MAFUKA

• rock club vs black club ~ parties
• fighting vs comforting ~ friends
• stockholm vs göteborg ~ my thoughts and my body | guests
• opening vs closing ~ bit of heartache
• drugs vs no drugs ~ bloody party culture

it was a hard weekend. as extreme as it always uses to be here in stockholm. and after 3 glad weekends it was the first one "in pain" again. it's not as tragic as it might sound like but how should i feel after 2 days where i had to comfort a poor friend, had my first fight with another one, organized the nicest preparty ever in stockholm (even though somebody abused my bathroom for sniffing something), faced sudden indifference by someone i just started to feel more and saw the spanish version of mullvads kungen on the subway???

Hm.

I just come out from a guest lecture by Joe Armstrong.

No not Greenday Billie Joe Armstrong:


This one is the right Joe Armstrong:


About 21 years ago he invented the programming language Erlang and now writes a book about it which will be published at the Pragmatic Programmers in early June. He told us a lot of stories about computer industry millionaires ... Maybe he is even one as well :)

Anyway, besides the thrill of getting to hear a presentation by one of the "BIG people" it was kind of fun to listen to him. Joe Armstrong knows how to keep the attention and mixes many anecdotes into his technical focuses discurs. I liked that ... and the same time I felt a bit bad about not being able to share his affection for processors and other (in my opinion) boring technical details. Well, I understand them because I have to deal with them here in my studies - but I just don't like them :/

This made me think of what I read yesterday in my Hackers & Painters book. It was the chapter where Paul Graham actually compares hackers and painters. He calls them makers and sees a lot of things that those groups have in common. They both want to create beautiful things. I guess this was exactly the reason why I started to study media technology - I loved the aesthetics of digital media and wanted to do all this cool stuff - then the private college thing turned out to be the wrong system for me to learn it. Interestingly enough Graham criticizes also the system at computer science colleges and blames them for not letting hackers do what they actually want to do - Well, this sounds familiar to me who kinda ended up in such a department.

When I started to study computer science at university I still had the intention to create beautiful stuff. But as a matter of fact my enthusiasm just got so broken down that I can't arse myself to see the "beauty" of code or software .... Well, I definitely believe to be a maker. In some kind of sense. I like to see the results of my work and I goddamn like to create something. It's the best kind of productivity and makes me see sense in what I'm doing. The problem is just the big variety of media which you can use for creating. I like to draw. I like to combine sounds. (Like for modul modal or when I DJ). I like to write (more or less) clever stuff. And I like a lot of other things. Sure also using technology - BUT CODE??? No, not really! I probably just found out that programming code is not my medium at all. (Education) Experiment failed! But doing mistakes is the best way to learn, isn't it? So let's see what will be the next step to find out what kind of creator I really want to be ;)

I had lunch at the university restaurant and when I picked up my yummy filled eggplant with rice, the cook was saying to me "Du vet att du är snygg, eller?" (You know that you are pretty, don't you?). Haha, it's really amazing what happens when Swedish people get in touch with a bit sunshine after the winter :)

I owe you something! Yes. Really. Namely some words about my week so far.

Actually I can sum it up by dropping some keywords ...

... like Python and Ruby
Last week my new university course started. It's titled "Dynamic Programming Languages" so within the next couple of weeks I'll turn into a real nerd running the interpreter all the time in the Linux terminal and play around with weird commandos like
def to_s
"KaraokeSong: #@name--#@artist (#@duration) [#@lyrics]"
end
Gonna be fun ... Somehow I guess :)

... like spring time
The sun has been showing up again in Stockholm. FINALLY! 12°C here!! And everyone is paralyzed. In the first weeks after the winter Swedish people often remind of a bunch of sect believers - walking slowly around, facing the sun with closed eyes and an enlighted smile on their lips. Well, to be honest I'm also one of them.

... like fencing and pain
It's not good to exagerate the fencing training. My body is covered with bruises and I'm sore muscles from Tuesday night. But at least I was fighting like a champ and damn, it was fun! :)

... like pleasant anticipation
Tomorrow I'm going to Gothenburg. Actually I wanted to drive there together with good-old Robin BUT he left me down yesterday becasue he has to work :( Anyway, I found two other friends who head there as well and who saved me from big disappointment. I mean, it can be quite exciting there as I'm hoping for a bit of spring luck there .... mmmmmmh!

... like moles

"Who is the mole?"
Well, WE all know it ... but most other people obviously don't. So they need a new TV show about our family secret on Channel 5.

Just as my beloved "brother" Sergio, I'm also busy these days. After a very sunny, relaxing and lovely Sunday I'm back into my weekday worcaholism.

On Monday I had a little meeting for a big project and my new course at university startet. It is about dynamic programming languages such as Python and Ruby and even though it might sound quite cliché nerdy I already like it because Tobias, the teacher, wants us to have fun. Let's see if he succeeds in his goal ;)

Today I read a scientific article about an awareness frame work that I have to use for an individual assignment which is the last bit to do for my previous university course. Actually I also wanted to write it today but I didn't get to it as the laundry and my hunger were on higher priority. In the evening I went to Alcazar and saw another goddarn great concert by Torpedo. Skitbra!

Tomorrow (well, actually today) I'm going to Blekinge (in the South of Sweden) in order to attend the SIDeR conference. I just finished the work on the presentation ... Looks fair enough I think.

And now it's time for a little bit of sleep ...

... but before that let me tell you something:
EVERYTHING IS EASIER IF YOU DO IT WITH A SMILE :)

That's my neighbour from next door in the student corridor, Malin ... Unbelievable! And I thought she was shy!!!

I forgot to tell you something yesterday: Francois took Vincent and me to Ugglan. It was great!!! Well, you have to imagine Ugglan (which means "the owl" in Swedish) as a very big cellar where an ex-hippy guy (who would be the perfect guy for the mafuka mum by the way - inge, aren't you interested???) is bartender and DJ. On the walls are mini-busses, flowers and owls painted. Or they decorated with old French newspaper, old Marlene Dietrich movie posters or record covers. It just doesn't look at all like a place in Stockholm. Maybe like a short outbreak to Berlin. From Thursday to Saturday they have concerts there but during the week it's almost empty and people go there only to play boule and ping pong or drink a coke (like me for example).


Francois, Vincent and some owls at Ugglan.


In the background you can see some Swedish people play boule.


Well, this makes me feel really at home at Ugglan.
No, I'm not talking about the wine bottles - I mean the record cover of the Hounds. I have exactly the same picture hanging as a poster in my tiny studend room :)

Inge, you should really consider to get in contact with that nice bar tender ;)

Just that you know how it looks right now in front of my window!
.........
.....
...
OK, not exactly right now! Now it's night and I took that pictures yesterday morning.

My latest f.f. (French friend) Vincent and I managed to get up early (10 a.m. - hehe!) and take the subway towards slussen in order to get a tasty piece of the big REA-cake at Weekdays. It's the famous Cheap Monday supersale, giving you a 75% price reduction on Sweden's designer jeans trademark #1.



I bought new tight jeans (in "used black"), black knee-lengthed pants, 3 t-shirts (red, white and black) and a oh-soooo-soft-and-warm coat. Oh la la! But guess how much I paid! 550 SEK (about 55 Euro) ... instead of 2200 SEK!!! WAHOOOOOOOOO!

Vincent just paid 220 SEK I think (one t-shirt and a pair of jeans).

AND:
By the way, as we're talking about fashion and good looks and fancy people, today has been also the day of interested looks and compliments ;) At the T-station Slussen this really handsome, well-styled guy (black hair with a perfect cut and a very well-suiting black coat) was passing by and couldn't turn his eyes from me. first i thought that it's maybe one musician acquaintance from some time ago and I just don't remember (not very likely as I tend to remember pretty faces - but still possible here in Stockholm) but as several people at the Weekdays shop addressed me with questions because they thought that I was working there (and ALL Weekdays shop assistants are goddamn hotties!!!) and even my otherwise very functionally talking Chinese colleagues were saying: "Oh, Janis! You look really beautiful today!", I think there must be something about me today :)

Francois just showed me that the door to our corridor is broken. In fact it looks like somebody tried to break in with a jimmy ... Nothing was stolen in the kitchen (at least we haven't noticed anything to miss until now) but if I think about that I usually leave my room's door unlock ... BRRR! Bernd just told us that somebody already broke into one corridor in house 21 and stole everything in the kitchen that hasn't been locked away. Even "worthless" things like oil, salt and so on. Hm, at least the murderer from house 71 is in jail ...