Finally we are allowed to write about whatever we want! Who knew it would be so hard to choose a subject?

Well, I’m taking the easy way out. I’m going to tell you what I did last Sunday instead of finishing last week’s blog. I’m going to tell you a magic secret, how to get great abs by only working out once a week. Sounds much better than that the TV-shop crap, doesn’t it?

How to get good abs by playing tennis

What had I gotten myself into? An old friend of mine had tricked me into playing tennis. I knew that he had been hanging a lot at tennis matches during his time in Australia (maybe played too) and I hadn’t played for around eight years. It was cold to, and rainy, not a good day for working out even though we were going to do it indoors. Anyway, when we were around thirteen we played a lot together, we had a clay court in the neighbourhood were we grew up. We were great players! But I hadn’t played since then, and as it would turn out, neither had he.

Some minutes late he showed up in his “new” car which smelled more tobacco than a newly lit cigarette. According to him it was worse when he bought it, hard to believe if you ask me. He picked me up and we set off for the tennis court, maybe I could blame my presumably bad playing by breathing in years of old smoke?

We grabbed four balls each and went onto the court. I threw one ball into to the air, stretched my arm backwards and hit it hard. What the fu..., it hit the net! I remembered that serving was kind of tricky; getting the ball over the net would be enough for me. I took one more ball from my pocket and hit it… into the net. One more ball was taken from my pocket and one more ball was now by the net on my side. Laughter and the word looser were heard from the other side of the court. I let the last ball stay in my pocket and let him run the show.

He tried a serve. I got a bit scared as the ball flew past me close to my head and hit the wall behind me without touching the ground. After he had hit two more balls in the net and one more onto the neighbouring court (past a safety net) he was out of tennis balls. I laughed myself to death when he spoke words not appropriate to write here. We now had a total of six balls in the net, one a mile away and one left in my pocket. Could I possible save our honour and get the last ball over the net? As you probably have guessed, I could not. The guys who had the court the hour before us and had watched us during our first eight balls left with great laughter. Well, I thought that maybe without the pressure from an audience, our playing could get better. Sadly, it could not and to summarize it, we sucked!

But the most important thing, we had a great time. It was a long time since I laughed that much or as my friend put it, “This has got to be the best abdominal workout in my entire life, my laughingmuscles are hurting”. That sums it up pretty well; we laughed more than we actually played. As the hour of court time ran out, some of our technique had returned. He could serve and I could hit a backhand, at least, sometimes we could.

So to everyone out there who wants to get their abdominal muscles in shape for beach 2007, rent a court and play some tennis. But remember this; tennis balls shot by inexperienced players can cause personal and material damage. We would therefore want to say thanks to; the wire frame that protects the lamps and the reinforced glass protecting the wall clock and exit signs. We also want to thank all people for not buying coffee during our court time. The cafeteria on the second floor behind my back was not a safe place to be, and buying coffee this day could have resulted in spilled coffee as well as bruises.

Have I seen any great films lately?

Well, I seldom watch films. Most of the “new” films I have been watching lately are romantic comedies that are forced upon me by my girlfriend. My choice is therefore an older film, a film that I consider to be one of the best films ever made. My choice is therefore Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino (who also plays the role of Jimmie, a man whose garage has to act as “dead nigger storage” for a while).

The plot in Pulp Fiction is a bit complex, four different stories are interwoven together much like in Love Actually. The thing is that the story is nonlinear; the closing scene in the film is in fact the opening scene. I guess this is the reason for my deep love for the film. As it continues, more facts are revealed in the plot. Complementing scenes provide more information about scenes shown earlier in the film.

I will try to make a brief plot summary. One of the main characters in the film is the crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Two of his hit men, Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) begin the film by retrieving a briefcase stolen from their boss. After some detours involving an accidental shooting of their informer and getting dragged into an unplanned robbery performed by two lovebirds the case is saved. During the film we also meet the boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) who is paid by Marsellus to loose his next fight. After Vincent has gone through some trouble having a good time with Marsellus’ wife, the end of the film is getting closer. The stories of Butch, Vincent and Marsellus are crossed at a store owned by a sadomasochistic man who gladly rape old boxers and crime bosses.

To be honest, there is nothing special about the story in the film, except that it’s a bit strange and intricate. The thing I love about it, is, that when a scene is shown for the first time, it’s hard to get the full picture. As the film continues, more and more is revealed about the plot and you have to see the last scene to understand the beginning.

I recommend Pulp Fiction to everyone who hasn’t seen the film yet.

Assignment #4, the state of our planet.
I must say that this assignment was the most difficult one so far. The specified words were all pointing in the same direction; we are in a way told from the start what we should think of the “problem” at hand. That we are heading towards a catastrophe that will completely wreck our home and if we are not intimidated, we are anticipating hazardous earthquakes that will wipe out all life as we know it! The specified word usage is thereby complete!

It’s therefore hard to approach the task from the angle I want. Don’t get me wrong, the environmental issue is a real problem that we must be aware of. However, almost all media, including newspapers and television show the same side of the problem, that we are going to ruin our planet. My idea is that we should be more open minded, that we have to think and don’t let us be lead into the prophesy about a catastrophic future.

Most people seem to agree that our current climate should be considered normal. That’s strange, because the fact is that we have had ice ages; we have had a tropical environment and we have the climate of today. We clearly see that the climate have changed many times in the past. We don’t know what the change of temperature would be today if we had let the hydrocarbons stay buried below ground. Maybe we still would be heading towards a warmer climate. By using just a bit of logic, it seems plausible.

The only downside with this approach is that the climate changes way to fast. Many species won’t have the time they need to adapt to the changes. When species give up the ghost, there is noting there to replace them. But again, this could be the natural selection of Darwinism. If we look back in history, this might have happened before. 65 million years ago, almost every land living creature died. We don’t know why, but something radically changed, maybe it was the climate, maybe it was something else. The point is that some animals survived and developed into the species we have today. Mammals, birds and other animals became the rulers of earth, as the reptiles once were. We shouldn’t have existed today if it wasn’t for the catastrophe 65 million years ago. It’s all a part of natural selection and we can’t change that.

Another positive view of the CO2 problem is that if earth is considered to be a closed system when it comes to carbon. All carbon stored as coal and oil below the surface of our planet was once a part of the atmosphere. When we drive cars and release CO2, we’re only trying to repair the damage earth have done to itself during billions of years. The “damage” we do is only restoration.

Disregarding which positive view you choose, we should not anticipate the worst, we are not sure that we are going towards a terrible future. We should think of it as different.

All of the above could be true, but should we take that chance? What if we’re wrong, is it worth it?

I think we should take action, not because what we do is wrong, but because we don’t know. We don’t know if our behaviour is dreadful, but it’s not worth the risk, therefore we have to act. Only one problem though, I don’t know how. It’s easy for us to dismiss the damage we as single human beings are doing. China is racing towards the high living standard that the western countries have enjoyed for fifty years. In Beijing the air is so hazardous to breathe, that it’s comparable to smoking a pack of fags every day. As long as they pollute the air, I can do it as well, it won’t make a difference. Many people like to think that their part in the environmental damage is insignificant and I don’t see how we could change it.

I don’t believe that people could be intimidated to stop using their cars even if mother earth tremble and wreck buildings or drown entire cities in anger. Most people won’t even notice. The only way to change people is by their hunger for money. As it is now, it’s actually more expensive to take the bus, subway etc. then using a gas powered vehicle. And as long as it stays that way, only the hardcore environmental freaks will make an effort to save our planet. Construction of a cheap alternative to gas powered cars is essential if people are going to care. It doesn’t matter if it’s powered by alcohol, hydrogen, electricity or something more futuristic. People will use it if it’s cheaper and/or more convenient. Sadly, there is still no alternative to gasoline that complies with both of the points today. Something for the chemical engineers of the future to solve, a heavy burden has now been placed on my shoulders.

My personal view on video game addiction

It’s sad that some people can’t maintain a balance between their hobby; computer games and their ordinary life with their partner, friends and jobs. But this isn’t something unique for video games as a hobby. I have friends who are compelled to finish a minimum of ten training sessions each week. They have to eat exactly 3250 kcal a day and the meals have to be served at specific times. This is not normal! But most people consider it more normal then to play video games 20 hours a week. Most people would consider a person who exercises ten times a week healthy.

Every year, people are killed or injured when they are doing what they love most, their hobbies. People crash with their motorbikes or get paralyzed when skiing down the Alps. Recently a young man died during soccer practise. But those deaths don’t make it to the front pages of newspapers. It’s healthy to play soccer and it’s healthy to go skiing in the Alps. It’s considered normal. But suddenly, a guy dies playing computer games and hell breaks loose. Every time something bad happens to a guy who plays videogames, if he dies, kills, takes hostage or thinks he’s a hobbit, the videogame is easy to blame. No one seems to notice that he’s probably a bananahead that would have freaked out even if he/she had never seen a videogame.

I’m not sure it is normal to get lost in your video games 20 hours each week, but it’s at least not worse than any other hobby.

What makes people start a blog where they can talk at length about their view of the world?

Well, a problem with living in the real life is that there are a limited number of people interested in your life and your interests. Nobody is interested in listening to your story. This is especially true if you have interests that are strange or unusual in some way. One way to solve this problem is of course to reach out to a bigger audience. Instead of increasing your number of friends it’s easier to solve the problem by switching on the computer and log on to the net.

When internet first arrived, forums and bulletin boards allowed people with common interests to get in contact with each other and discuss various things that more “normal” people didn’t want to listen to. It became possible to get help with problems, problems that none of your friends knew existed. You didn’t need friends that shared the same interests; it became possible to find them online, ready for a chat.

Next, the blogs came and even if you had the strangest hobby, someone would actually listen to your story and pay attention. Your audience could be reading from all over the country, maybe the entire world. Instead of forcing your best friend or girl/boyfriend to listen to stories about your hobbies, write it online! Read this example, this enthusiast collects airsickness bags. http://cc.oulu.fi/~emk/itstrue.html, I’m pretty sure only internet could provide him with a collector friend to discuss the important things in life with.

And this is what people want, we want to be seen and heard. We want to have someone saying that our life and hobbies is interesting. With internet, this is always possible to achieve.

Ever since I was about ten years old I’ve known that I wanted to study at a university. All my friends wanted to be fire fighters or police officers, but I wanted to be a scientist winning the Nobel Price, kind of nerdy? I guess I was watching way too many nature and science programs back then, I wanted to be like “the cool” scientists on TV. I even had a little microscope to play with, the only thing I wanted for Christmas that year.

It’s kind of strange in a way; none of my relatives have studied at a university. Many of them never finished high school. My parents haven’t had a foot at a university in their entire life. So I can’t blame my genes for studying; I choose to blame the TV! Maybe I’m a member of the TV-raised generation, learning the values in life from TV shows, which in my case happens to be “Mitt i naturen”. And as we all know the impact the TV have on children’s brains is irresistible. I had no choice, I had to fulfil my destiny!

The book Rendezvous with Rama contains many interesting aspects in how the future might be. Will we be able to colonise Mars, the moon or even mercury? Will we be able to develop advanced spaceflight, capable of travel between planets relatively fast? Interesting questions indeed, but the best part as I see it is the family relationship in the book. It seems to be completely normal to have two wives, as commander Norton has. It is also mentioned that two of the crew members share the same wife. We see that the number of partners in a relationship is not limited to only two, as the normal case nowadays. This is kind of interesting.

Often when I hear the word polygamy, I think of fat, ugly and very rich men in their sixties who want a new, young, good-looking wife while their old one stays to do the house work. Like a maid who demands no salary, except for free food and a place to stay. It’s therefore easy to dismiss polygamy as a disgusting dreamworld for men whose greatest idol is Hugh Hefner. But is this really the case? In the book everyone seems happy with their lives. Sharing the same wife or the same husband looks like the perfect solution to avoid infidelity, but in our time you may instead get jealousy as a side effect. Somehow the characters in the book seem to have put this feeling aside and live in perfect harmony. I wonder how?

Maybe it’s because of our desire to collect and own things, a feeling buried deep down in our genes. We are physically the same humans that lived in the Stone Age, and back then, the one having the largest collection of food before the winter surly was a popular guy. This feeling is still active in our brains, making us buy fashion clothes, expensive sports cars etc. We want to own something no one else has, something that make other people admire us.

In the same manner, we want to have the perfect partner, good looking, and smart, someone that everyone else wants, but no one can have. Today our partner is one of few things no one else can buy or own. This is probably the problem with partner sharing, that we see our partners as owned property. The questions is, will this change? Will we be able to give up our deepest desire to own objects and willingly share our sports car or partner? I certainly hope so, maybe not the sports car but the partner. A human being can not be owned and should not be controlled in the way that is done today. This is probably some old leftover from different religions that ruled the world in the past and twisted people’s minds. I can not see an evolutionary or a social advantage in the way we live today. It’s one of many bad things introduced by religion. A relationship should make people happier, not trap them inside limited boundaries. Maybe we will be able to drop this silly religious feelings forced onto us as children, grow up and be able to not consider our partner as owned property as they are able to in the book.

In the last fifty years, a few people have dared to abandon the old way of forming relationships, a wife and a husband. Now most people accept two persons of the same sex having a relationship. Maybe a majority will accept polygamy in another fifty years?

This decision would not be a hard to make. If I’m going to die, I want death to be swift and painless. I can not possibly imagine a more horrifying death then being trapped in space shuttle with a slowly depleting oxygen supply. Probably there would not even be a rescue attempt. The only thing to do, would be to stare at the O2 gauge as it’s slowly decreasing towards zero. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. Suicide would be an option of course, which probably wouldn’t be pleasant either. It’s not death that scares me, it’s the fear of knowing that my time has come that is really horrifying. If I crash my motorcycle into a dump truck, the knowledge of a certain death would only last the split second before my head deforms against the front bumper. Somehow, that sounds much better to me.

Another reason for not going into space is that there is nothing to see out there; a sterile, cold and empty world without anything interesting. I’ve never understood the eager that some people have for a space flight. I see it as a more dangerous version of going to Antarctica, a trip without possibilities to abort and go home if you have second thoughts. What’s the interesting thing about finding some dead bacteria in the ice on Mars’ surface or under the Antarctica ice cap? Both things are uninteresting and completely useless. Both places are hostile, unable to support human life without life supporting gear. Living there is dangerous and requires that all of the crew and all of their equipment are top notch. The breaking down of an important part of equipment is not an option. This is not a risk I’m willing to take. Besides, why would I ever want to leave all the fun things here at home? Like the DVD collection of the 6th season of The Simpsons which I’m currently watching instead of finishing this English blog.

Well, I might come up with one reason to go on a space flight. The feeling of weightlessness would be kind of cool, but not worth the risk of actually going. It would be much cheaper and safer to book a ticket to the “Zero-G A300 Airbus” (http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEM8WZ8YFDD_research_0.html), I’m sure that the 20 seconds of zero gravity would be enough for me, at least until there is a risk free alternative to the zero G experience.