not cut short enough anyhow. You still cannot reach the deeper set hairs. Pain occurs if you happen to get the apparatus in a bad angle and it cuts into the membrane.

I have not tried waxing or hair removal yet, because both those methods seem harmful to use on membranes.

As a child living in Pakistan I can remember the barbershops using a method that I have later seen used in Turkey and Greece also, It seemed fast, efficient and painless as far as I could observe, alas it is not practiced in Sweden.

This method consists of singeing the nasal hairs. The barber catches a cotton swab in a pair of tweezers and then dips it into a liquid. He then proceeds to light the swab with a match and passes it under the nose while the customer is careful not to inhale. I would use this method if I could but my problem is I do not know what liquid the swab is dipped in. I should think it could be ether or alcohol, but I am not at all certain.

Come to think of it, why hasn't a modernized version of the age-old singeing method been invented using electricity I wonder? One would (meaning I, me and myself) think that it cannot be that difficult for all the talented scientist and technicians in the world to help mankind with this important issue. Anyone may use my suggestion here royalty free!

We Welcome Spring - Desperately

Today is the last day of April, a.k.a. Walpurgis Night. On this day we in Sweden welcome spring - whether it has arrived or not. Tomorrow it is spring, whatever the temperature may be outdoors!

Update: The Danish Meteorological Institute (which is usually more correct on my local weather than the Swedish one) revealed today that it has been the coldest April in 25 years.

This evening many of us will light bonfires to chase away the cold. We will also utter incantations and do whatever else may be needed to exorcise and expel all and any remnants of winter. All our winter clothes go to storage and the spring clothes are dragged out It's all an old heathen tradition of course which has been christianized along the way for it to get the blessing of religion.

Spring is unusually late this year. In the far south of Sweden, where I live, we can usually expect spring at least in the beginning of April, but not so this year. Everything seems to be delayed by four to six weeks.

Luckily I have SecondLife, so whatever the temperature may be outdoors in my first life I am going to start wearing my shorts in-world. The populace have been deprived the joy of seeing my wonderful bare legs for too long already.

I'm An Old Fart

Although I still feel like I am in the prime of my manhood and that I am at an age that suits me perfectly I must finally face the facts and accept and embrace that

I am now officially an old fart!

I rezzed into SecondLife on March 11, 2007, after reading in a newspaper article that the Kingdom of Sweden had established an Embassy in a virtual world that I had never heard of. As a taxpayer I was curious about this news and came to check it out myself. I have never regretted that day and I am sure I never will!

There have been good times, bad times, difficult times, lazy times, easy times, boring times and times like it felt like a living hell and when I wondered why I kept on going back. The truth is that SecondLife is just what the name tells you. It is a second life with its own rules and limitations, but if you give it a chance and let yourself experience it with an open mind and an open heart and learn from it and give back to it you are richly rewarded. 

For me it has always been about people, they enrich my life and they warm my heart when we share experiences and thoughts and feelings. True, all people are not good news or healthy to have in your environment, but - just as in first life - they are few and far between and forgettable.

So happy rezday to me and count on me being here the following six years also!

The Swedish Battle for ESC 2013

The Swedish contribution for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2013 was selected tonight.

The winner with 166 points was Robin Stjernberg with the song "You".


In second place, with 133 points, and the huge winner of the Swedish televotes, was YOHIO with the song "Heartbreak Hotel"


Robin owes his victory to the participation of International juries in the Swedish final (who's votes accounted for 50% of the votes). The juries voted for Robin as the winner while they had the domestic favorite, YOHIO, second to last in the 10 song line up with a 61 point difference. The difference proved to be too large for YOHIO to catch up.

Although I do not care that much, I would still like to thank the International juries for saving Sweden's bacon in the ESC 2013 finals on May 18 in Malmö, Sweden.

Swedish SecondLife Resident Honored

Billy bookcase birch veneer

Every month my buddy Benja Aquila elects a "LGBT Second Life Resident of the Month" on his blog Benja Aquila's Second Life.

This month he has elected a person with the following characteristics:

• Charming (Yup, must be Apmel!)
• Swedish (Apmel, definitely!)
• Man (Apmel is ALL man, for sure!)
• Famous blogger (Absolutely Apmel!)
• Friendly (Apmel again!)
• Patient (Oh yes Apmel for sure!)
• A very good conversationalist (Apmel! Apmel! Apmel!)
• Multifaceted (No one has more facets than my sweet buddy Apmel!)
• Successful blog (Hell yeah, Apmelito!)

and

• A better ambassador for Sweden than IKEA. (Ab-so-f**king-lu-tely, it can only be Apmel)

The only thing that confused me was "LGBT"so my first thought when I saw the list was, "Ah I have always suspected that my bosom-buddy Apmel was a closet case and now he finally see´s fit to come out, but why did he choose to do it on Benja´s blog? Sure, he is truly deserving of any honor he gets, but isn't he already more famous than the Billy bookcase or even IKEA itself?"

Go to Benja´s blog Benja Aquila's Second Life and tell him how offended you are by his oversight of appointing someone other than Apmel Goosson this month! Even if the man isn't LGBT, he could be gay-for-pay or honorary gay or something like that...

(P.S. Thank you, dearest Benja! XOXOXO)

Assangeistas, Eat Your Hearts Out

The World Justice Project (WJP) has recently issued its annual report for 2012, the WJP Rule of Law Index® 2012.

The WJP Rule of Law Index is an innovative quantitative assessment tool designed by the World Justice Project offering a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. It provides original data regarding a variety of dimensions of the rule of law, enabling the assessment of a nation’s adherence to the rule of law in practice, identify a nation’s strengths and weaknesses in comparison to similarly situated countries, and track changes over time.

The results show that Sweden, contrary to the claims made by suspected rapist Julian Assange and his cohorts and supporters (the Assangeistas), actually is a country that ranks among the highest in the world (often among the Top 3 and always among the Top 10) in all factors and subfactors that are indexed in the report. You can download the full report for 2012 here and there is a cool interactive map here.

Criminal Justice

Sweden´s  overall scores & rankings