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lots of stuff's happened. first off, the states. went there, with jimmy the man. to visit sis. it was crappy weather in NY, so we had to land on some small air field to refuel and wait for it to improve. then, because we'd been cheap and booked our domestic to SF via atlanta instead of direct we had to spend something like 10h on newark because the weather was crappy in atlanta as well and the plane we were supposed to go there with couldn't leave for NY. so the total travel time from sthlm to SF was something like 36h. i bet we smelled like anti-social badgers when we arrived. looked at a lot of girls though, since that's about the only thing you can do on an air port except sleep. and being swedish you can fool yourself that noone understands what you're saying.
SF was really cold and damp when we got there, but otherwise ok. we couldn't make our kick-ass road trip though, because sis had some stuff to take care of in SF. in a way i think that wasn't actually all bad, because it'd have been really hectic. so instead we made a bit of a round trip - yosemite, death valley and through tahoe to point reyes. we did a lot of stuff, but the coolest thing by far was the desert. being august it was hot as hell, so there were no people there. at all. we saw one car, and i heard one too, but that was before anyone but me was awake. we saw this abandoned sulphur mine that was really cool. and a forest of yoshua trees. and we played baseball on the racetrack playa, jimmy and i did. i don't think there are that many people that have done that. we got a little bit lost on our way out, and drove on a (really crappy) road forever, which turned out to be closed (as we noticed when passing the sign and looking back - guess they didn't think anyone'd be dumb enough to go the other way).
on our way from tahoe we saw a black bear, running across the road right in front of us. they don't get as big as our brown bears, but i still don't think it was an adult. it looked kind of small. bigger than a cub though.
me and sis were about the only people swimming at point reyes. i'd forgotten how salt water can be, and how much it makes your nose run when you wipe. (didn't have a board, but you can sortof surf the shore break a bit without one, if you swim like hell.)
back home, things are confusing as ever. the girl i had a ... something ... with doesn't want to see me. or rather, she might, but only when she has the time. i don't know what to make of that, but then i don't think i've ever understood girls. i was in gbg this weekend, a friend had a late moving-in party. there was supposed to be this really nice girl there i've met a couple of times, but she didn't show up. and at a club i talked to this really weird girl - she scared me. she had lots of cool tats though. but i couldn't help feeling that if i went home with her - which she wanted me to - she'd stab me in the back after i'd fallen asleep. so i told her she was really cute but i'd just lost my girl and wasn't really looking for anything, which in a way was at least partly true. she had a really cute friend that was a hairdresser, and she told me you should be careful not to get conditioner in your scalp. i didn't know that. every day you learn something. i brought my baseball gloves to gbg, and a ball, and we've been throwing it. even after getting home from too many drinks we threw it a bit. it's a good way to sober up, if you don't mind not catching it.
and i bought a new guitar. in the states. a seven string. schecter. diamond series. hellraiser. with active EMG pickups. she's called michelle. after michelle rodriguez. she'll bite your head off. if you're not nice to her. havn't played her since thu, so i guess it's time i do. right after i put up some pictures.

i just got out of the bath, and now i'm writing my packing list for the states. it's not a week 'til we go now. yay! i won't bring much, with the dollar as it is right now. when i got in the bath, or just after, i realized i forgot to take the bacon out of the freezer, so it's thawing in the sink right now and i'm pretty hungry. and my muscles (or lack thereof) are sore as hell - i went water skiing for the first time this year yesterday, and felt i had to show off a bit in the bath i finished sophie dahl's plying with the grown-ups - it was a good read. i thought it wouldn't be after reading the first page, but it was. a fast read, and although chick-lit quite entertaining. i don't think i'd have read her if i hadn's seen her on parkinson, and i don't think i'd have read her if she wasn't roald's granddaughter. the combo made her interesting enough though, and i don't regret it.
i used conditioner for the first time in ages - years literally. it makes your hair smell like a girl's (which is kind of nice i guess, but nicer when it's a girl's hair) and i think i used too much, because my hair's really slimy now. combing it was a breeze though maybe i didn't rinse enough (though i think sis told me once you shouldn't rinse at all).
and i'm listening to lamb of god. kick-ass *grin*

this weekend was great - spent it at our summer house, in the company of good people. and yesterday i sat on a horse for the first time in what must be something close to 15 years. i write sat, since i didn't actually ride it. this horse wasn't one of those riding school horses that do what they're told but a kick-ass competition jump horse, and he was acting up already when its owner rode him, so she sort of led it for me. that horse could do crazy stuff though, when she was riding it - even strafe while galloping.
i really have to get new tyres - it was raining like crazy last night, and i spent a lot of time driving in it. today i'm tired like a llama. i'm going to see the new narnia movie tonight - hope i don't fall asleep.
i finished venus in furs last week. i can't say i'm too impressed. i guess there're some insights in the absolute beginning, when he's talking to venus , that might have some truth in them - and maybe in the conversation between severin and the main character - but apart from that it's mainly trite, and too weird for me to relate to. the song - especially navarro's version - is a million times awesomer.
i've been listening to porcupine tree today, which i havn't done in a while. they've sort of grown on me - i think i really like them now. atm, i'm pondering the meaning of open car. i think i sortof got my view of what it means together now, but it seems to be pretty far from what everyone else thinks. maybe i just put into it what i want to find - i guess that's part of the purpose of writing vague. doesn't matter though, the song is great - i just wish they'd move the chords just before "hair blown ..." to start on the four instead of the one.

my summer holidays, pt1, are soon to be over - just one weekend left. i'll spend it in göteborg, attending metal town. opeth'll play, and it'll kick ass. i've brought out my meshuggah t and my hard rock jacket, but havn't packed anything yet.
i've spent most of the summer at our summer house, snorkling. once i went surfing (but the wind died on me as soon as i got into the water) and i gave kite boarding another go (but had to bail pretty fast so as not to end up on öland). i also tried to surf the waves using a kayak, playing aleut, but they were too small and didn't keep their shape.
reading an issue of damernas värld i realized i have to make a list of the goals in my life. it was a good magazine, far better than i thought it'd be. apart from the list thingey article, they had a daring (woot) yet correct (damned bowler hat) channel ad featuring keira knightley (yay).
i finished reading snow crash, that a friend from work lent me. in a way it's a _really_ shitty book - the language is awful, and the story sucks from time to time. but still, it was a good read. i hadn't read anything postcyberpunk prior to it (nor did i know the genre existed), and although i missed the epoxy and ceramic blades there were some interesting concepts. i'm reading an even better book now - east of eden (by steinbeck) - but i forgot it at our summer house. guess i'll have to read venus in furs inbetween.

last week was the first week this year i went to work without a jacket. i always long for this. it may sound silly, but not having to put on that jacket makes it so much easier to go somewnere, to leave home. it doesn't take five seconds to do, yet it's a load of weight off my shoulders.
i was reading death in the afternoon, but had to stop. i've reached the point where i shouldn't read any more before seeing a bull fight. i'm not sure i want to, and if i do when, but until then - if then - i won't read any more. i finished reading a wild sheep chase last night. i've been reading a lot of murakami lately. he's truly one of the great - one of the big guys. i read another gibson short before making dinner today, putting off deciding what to read next. i've decided to re-read siddartha, and i'm leaning towards re-reading myten om wu tao-tsu. i've got east of eden waiting for me, as well as another murakami, and a bunch of short story collections. i don't feel like reading too many shorts now, but east of eden looks very long, and i've already read four steinbecks this year. i'll ponder it some more and see what i decide on. have to remember to buy venus in furs next time i shop for books. i'm listening to dave navarro's version of it now. it's a really good song, but then i've never heard the original - maybe it's even better.
these last weeks i've been playing stream of consciousness a lot. i'm trying to put down the guitar parts so a guy at work can do the drums, but it's probably another hundred-or-so years before i'll be able to play that song properly - and another thousand for the solo. petrucci's mad.
i had a cool dream tonight. probably more than one, but this is the one i still remember. i was getting a tattoo, something i've been wanting to do for a long time. it was a weird motif - a strange face, didn't look like much and the proportions were off, so i had to ask the tattooist (a really fine looking goth chick ) to change it a bit. for some reason we all three (i, the tattooist and my sis) agreed that it was the tits - the greatest tattoo ever - although it looked like crap. so she started tattooing, and it hurt like fuck. only at first though, when she said it didn't hurt a bit it stopped - yay for her. it was kind of weird though, because i was standing up and she was much shorter than i (like most people), so she had to move around all the time in order to reach, and didn't have any support for her hands. it was okay though, she said it was. i really had a lot of trust in her - i wonder who she is. the tat turned out great, only the motif had changed - the head was still there, only much smaller and it had a sortof buring bird's body. probably because i've been thinking a lot about how cool ospreys are lately.
i really, really want to get a tattoo, but i'm not sure what to get. it'd be cool with something norse, but that doesn't work out to well if you live in sweden lest you want people to think you're a racist dick, and i don't want people to think i'm a racist dick. and besides, those who cary the mark of odin meet violent deaths. a dragon'd be cool too, but then i'd have to live with everyone's dogs telling me how unoriginal it is - probably even if it's a chinese dragon, with four toes. maybe a phoenix (or an osprey), but i guess birds are hard to place anywhere save the back or chest, at least with their wings spread. and birds ought really fly. after all, that's what they do.
mastodon rocks.