I find this very compelling. Go ahead, read it.
Månad: januari 2008
Religion – Vetenskapliga sanningar eller psykologiska föreställningar?
In Swedish, for once.
EDIT: Det här blev visst ganska långt, men jag uppmuntrar dig att läsa allt ändå! Jag har lust att diskutera, så säg gärna emot, hålla med eller tillämpa mina tankar genom att kommentera inlägget.
Finns det en gud? Kan man lita på Bibeln? Vilken, om någon, av alla olika religiösa rörelser (kristna eller av annat ursprung) har den ”rätta tron”? Finns det vetenskapliga grunder för religion och det som olika religioner förespråkar?
Religion är ett underligt fenomen. Det är också ett fenomen som har kommit på tal många gånger, och ur många olika vinklar, den senaste veckan eller så. Sedan urtider har människan trott på olika saker, allt från naturens dolda krafter och föremål med magiska energier till olika slags gudar och berättelser. Alla de olika föreställningarna existerar i olika former, och olika grupper har sina egna varianter och föreställningar om bl.a. jordens och mänsklighetens tillkomst, vad som händer efter döden, hur vi bör leva våra liv, osv. Men vad är det egentligen bland allt detta som är sant? Hur kan man veta att en viss religiös rörelse är den som har den ”rätta tron”?
Mitt spontana svar skulle vara att det kan man inte. Många större rörelser argumenterar med att man inte vetenskapligt kan motbevisa att vad de säger är sant. Men samtidigt kan de ju inte heller bevisa ett det de säger faktiskt är sant. Som jag ser det går det alltså åt båda hållen.
Innan jag gräver mig själv allt för djupt ner vill jag dock påpeka att jag respekterar alla de vanliga religionerna, de flesta varianter av dem (utom kanske de som bara lurar folk och kräver pengar från dem, de som tillber ondskan (t.ex. satanister) samt de som inte kan umgås med andra pga. att deras religion förbjuder det) och de människor som tror på dem. (Jag borde förresten ta kontakt med både Khadije (muslim) och Menaka (okänd religion) i sommar – har inte pratat med dem på snart tre år, och speciellt Menaka skulle garanterat ha en del åsikter i detta ämne.)
Legal Issues
Legal stuff and the policies of media have been issues I’ve focused a lot on lately when it comes to writing. A simplified version of the copyright laws is fairly straight-forward: what you write belongs to you, unless you state otherwise (either in words or by action). In fact, in most cases you don’t even have to include a copyright notice to claim the rights to your own work anymore (such a notice used to be required).
Other stuff of concern include what rights I have to my work after it’s been published on, say, a website (or in a magazine), and what rights I have to re-sell my work. Obviously this depends on the websites own policy, but a few variations include:
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a) Full rights – the website now owns your work and may publish it whenever and wherever they want,
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b) Time-based rights – the material can’t be republished or -sold for a certain amount of time, usually a few months, and the website may re-publish your work during this period, and
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c) One-time publication – the website publishes your work once, but they can’t re-publish it and you still own the rights to your work.
I’m fairly sure the same goes for magazines and other media.
Although I haven’t had any problems with it (usually you have something published, and that’s it – you probably won’t want to resell it anyway), but say I publish an article which I a year later find a suitable place to re-publish it on. Can I do that? Or if a short story is published in a magazine, when, if ever, can I allow another magazine to publish it?
Again, it varies a lot. Basically things musn’t conflict with the agreement with the original buyer, nor with the policy of the new buyer (who must be informed of the fact that the work has already been published once).
But the main question, in this case, is: if I publish something on this blog, will it cause problems regarding selling the work to a magazine or website? I hope not (and they probably wouldn’t notice it anyway), but I’ve decided not to take the chance…
Wii!
Wee! We’ve got ourselves a Wii!
Japanese people are highly creative (which we knew already – just watch Spirited Away if you haven’t already, and you’ll understand!). Who knew it could be so much fun waving a stick in front of a TV-screen? When I first heard of Nintendo Wii about two years ago, the marvelous creation where you do sports, play games and act like crazy in front of your TV, I rejected it as silly, stupid and something that couldn’t possibly work in practice.
Boy was I wrong! Knocking your friends over (or in my case, being knocked over by your friends) in boxing, swinging an imaginary baseball bat, finishing first in a 100 meter athletic run, riding a cow, shooting by aiming at your screen… it’s all great entertainment, and works surprisingly well!
My mom suck at golf, but my dad is catching up on me.
To top it all, Mr. Mario, the good old classic character whom most of us know from decades ago (only one decade ago in my case though), also gets brought back to life with the Wii. Super Mario Galaxy is an excellent game, for example!
This becomes a short post, but hey, with a Wii in the house, who can blame me? My sister is begging for it…
The Future…
I’ve tried to ignore the fact that once again I’ll be moving away from friends, leaving a place and country I’ve come to love. But the future is something that has been a lot on my mind lately, and I can’t really run away from it, can I? My plan? To study journalism in Göteborg, then to get a job in Sweden.
But all that sounds so dull. Many of my friends have plans that sound much greater, most involving going abroad. One, for example, is going to London and another wants to move around. Obviously my plan is in the end what suits me, and something I’d like to do, but I can’t help feeling down because others have plans they’re so excited about. Is it jealousy? And if so, why? The thought of feeling bad because others have plans I too would like to have, but that I know wouldn’t really be my style, annoys me, which makes me feel even worse. Why do I feel this way?
I’m guessing it has something to do with having to leave everything and everyone (again). I want to still be important to people, and that they will remain important to me. But in order for that to fully work, I’d have to be a part of their plans, and they’d have to be included in mine. Which obviously isn’t the case. It’s hardly even possible to have everyone included in each others plans like that!
When it comes down to it, I guess that in a year or so, when new friends have been made and the situation is accepted, things will feel much better. And, when it comes to my own plans, I couldn’t imagine myself moving around much more. A more steady way of life is what I’d like for the future, no matter what kind of plans others have…
…although it would be cool to study abroad, for example in the US, but that would then have to be an entire education, not just a year…
Lying? No, I would never…!
Double posting today, for the benefit of those extra bored.
I read a post at Christa’s blog earlier today, addressing the subject of lying, something we all do at one time or another. This got me thinking. However, I’m not going to start a discussion about the topic here. Instead, I’ll refer you to Christa’s own post. I encourage you to read and comment it, and hopefully we can get a discussion going there! For Swedish speaking people only, though 😛
Short Story, Iceskating and Computer Games
Kajsa has a blog specifically for posting her short stories. She hardly ever updates it though.
I’ve been thinking about having something similar, but have come to the conclusion that it too would die out, as I’m unwilling to publish most of my work. So instead, I’ve figured I could post something in this blog every now and then. So, here’s an excerpt from my latest but still unfinished piece (in Swedish – e-mail your complaints to [email protected] 😛 ):
Skin & Categories
As you may have noticed, we’ve got a new skin. The old one looked too much like a toy, age 0-3. Also, I’d like to re-organize the post categories. I tend to just put posts as ”General Blogging”. But completely re-categorize all posts would take too much time. So, I guess I’ll just have to do with becoming better at categorizing all posts to come 😉
About Blogging & Writing 2008
I’ve come to realize that I don’t pay enough attention to what and how I write in this blog. It feels like sometimes I’m just re-telling what has already been told by simply saying ”today I did this and that”. I’ll try to give more thought to what I write about and how I present it. Yell at me whenever I fail!
On the other hand, while I was in Sweden during the holidays I bought this genius blank-page book. I’ve decided, as a new-year resolution even, that I’ll fill these pages one by one during the entire 2008 – and this is where I now write my more in-depth material. In other words, saying the same thing here feels… boring. But I’ll do my best to keep both sources filled!
When I had bought this blank-page book and took on the task of writing the first page (which was a bunch of promises to myself regarding what I’d be writing in it and how), one of my cousins saw me and asked if I was writing a diary. My answer was no. In fact, I hate diaries – or so I thought. For some reason I’ve always found them embarrassing and, well, not something people approve of, so to speak. But I’ve now understood that I’m already working on one, and I’ve made it my New Year’s Resolution to continue writing in it. So I’ll go ahead and say it: yes, I have a diary! What are you going to do about it?
A few other of my New Year’s Resolutions (those related to writing and the use of the Internet):
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To write more in Swedish – If I’m going to live there, I’d better start working on getting rid of those little traces of Danish I still have left. They’re what keeps preventing me from writing better. I might even throw in some posts in Swedish in this blog, as all you Swedish people out there keep complaining about language problems .
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To start and participate in fewer online projects and focus more on real-life friends, family, studies, etc. – During 2007 I hosted countless online contests (writing and TrackMania racing/creation contests mainly – the latter partly due to my TrackMania blog – but also on other themes and topics), started several blog projects, wrote plenty of how-to articles for the benefit of various communities, and more. And I carried through every single one of these projects, from start to finish. Quite tiresome in the long run.
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To not stop my online participation and devotion completely – After all, taking an initiative can get you a long way. Some will hate you for ”taking up space”, others will love you for your work and the oportunities you open up for them. For an idea to become reality someone has to take the first step. And if no one would do that, blogs wouldn’t exist today!
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To make all of my writings better or as good as what I consider to be my personal best from last year – Last year I improved tremendously. I’d like to see a similar improvement this year.
Additionally, I’d like to write more in Danish before I forget it completely. But I didn’t make that a promise to myself, as I fear I’ll have trouble meeting up to it. It’s strange though that I’ve decided to make so many promises this year, as I’ve never had any New Year’s Resolutions previous years.
When it comes to blogging in 2008, I hope to use this blog more often, and, although I hate to say it, focus less on the other ones. Especially the TM blog, which is my most popular creation, will suffer, I’m afraid.
But now I’ll have to make a few final touches to a school essay I’m writing, which should have been in before Christmas. Inspiration wasn’t on my side back then, but now I’ve read ”the Alchemist” (in Swedish though, where it’s titled ”Alkemisten”), which is what forms the base of my essay. Thank you Christa for lending it to me!
Oh, and one last thing: the motivation to continue a blog is greatly improved when people comment. A simple comment does it, but if a post can spur some comment discussions that’s even better. I can see that you’re reading, so no excuse not to comment!
Happy New Year!
2008 is, in Sweden anyway, only 56 minutes away! In Finland, the new year presented itself only four minutes ago.
So what am I doing in front of the computer, you ask? Well, the truth is that I’m stuck here today with seven other people, the youngest being 40+.
But to be honest, that doesn’t mean it’s boring. In fact, we just finished playing the ”gift game” (see below), which was the funniest and most entertaining round I’ve ever played! My uncle, having four gifts at one time, ended up with only one, which was a sewing kit. I ended up with two (flashlights and alcohol), one which I gave to my grandfather (he needed it – guess which one). And, as always, the most popular ones didn’t turn out to be the best ones, so the people who really fought for them got a surprise 😛
Now it’s only 51 minutes left, and I should be heading back downstairs. But first, let me explain this wonderful ”gift game”, a tradition we’ve brought with us from Denmark, so that you too can enjoy it during future editions of new years eve.
The Gift Game
The general idea is that all guests bring one gift each, at a price (fairly cheap) set in advance by the host. The gifts, being wrapped so that only the original buyer knows the content, are at the start of the game placed at a middle of the table. The participants then take turn to roll a dice, and every time someone rolls a 6, he or she may grab a gift of personal choice from the table.
Once the table is ”empty” (all gifts have been taken) a timer is set by the host. A good time is 15-20 minutes, but the one who decides on that shouldn’t reveal it to the others, to make the game more exciting.
Then the game continues, but this time when a 6 is rolled, the roller may take any desired gift from one of the other participants having a gift in front of them. Typically, a certain gift becomes extra popular, or certain people start stealing from each other.
When the timer sounds, the game ends, and you keep whatever is in front of you. Some may end up with several gifts, while others with none at all – it’s the process that’s fun, and the gifts are usually useless anyway.
If desired, additional rules or changes to the rules may be used:
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When rolling a 1, you have to give away one of your gifts, if you have any, to any other person in the game.
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After the round of stealing, an additional round may be used. However, before this round all the gifts are unwrapped. You can now steal the gifts you really like (or dislike the least). The timer is of course reset for this round, but usually at a shorter period (6-12 minutes).
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If children are present, it’s always a good idea to be extra kind to them. However, in order to make sure children get at least one gift, there may be a rule saying that the last gift in a child’s possession may not be taken.
You should really try this one next year. It’s a very social game, and many interesting situations may appear 😀
Anyway, happy new year, and make sure you stick to your new year resolutions this year 😉
