Would You Kiss This Swede?

Well, if you would consider it, he and hopefully a few other Swedes will be available for your kissing pleasure on

The Second Annual Kiss-A-Swede Day 

June 6, 2012. (time to be announced later.)

Coming soon to a sim near you!

Oh What A Wonderful Day

Not "my" mud pool but similar.

I have just come home from an outing with my coworkers. It´s been a great day, we were all in a great mood and the surroundings were beautiful.

During the morning I almost choke to death when a piece of pear lodged itself in my throat. After a few Heimlich maneuvers and some hard slaps on my back the pear popped out and I could breathe without constraints again.

In the afternoon we went for a walk in the forest. When I tried to jump over a muddy little brook I slipped and fell into the brook and almost all of my left side was covered with mud. I was soon dragged out of my predicament. The mud on my left side had caked completely when we got back to the conference center, so I could dust it off almost without a trace and sit down for a delicious dinner.

But the weather was good, the sky was completely clear and the temperature was 22 ºC (71.6 ºF) , the highest yet this year. So, all things considered, I survived and am only a little sunburned so it has been a wonderful day - except that I was so tired when I got home that I forgot to take out my cigarettes before throwing my clothes in the washer.

Rules For Sharing My Bed

(from The Doghouse Diaries via J.M.G. - Please insert "his" where it says "hers")

When I saw this cartoon on the Joe.My.God. blog today I was reminded of my strongly held views on sharing a bed.

I am not at all opposed to a bit of post-coital smooching, cuddling, snuggling, spooning and chit-chatting, but once that is done and it may be time to sleep I want, nay I demand, total S-E-P-A-R-A-T-I-O-N of bodies.

You will know when this time comes because I will be up airing out the room, smoothing the sheets, fluffing the pillows and the duvets.

You will be given your own pillow and your own duvet, do not attempt to take my stuff. Leave at least ten (10) centimeters of space from any part of your body to any part of my body. If you snore, under no circumstances fall asleep until you have made sure that I am already sleeping.

Once I am asleep no rules apply any longer and you may take any liberties, I will not notice. Another set of rules apply when it is time to wake up.

For your own safety you are encouraged not to try to squeeze, fondle, hug or kiss me before I have showered, brushed my teeth, had my first two cups of coffee and have started answering your questions.

If you for some reason must wake me up, speak to me with a gentle and kind voice. Your life is at risk if you poke me, tickle me anywhere on my beautiful body or start pulling off my duvet etc. etc.

By all means feel free to talk with me about anything on your mind - I will not bother listening anyway - but do not start arguing with me or criticizing me until I have started answering normal questions like "Did you sleep well?", "Would you like another cup of coffee?".

Follow these simple guidelines and we will get on famously together!

May Day 2012

Someone has once said that "Deep inside almost every Swede there is a little Social Democrat hiding and wanting to break out". I think it´s an amusing and pretty true characterization.

Even if the members of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden are sometimes ridiculed for being a grey and nondescript mass they have successfully changed the way we Swedes think of the world and how to bring about social reform.

Violence is frowned upon, we move slowly, step-by-step, and painstakingly see to it that the majority is coming along with us and that nobody is forgotten or left behind. The unwilling are dragged along, kicking and screaming, but soothed by the good will shown to them. "We will listen to what you have to say, but when we have finished listening we will either find a compromise or walk on."

All of us are seeking the vision that was described to us in a speech by Per-Albin Hansson in 1928 as "The People´s Home" (Folkhemmet)

I cannot think of any other nation where the right wing party would choose to call itself "The New Workers Party" or for that matter where a liberal party once chose to describe its mission as "social reforms without socialism"

Only five percent of the Swedish population of about 9 million ever walk in demonstrations, but of those who do more than 300,000 people take part in the various demonstrations on May Day. 

Blog Stats for April 2012

The total number of pageviews for Bock in SecondLife in April 2012 was 18,261 which is a new all time high for the blog. March 2012 held the previous record of 16,569 pageviews.

Pageviews by country in April 2012

Sweden still leads as my all time largest reader country with 67,046 pageviews, followed by the United States with 58,168 pageviews and the United Kingdom with 8,308 pageviews.

The three largest language groups among my readers in April 2012 were English (76,6 %), Swedish (11,7 %) and Spanish (3,2 %)

Voicing with Millimina

When I came in-world yesterday and had finished my usual initial procedures to get unstuck from the back-deck at home, which has been an irritating feature of my SecondLife for awhile now, I checked my friendslist to see who was on.

Millimina as a vamp

I was happily surprised to see that my little sister Millimina Salamander there. She hasn't been in-world for a while due to first life work and other hindrances, but we have kept in touch via email. As I am now able to use my headset again without my jaw resting on the table with my nose touching the keyboard, I plugged in the headset and called her.

It was wonderful to hear her beautiful voice again. She speaks Swedish with a hint of a dialect that makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over.

I myself speak the most detested of Swedish dialects from the far south, Scanian. The rest of the Swedes claim the diphthongs of Scanian are so thick that it becomes totally unintelligible and "sounds like Danish". Although I myself claim that my dialect is extremely polished, I admit to sometimes speaking too fast and with a sultry drawl. I have on more than one occasion been asked to speak English when talking with shop assistants in Stockholm. I blame their lack of intelligence and imagination for this.

Anyway, we had a good long talk and caught up with the latest news in each others lives. I was very happy afterwards.

Everyone beware, I am going to ask for voice-conferences more frequently! 

At Sundays SP 2012 Meeting

As an interested member of Second Pride 2012 I usually try to drop in at the board meetings that are open to the general membership. I have always liked to keep an eye on what my elected officials are up to. As I am quite used to these types of meetings I can pretty surely asses if there is discord within the group, where the divisions may be and sometimes over what issues.

To my relief I am able to report that the SP 2012 boards work seems to be safely on track and that things are moving along at a good speed. Levi Ewing and his builders are working on swiftly and beautifully. The ideas for events are both interesting, well on their way or doable in the limited time that is left.

The coming Second Pride Festival promises to be the best one ever! I am so happy that I have already secured that I will be on vacation from my first life work for the two weeks that the festival will last.