EdgeBeat

I know a disproportional number of Mikes. Not too many as my close personal friends, but everyone (almost) at work, at the gym, and in the store seems to be named Mike. I usually have a pretty hard time remembering people’s names, but it makes things a lot easier when all you have to remember is one name. I even have a Mike at work who’s last name is Jackson. I try not to moonwalk too much when he’s around.

So, if you run into a guy you don’t know and strike up a conversation, just call him Mike and watch how he lights up, in total disbelief, surprised that you knew his name.

Each year on the 13th of December Sweden celebrates Saint Lucia day. It’s usually celebrated by a procession and singing of Swedish Christmas carols the morning and heavy drinking at night. I used to be a diligent participant of both, but have in recent years only attended the more child friendly singing event.

For the second year in a row we’ve had a Lucia procession at our local IKEA with the Swedish school that our kids attend, so they can learn and enjoy some of the Swedish traditions that I grew up with. All people that are at least mildly familiar with this tradition know that the procession consists of: One Lucia wearing a crown of lights on her head and then a bunch of tärnor (girls dressed in white, just like the lucia but without the crown of lights), gigngerbread men, stjärngossar (directly translated as star boys, dressed in white with white cone hats), and elfs. And that’s it. There are most definitely no Candy Raccoons.

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I feel like a bad father. See, my son, thinks he’s really funny. And to be brutally honest, most of the time, he’s not. I’m not really sure why. It could be his potty humor, or the fact he keeps making weird noises and expecting me to drop to the floor laughing. Usually, I just look at him, with an emotionless face, thinking: Is that all you’ve got?! And I feel bad, because I really want him to be funny, and it hurts me to see him fail so miserably.

I also don’t want to encourage him too much. At least not the unfunny, juvenile material of his repertoire. Once in a while however, something funny escapes him. We laugh. Sometimes even a lot. And knowing that he’d penetrated our hard exterior crust of coldheartedness, he fires off a cascade of backup jokes, that once again fall flat.

I admire his persistence.

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Calm down, I’m not talking about Star Wars. I’m talking about the Imperial units.

Like most people that moved to the US I have the  utmost hatred for the Imperial units. It’s beyond me that this system is still being used by any civilized country on the planet. Did you know that there are about 3 noses to an armpit? Yards, feet, elbows, whatever. It makes no sense.  Ask anyone on the street, citizen or alien, and they won’t be able to tell you how many yards to a mile (1760, and I had to look it up).

I’ve actually had people here ask me how many meters to a kilometer. Are you kidding me?! Sorry, the conversions are just killing me. Miles/gallon to lit/mil, sqft to m². I’ve had several home improvement project where I’ve had to measure stuff, and had I not been extremely careful about what I say around my kids, they would have been damaged for all eternity (Dad, where the f*#$& are you? Can you come and read this f*#$& book to me?).

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We do a lot of driving here in the US, and in the last couple of months, as most of you know, the price of gas has plummeted. Probably not as much in Europe as it has over here due to the dollar having gained in value against other currencies lately, but I figured it out, and it has fallen about 55% or so from when it was at its peak. Even though it’s not going to stay this low for long, I’m enjoying not spending a fortune at the pump these days.

The downside of this is of course, that more people might feel that the renewable energy issue isn’t as critical anymore… I don’t know who those people are, but I’m sure they exist. In Alaska maybe?

Anyway, that was my deep thought for the day.

Election is tomorrow. Finally. What we also vote for here in the US besides the candidate for the presidency and representatives for congress are different Propositions. Propositions are basically issues that have gained enough support publicly, but not received any attention by various politicians in power. In any case, it’s pretty much the closest for of direct democracy we have here in the US. They get put on the ballot and voted on.

The proposition that has, by far, gained the most attention is Proposition 8. A ‘yes‘ on 8 would mean a ban on gay marriage that would be written into the Constitution and a ‘no‘ would leave things as is. Meaning that gay marriage would continue to be allowed and recognized under California law.

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It’s hard not being sucked into this when you live in the US. It’s everywhere. TV, internet, sings, phone calls. You name it. I’m of course talking about the presidential race. Ideally, I would like to go to sleep and wake up when everything’s over. Let me know who won, and that’s it.

For us living in this country, we’ve been exposed to this circus for over a year now. I’m tired of it. If someone could make it stop, that would be great. Right now, if possible.

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