2006

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FedEx "Airmail"

Today FedEx dropped a package off in front of my door and if I had not known what I had ordered I would never have guessed what was in the package. The box that it came in was 12" x 9" x 6" and all I ordered was a tiny little memory card for my camera.Well as you can see the memory card did fit in the box. But considering the memory card is only 1.5" x 15/16" x 1/16" it could fit in the box with another 7381 of the same items. Well now I know why FedEx is doing so good, they ship air and get paid to do it.

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Windy Hill

With my new camera straight out of the box I went to the nearby Windy Hill open space preserve to see if I could capture some wildlife. I didn't have the extra memory card yet, only the out of the box 16MB, so I had room for only 6 photos, but for a short hike I thought that is ok for now. In the past I've come across quite a number of different animals there and I thought let me see what I can capture. Well here is the result of my 2 hour hike at Windy Hill:As you can see I wish I had the extra memory card.. When I ran into the coyote I had to delete photos first to make room. I wish I didn't have to delete those few hawk shots first, because the coyote took off when he spotted me strugling with the still unfamiliar camera. So I only got a distant shot of that one and not even smiling at the camera. I also ran into at least 6 deer, a couple of rabbits and all of them I could not capture because of the fact that the camera was full. Well according to FedEx, my 1GB memory card will be there tomorrow. Let's hope for that so I can shoot as much as I want.

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Custom Calendar (1/12)

And here is the January photo of my calendar. This photo is another Yosemite photo. People who are familiar with this park will recognize that this is the top of Half Dome covered with some snow and sticking through the clouds. I took this photo in the first week of May 2003. And because I like it so much it also is featured as the front page of my calendar.

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Custom Calendar (2/12)

The lake in this photo is located in Yosemite National Park and it's called very appropriately "Mirror Lake". I took the photo early May 2003 when the higher parts of the mountains in Yosemite were still covered with a little layer of snow. It was cool weather and very cloudy, but the clouds helped in creating a good light for this photo.

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Custom Calendar (3/12)

This photo I took on the 17 mile drive at Pebble Beach, CA in January of this year. The Monterey Bay is so beautiful, so another California coastal photo made it to the calendar. Again the light but also the fine mist over the water made me decide to put this one on the calendar.

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Custom Calendar (4/12)

This photo I made on the slopes of Mount Diablo in the middle of April 2002. I have never seen an area with so many California poppies. And when you see them in such abundance, it's not strange to understand that it is the state flower of California.

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Custom Calendar (5/12)

The always impressive Grand Canyon, that I got the opportunity to visit after 15 years again in April 2005, stood model for this photo. Something that I have realized is that there is no way possible to really capture with a camera the overwhelming image that it leaves in your mind. But of course one can always try. I liked that I was able to capture some of the depth with this photo. But it still doesn't come close to the live image.

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Custom Calendar (6/12)

When you drive along the California coast, you can find many little beaches that are limited in access and size due to the cliffs surrounding them. This photo I took near Big Sur in September 2004.

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Custom Calendar (7/12)

This photo I took at the Big Sur Coast of California in september 2004. The coastline here is so rugged which makes it the most beloved and also the most photographed stretch of the Central California coast. And eventhough I am not completely satisfied with the quality of the photo, it still made it on my calendar.

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Custom Calendar (8/12)

The photo for August is this photo I took at the Kaanapali Beach during sunset at Lahaina on Maui, HI. The calm ocean, the little boats, the clouds over the mountains in the horizon, it all give it a real peaceful feel to it.

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Custom Calendar (9/12)

The photo for September I took on the island Maui on top of the volcanic peak of Haleakalā at a height of 10,023 ft (3055 m). In the the eroded valley carved into the mountain recent signs of volcanic activity are still evident as you can see from the various colors of the soil. What played a big role when I took this photo were the strong winds that pushed the clouds over the top of the vulcano and gave it its magic.

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Custom Calendar (10/12)

Many who have been in Yosemite should be familiar with this view from the Yosemite Valley. What I like a lot in this photo is the light that makes it very dramatic. It was early in the evening and the sun only showed its face from time to time. And I was able to get this shot at one of those moments when it lit up a nice part of the valley. So this became my October photo of my calendar.

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Custom Calendar (11/12)

The calendar I created of landscape photos has more than one photo taken at Yosemite National Park. A photo, I took in September 2004 at the base of the Vernal Falls, stood model for November. This was at the end of the season when many waterfalls have dried out. Can you imagine how much water there would be in spring with the melting snow?

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Custom Calendar (12/12)

When I ordered my camera (see previous post) at Amazon.com, I was given a free calendar I could order at Shutterfly. And I thought that would be another nice early Christmas gift. So of my best landscape photos that I have taken over the last few years with my 'old' digital camera, I made a selection of 12 that stood model for my 2006 Calendar.. Here they are: starting with a photo of Spikarna on the island Alnö in Sweden.

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Santa is coming

It's only September, but today I had a good talk with Santa. And for a very good reason. You know that Santa lives on the north pole, and now that I have made my decision final to move much closer to Santa, I thought it's time he and I had a little chat. Every year he travels in December to all the homes to give presents that are either bought at Macy's, JC Penney, Pottery Barn, Amazon.com or you name it. And with all gifts Uncle Sam says "Thank you Santa for that nice percentage of sales tax". So uncle Sam and Santa are best friends. In Europe it's a little different. The local uncle Sams love Santa, but Santa doesn't like them too much. In Sweden for instance the sales tax is 25 cent on the dollar, or should I say 25 öre on the kronor.

Want to read more?And with that kind of percentage a lot of times it is Santa that is suffering from it because he cannot give the gifts he would have loved to have given.
So I talked to Santa today and told him to be a smart Santa and give me my presents before I move to Sweden. This way he can avoid Farfar Sven, and I get my presents sooner. A win-win situation! So I froogled on the item that I have had my eyes on:and decided to get it from amazon.com. So now I only have to wait 5-9 business days and Christmas is here!

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Citibank customer service

I thought I share with you a little conversation I had today with the intelligent people who work at CitiBank. Or maybe they are they on some outsourced offshore help desk center in Bangalore or so. It is as if you are talking to a brainless machine. But hey, at least they work in the evenings, pacific time. Come to think of it, I have seen computers answer smarter than the people behind this help desk. So I show you litterally the conversation I had today, except that I took out the actual address and dates, and replaced "you wrote" with "/T/ wrote". Nothing else has been edited.

International Move

09/15/05 08:56:53 PM

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/T/ wrote: Hello, I am moving to Sweden on *******, 2005 and want to give you my new address as of that date. Current address till **/**/****: #### My Rd, My City, Temporary address **/**/**** - **/**/**** Blablablavägen, Stad, SWEDEN Address as of **/**/****: Anotherroad ## Min Stad SWEDEN Thank you,

Re: International Move

09/15/05 09:50:20 PM

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Customer Service Wrote: You are requested to contact us when you want to change your address. Thank you for using our website.

RE: International Move

09/15/05 10:51:11 PM

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/T/ wrote: I thought this message is a way of contacting you with my address change. I just followed the instructions on the website to send you a message. Please let me know if I need to call a number, or what to do, because now I am confused.

RE: International Move

09/16/05 12:03:51 AM

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Customer Service Wrote: To update your address and phone number, go to the Manage My Account menu and select Update Personal Profile. Then select Address and Phone Change. Thank you for using our website.

RE: International Move

09/16/05 12:13:31 AM

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/T/ wrote: Again.. this is an international move and on the "Manage My Account menu and select Update Personal Profile. Then select Address and Phone Change." it clearly says for international moves you have to send a secure message, which I did. So what do you want me to do now? I cant update my address there because that is ONLY for moves within the country.

RE: International Move

09/16/05 12:57:57 AM

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Customer Service Wrote: We apologize for any confusion. We have updated your address to change on **/**/** to the first address you provided. We are unable to add another address change at this time. You will need to contact us when your address changes again on **/**/**. Thank you for using our website.

I hope they read this blog, because then I can also answer with: "Thank you for using my website."

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Sundsvall data

Because my wife is in Sundsvall and I will be going there soon again, I wanted to know how long the days really are in Sundsvall throughout the year and what the average minimum (blue line) and maximum (red line) temperatures are there as well. So with some help of the weather channel I created a little graph that displays it all. And I discovered something that I never had even thought of. I always assumed that the longest day of the year is the day that the sun rises (yellow line) the earliest and sets (orange line) the latest. And that the shortest day is when it is the opposite. Pretty straightt forward, right? Well wrong!

It turns out that there is not a single day in the year where the sun sets the earliest aswell as rises the latest. It turns out that the sun rises the latest (at 9:22 AM) on December 25th, while the day that the sun sets the earliest is December 18st (at 2:15 PM) Making december 21st the shortest day in the year with only 4 hours and 55 minutes! And part of that is only twilight.
At the start of the summer it is the opposite.. The day that the sun sets the latest is June 22 and the day that the sun rises the earliest is June 20, making June 21st the longest day of the year with 20 hours and 2 minutes of daylight.

The temperature is pretty straight foward.. average maximum of 20 degrees centigrade (68F) in mid July and an average night temperature of -14C (7F) at the end of January. No surprises there.. yeah it's cold in winter.

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What am I really?

Don't you also think, that people who believe in astrology a lot, always tend to say that when they know you are a Libra, that "You are such a Libra". Or when they find out you are a Sagitarius, that "You are a typical Sagitarius".
Well I wonder what I am really.. Because I did this online quiz "How much do you match your zodiac sign?" and it gives you back a percentage on how you rank according to your zodiac sign. Well I thought let me do them all and see what my true Zodiac sign is. And if it turns out to be a perfect science, I might even figure out that my birthdate is another date then my birth certificate says.

So here are my results:

You are 60% Aries	You are 40% Taurus	You are 40% Gemini
You are 53% Cancer	You are 60% Leo	You are 73% Virgo
You are 53% Libra	You are 60% Scorpio	You are 33% Sagittarius
You are 47% Capricorn	You are 47% Aquarius	You are 60% Pisces

Well so this experiment proved that I am not much of a Sagitarius, but more of a Virgo. What do you think I really am and do you believe that these test show your real Zodiac sign? I am not convinced.

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Life saver, sleep killer...

It started about a month or two ago. It was a hot day and my appartment got warmed up quite a bit. And since my airconditioning is just making more noise than cold air I thougth I leave some extra windows open at night.
My hallway is downstairs and has a window next to the door, so in order for the aircirculation I thought let me open up a window there so the cooler night air will flow through my appartment and cool things down a bit.
Not a bad thought, right? Well wrong. The cooler air from outside contained something else than a lower temperature.... In the middle of the night I hear this penetrating beep every 30 seconds or so. Of course I wake up. Strange sounds always wake me up. I am light sleeper. It turned out that it is my smoke alarm downstairs in the little hall that produces that sound. So OK, I know there is a lot of traffic in my area, and I guess the polution from it is so much I can't have the window open there.
So next day I change plans and instead of having the window downstairs open I open the windows in my bed room and let a draft through my whole apartment cool it down at night. Well this was even worse. Now the smoke detector in my bedroom start to beep, and that above your bed is absolutely not a pleasure. So I curse and shut the windows in my bedroom and luckily the alarm goes off and I can sleep again.
Weeks pass by, everything seems fine. The smoke detectors don't smell what I don't smell either and they are quiet as they should.
Then a few nights ago, even while I didn't open the window in the hallway anymore... I wake up at around 3 in the morning. The smoke alarm senses an increased level of carbon monoxide again and starts with it's twice per minute beep. Night destroyed. What do I do now? Window is closed, so only got one window open upstairs. That can't be the cause, can it? But it continues for hours and hours until the morning after I had left the home and came back.
Next night.. same story. Again at around 3 a.m. beep .. silence .. beep .. silence .. beep and so on. And it went on night after night, and I got somewhat used to it. I closed the doors so I wouldnt hear it's penetrating sound too much. And I got to sleep again. (Ignoring what I was breathing, but at least sleeping). I even figured out that when I press the test smoke alarm button in the morning, it would after it's super loud sound be quiet for the whole day.
Then there was this night. 12:30 a.m. I was just in bed for a little while and it woke me up.. again.. Oh no, I thought, this is getting worse. A beeping sound from 12:30 till 8:30 that is eight full hours of beeping. That is too much.
If these smoke alarms were old, I would just have removed the batteries, but no in this appartment it is connected to the electrical net, and since I rent this place I cannot just remove the alarm all together. I had to come up with something else.
So weaponed with a little stool, some cloth and masking tape I went downstairs to silence this sleep killer as much as I can. I thought the cloth would at least absorb most of the sound and then with doors closed I should be able to get some sleep.
Well I did a good job. Not only did I manage to let much less sound come out of the alarm, but I acchieved an incredible side effect. The cloth works like a gas mask, no more bad air reaches the smoke alarm and it got quiet all by it self. And now after I am done with this post I should be able to get some good sleep.

Good night every one!

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Happy Birthday Blog

You never want to forget a birthday of another blogger? Well this brand spanking new blog shows whose birthday it is. Now you don't have to worry that noone will congratulate you on your birthday, and you can't forget your friend's birthday either.

Happy Birthday Blog

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Captured thoughts

When you look at these pictures it is as if you can see exactly what she is thinking. First it is "What do you have there, daddy?"; then it is followed by "Is that ME there on that little screen?". The third picture is "Wow, yeah that is me!" and finally in the fourth it is "Look at me, I look so good on there!"

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