After much thought and agonizing, mainly along the lines of "do I really want to have a blog or not?", I have decided that I do, but not at Blogger. I no longer use this google account, and the daily chit chat about my own little world was boring me anyway, so I have decided to make some changes.
Most obvious of them is that I am moving to Wordpress. The url for Kicking Back is now http://kickerblog.wordpress.com/ so if you had links or bookmarks to this blog, make sure you change them. I seem to recall having as many as three regular readers at one point, which made me feel very special. So I'm posting this little announcement so you three will know where the blog is going to be from here on.
The new blog will look different than this one (I think it looks better), and it will have more of a consistent theme to it. Or three as it were. I like gaming and computers, and I enjoy following politics. The blog will be about those three things from now on.
And it will be on kickerblog.wordpress.com.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Speechless Moments
Customer: I installed the RAM upgrade. I know now that I should have turned off the computer first, but I didn't when I installed it. Could I have fried the memory?
Tech Support Agent: That is very possible.
Customer: I should probably mention that when I installed the memory with the computer on, I smelled something burning and now the computer won't start.
No, I imagine it won't...
Sunday, June 22, 2008
At long last, the withdrawal ends
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.
Friday, June 6, 2008
June 6
Du gamla, Du fria, Du fjällhöga nordDu 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.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
And the Democratic Nominee is...
...Barack Obama.
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."
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."
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Hermaphrodites only?
I have finally caved in. I bought a package of Midol.
For my non-US readers, this Midol contains 500 mg of acetaminophen, 60 mg of caffeine, and 15 mg of the diuretic pyrilamine maleate. It advertises itself as "Menstrual Complete: maximum strength relief of cramps, bloating, fatigue, backache, headache".
For the record, it works. It was well worth walking up to the shelf in the store, search frantically for 15 minutes, and finally decide to buy the only product I could find that had both lots of painkillers and caffeine that could help my body absorb said wonderful drugs. (And no, I don't care how stereotypical this makes me. The pain stopped. Nothing else matters.)
Ever careful, remembering my mother's constant warnings to treat over-the-counter drugs with as much caution and respect as prescription medications, I turned the package over to read the warnings on the back before making my decision. Among the warnings I found this:
Ask a doctor before use if you have
For my non-US readers, this Midol contains 500 mg of acetaminophen, 60 mg of caffeine, and 15 mg of the diuretic pyrilamine maleate. It advertises itself as "Menstrual Complete: maximum strength relief of cramps, bloating, fatigue, backache, headache".
For the record, it works. It was well worth walking up to the shelf in the store, search frantically for 15 minutes, and finally decide to buy the only product I could find that had both lots of painkillers and caffeine that could help my body absorb said wonderful drugs. (And no, I don't care how stereotypical this makes me. The pain stopped. Nothing else matters.)
Ever careful, remembering my mother's constant warnings to treat over-the-counter drugs with as much caution and respect as prescription medications, I turned the package over to read the warnings on the back before making my decision. Among the warnings I found this:
Ask a doctor before use if you have
- glaucoma
- a breathing problem such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis
- difficulty in urination due to enlargement of the prostate gland
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