A lot of interesting new music lately! Listen in...

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Lots of good music lately. Listen on...

(more…)

Anata wa, bodi o shutoku suru junbi ga dekite imasu ka?

Are you ready to get bodied, son?

I made it out of my cold place just in time for carousels and nose-dives last weekend. Big Bro & Co arrived on Friday night, and I was home sick (but better) for the fifth day in a row to greet them, wondering if my legs would carry me the next day.

They did! I felt great. We took the train early morning, and came back home late night, and played games till way later - maybe I wouldn't have maintained my snivel for another full week if I'd taken it easier just a couple more days, but... worth it.

I'm almost getting over the thrill of Gröna Lund, though. I feel it, but I'm getting used to it. The first ride still gave that tingling sensation you both fear and crave, but the ones after weren't all that special. Fun, fast and ferocious, but not exhilarating like they used to be. I guess all people reach that point eventually huh? Third time was the charm. Fourth... it feels like it'd be fun to try something new.

Time to visit a new place, maybe? To try the most intense and insane attractions this one has to offer... maybe? But I'm not much for things that spin. Insane (is the name of their one roller coaster that does). Roller coasters are my thing. And of course a little bumper cars, haunted houses, fish n' chips, sunshine, ocean breezes; whatever attractions are on offer. We had plenty of all aforementioned elements, though maybe a bit too much sun.

I tried a little cotton candy too, for the first time in... 15 years? Split one portion on on all four of us since all I really wanted was a taste, and sugar, you know. I asked the cashier how much sugar it was. Pure sugar, he said. But how much? Oh, about... one deciliter. Though, actually, if you compare to sweet beverages, like Coke, that contain just as much in no more than 33 cl canisters... it's not all that incredible.

But it was a great day. We took the ferry route back home, conversed on classic rock bands, rediscovered our reddening skin in the hallway mirror (even though we'd spent as much time as possible in shadow) and settled down by the table for a bowl of porridge, peace, and Pipes (a card game) - weary but content.

So that was the weekend, and after that it's been one thing after the other; time's counting down to two long weekend trips. First to Torsfjärden next week, and Kälvudden the one after - four days each. Hopefully there'll be time for a couple new concerts and recouping in between visits... summer's closing in with leaps and bounds; it's nigh time to get some sunshine and frizzy air.

Why do we make everything so difficult for ourselves?

Usually it's with the intention of making things easier, too. My dad's the perfect example of how to unnecessarily complicate the most arbitrary tasks, countering with the customary 'isn't that unnecessary' each time you will to do something that could be done later, or easier, or combined with another task, like: ...I can't remember the latest occurrence, but it is, or at least used to be, common.

It's not like he's lazy, that's just his way of being efficient, even if it often results in less being done than could have been done if all things were just done right away; without hassle.

With age he might have gained a tendency to really complicate things instead, making the easiest endeavors take as much effort as possible, thus rendering his old trademark statement obsolete. He now cooks multiple eggs at once, for example, to save electricity and water, and eats only one, assuming we'll chip in on the rest - even my sister who continually reminds him she doesn't eat eggs. He has his own meal times, too, so we've all usually eaten when the time comes.

Where was I again? Making things difficult when they could be easy. Right. Like this blog. Like computers. Like outsourcing certain tasks, only to realize the quality's inferior; then having to move them all back again. Or migrating from one OS to another, only to have to move again in a few years. And backing up things, and then backing up the backup. Storyboards. Hello's. Planning meals.... where was I going with this again?

Our modern world. Constantly connected. Constantly evolving. Constantly devising new methods to do things we've never had any trouble doing before. Using everything we can to it's fullest potential (or further) so that we may derive more from it than is good for anyone.

Examples:

Effectivising animal farms: creating horrible living conditions for animals, who get wide-spread diseases as a result, then giving them antibiotics to counter said diseases: creating bacteria strains resistant to antibiotics.

Effectivising agriculture by use of artificial fertilizers, that effectively siphon all available nutrients from the ground, over time turning it into a dead and barren wasteland, and making us have to eat more vegetables to get our daily nutritional fill, which also means: increasing the agricultural input further, still with fertilizers that kill the ground, speeding up said process until neither ground nor crops contain the nutrition necessary for our survival.

Increasing gluten amounts in wheat for better fermentation effect: increasing the potential to incur leaky gut or gluten intolerance, as a result rendering it harder for us to attain the nutrients we require, further causating aforementioned issue.

Industrialism to improve society: making us slaves to our own well-willed wishes of social progress, creating social injustice, a reliance on an imbalanced and consumerist economy to keep progressing, and making the world one that benefits the rich rather than the strong, or the crafty.

Popularism to distract people from the problems at hand, and have them focus on irrelevant things like certain people, or trends, or media frenzy while the controlling elite reap the rewards, and keep destroying the Earth as per above.

Consumerism to improve economic standing and stature of the aforementioned elite: creating an ever-increasing reliance on increasing wastefulness to satisfy our shallow and superficial wants for more though we all know we'd be better off with less, and as a result we dispense our natural reserves until there is... nothing... left.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere, because there's only one Planet Earth. We'd better start uncomplicating (note there is actually no proper antonym for complicating) fast, or we're fucked. Royally. Really. I don't mean that in a luxurious and pleasurably way - just like the illusion of 'change' and 'progress' is all but what it gives us.

We should go back to our roots, and start growing again, instead of just fluttering off like falling leaves; realizing all too late as we dwindle to the dark winter ground, that our courageous leap off the tree that held us killed us all.

Or to keep it simple: Save the planet. Save ourselves.

If you want to know how to become a better blogger... you'd better ask someone else. I've been blogging for twelve years but I still don't know what I'm doing. I've posted blog-related things like:

• A Hundred Topics I Won't Write About
• Blogs & Blogging Titles, A Quick Guide
• The Blogging And Questions Of Life
• So Much To Read, No Less To Write
• What Makes The Blog
• Blogs & Bloggers

...but I don't follow my own advice half the time. I know the secrets, but I don't want to conform. I could turn this into a business, but I'd rather keep it personal. I'm not greedy. I'm tempted, but when I look at the world and what the capitalist approach has done for it... I think I'll take a different approach.

You probably hear the confidence-booster affirmation I'm worth more or I'm worth this a lot, but that doesn't apply to material wealth. It applies to choices. How you live. What you are. Care about the world - because you're worth a better future.

So on this rare topic of blogging, let me give you some solid advice that no one else will, because I feel like selling out today:

• Be yourself, readers will appreciate you for you.
• Don't limit yourself; don't confine yourself to a single topic. Evolve. Open your mind. Don't fear controversy if it helps you grow.
• Stay true to yourself, and as such also to your viewers.
• Care for your blog. Even if it is a business: a good business is like a second home. Make it your second home.
• Write for yourself, even if no one reads. It's easy to start thinking about what everyone else wants, but if you just do you soon others will want to do you too.
• Persevere, because Tukalue wasn't built in a day-

But most importantly: make sure this is what you want to do. If not: do something else. The goals may seem a bit selfish, which is why you probably won't get them elsewhere - because it makes you seem selfish, and giving a selfless impression seems to be the recommended thing to do if you want your blog to prosper. It seems to be working too.

But for who else would you start a blog if not for yourself? If you choose this route it'll be a big part of your life before you know it, so you'd better be ready for a long term commitment. If you do make it a business: make it a business you want to run. When designing a race: design a race you'll want to run yourself, and others will join in.

Make your world, and the world is yours.