This is where I relax and vent. It's a supremely self-centered hobby for my own personal amusement (it is a blog, after all), a toy, a distraction, and one of the few places left in this world where my word is law.
We finally have internet set up in our new house. My only internet access for nearly a week has been through work. But now, thanks to the nice Cable One installer who set up all the hardware in about 15 minutes, I am finally back online from home.
Since we moved to a new district we had to get a new wireless modem/gateway, so I need to re-set up all our wireless devices. Every single one, including the consoles. I look forward to a few hours of work on that tomorrow. For now, I have read the blogs I missed out on, but not commented on all of them. In fact, I commented on a very small number. I apologize to everyone I left uncommented. I am tired, and my brain is not quite working right, so I do not have a lot of thinking capabilities right now.
In addition to the above, the new wireless gateway means brand new setup of access rules, with in turn means my Dungeon Runners client can't get online, and that makes me sad.
There are some good news though: After several fruitless trips to the local EB Games I have finally managed to get my hands on a copy of The World Ends With You. I am really looking forward to playing that one.
Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nord Du tysta, Du glädjerika sköna! Jag hälsar Dig, vänaste land uppå jord, Din sol, Din himmel, Dina ängder gröna.
Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar, då ärat Ditt namn flög över jorden. Jag vet att Du är och förblir vad Du var. Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö, i Norden
June 6th
On this day 1523 A.D, Gustav Vasa was crowned King of Sweden by the Stockholm nobility who preferred being ruled by one of their own rather than by a Danish king. Gustav Vasa later proclaimed that Sweden would follow the Protestant reformation, he took control over a few key factors in ruling a kingdom--primarily the army and the money, and he is generally considered to be the king that founded the Swedish nation.
On the very same day 351 years later, June 6 of 1974, the Swedish king legally and officially lost his last remnants of power, as the country became a constitutional monarchy with parliamentarism written into the constitution.
This really should not surprise anyone who has followed the news coverage of the US election. As an open Obama supporter I am, of course, very happy about this outcome.
I moved here in august of 2004, at the height of the Bush-Cheney abuse of power and executive privilege. I moved from what is widely hailed as the most liberal nation in Europe, Sweden, to the most religion-abusive, devisive, and narrow-minded presidency that the US has seen in my life-time. And I didn't care.
I have good friends here. My college degree is valid here, my career is here and my life is here. Opportunities I thought I would never have where here, and I was able to grasp them and make something of them, and of myself. Most importantly of all, my husband is here. Which means that everything that matters to me is in this country now, and this is where my home is.
The speech embedded below is the one that Barack Obama gave in Iowa, on January 3rd, when he had won the first Democratic primary of this election season. I've chosen to post that speech, rather than the one from Minneapolis tonight, for one simple reason: Despite all of the things I listed above, I could never understand how anyone could love a country like the US that I moved to. Like it? Of course. Respect it? Definitely. Fear it? Goes without saying. But love it? The nation that re-elected George W Bush and Dick Cheney?
When I heard this speech from Iowa, on the night of January 3rd, it was the first time since long before that August of 2004, that I fully understood how anyone actually could love this country.
Barack Obama talks about America in a way that makes it worth loving, hoping for, and fighting for. He seems to honestly believe that this is a good nation, of genuinely good men and women who can and will do what is right, no matter the cost to themselves, if they are only given the chance to do it. When Barack Obama talks about America, he makes it sound like it deserves the hope and faith he puts in it. And suddenly my new home country is one that I can love and be proud of.
"We always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it."
You're more than welcome to make comments. I love comments and discussion. And of course I reserve the right to edit and delete them as I see fit. It's my toy after all.
"Fame" is a fancy word for "being recognized and talked about by total strangers". If that was all I wanted, I could just go to an American Idol audition, dress horribly, sing even worse, and then have a screaming fit at Simon. Fame is simply too easy to achieve to be worth anything anymore. So if this blog ever brings me any, I'll probably close it down and go back to my dream of publishing a novel. That won't bring me fame either, but it might at least bring in some money.
