W H I R L W I N D

Posted in Computers & Internet, Shopping | Tags: CSN | Archive | 2 Comments »

I love CSN. Oh my god how I love CSN today.

CSN is short for Centrala studienämnden which translates to National Board of Student Aid. Basically it’s a governmental board which handles student benefits and student loans. I go to college and get money from CSN. Most of the money is a student loan but some of it is student benefits which I don’t have to pay back.

Anyway, I’ve had major problems with my student loan. First I wasn’t getting any money at all, then I got money but would have to pay back part of it and then all of a sudden I find out I get to keep all the extra money I got. I’m not going to go into details about how and why since it’s all very complicated but basically CSN made a mistake and paid me more money than I should have and since the mistake was theirs and not mine I get to keep the money. Of course most of it is loan money which I still have to pay back one day when I’m finished with college but it’s still great since there’s a limit on how much money you can get from them each month and this means that I got a double income for January. It was quite a turn of events after all the trouble I’ve had with them these past months. So, that’s why I love CSN today.

I’m going to save part of my extra money for summer and with the rest I bought a laptop. This one to be exact. Lovely!

Plugs: Angie, Jennifer

Posted in Politics & Society | | Archive | 10 Comments »

I shouldn’t complain so much. My life is good and I’m not really poor. By Swedish standards I kinda am but not compared to the poor people in the rest of the world. I’m just a spoiled western European woman who’ve always had it all. By having it all I mean a house to live in, food on my plate, clothes, running water, electricity plus all the modern things we don’t really need but take for granted. I shouldn’t complain so much and neither should you because if you’re reading this you have access to a computer and internet and with that obviously electricity which means you most likely also have it all.

So many people in the world live so much harder lives than you and me. So many doesn’t have a home of their own or food on their plates. We should think about that more often and feel lucky, because we are. I need to think about that more often.

Not only do I have the material things. I also have a loving family and the chance to get an education. I’m blessed. In so many ways.

Plugs: tiff k, Wattle, Stepherz, melle, Alyssa, Ashley, Tiffany, Karin, Deanna, Shar

Posted in Photos | Tags: Shopping | Archive | 16 Comments »

I finally got my student loan money and to celebrate I did some shopping at www.vampfangs.com. This is what I bought:

Blood Vial Amphora Pendant

Morbid Spooky Bottle Covers

Can you say COOL AS FUCK?! Now I just need to buy a couple of cheap bottles of wine to put my spooky bottle covers on.

Plugs: Kimmy, Kristine, Rose, Isa, Maria, Shauna, Ashley, Angie, Mallory, Amy, Justin, Chiui, tiff k, Lady, Daniella, Ashley

Posted in Photos | Tags: My home | Archive | 9 Comments »

It’s amazing how much happier I’ve become since I started studying. I can ignore all the things that used to bring me down because now at least I’m doing something to change my situation. I’m getting an education which will get me a job I like which will get me money which will get me more freedom. It’s a plan and I’m following it. It’s great to feel that I’m moving forward again rather than being stuck at some dead end job. Retail, I’m through with you!

I went to my old job (the thrift store) yesterday. The book section looked chaotic. Whoever’s in charge of it now clearly isn’t as good at organizing things as I am. It was a bit hard to see after spending hours and hours making that section of the store perfect. I had to remind myself that it’s not my problem since I don’t work there any more. Still, it made me kind of sad seeing something I’ve worked so hard with ruined.

Speaking of something entirely different… I’ve reorganized my showcase.

This is what it looked like in December.
showcase

Read the rest of this entry »

Plugs: kitty, Grace, Aly, Cara, Kristen, Sean, Lady, Justin, Alyssa

Posted in Computers & Internet, Site | Tags: Web Design, WP | Archive | 6 Comments »

I hate how many Wordpress plugins contains invalid code. It’s probably valid if you use the Transitional Doctype but I use Strict and therefore have to change these codes. The problem is that the plugins are written with code far more advanced than anything I can do so it can be quite a hassle to figure out what I can change and delete without messing up the entire plugin.

I’m kind of obsessed with having my entire site validate correctly but why shouldn’t I be? Valid code is like correct spelling. Sure you can read a text that’s badly spelled but it’s probably harder to understand. It’s the same with browsers. Sure they can display invalid code but often it looks kinda funny and not at all how you intended it to look.

What I hate even more than invalid code is code that’s valid but works differently in different browsers. This layout should work fine in all browsers besides maybe the most unusual ones but I think that has more to do with those browsers not being that good than my code. Still, it’s annoying. I remember back in the days when you coded for one browser and put up a disclaimer stating which browser (and resolution) your site should be viewed in. Not very user friendly, but still, easy.

It’s interesting to think about how coding has evolved in the past ten years. When I built my first web page back in 1999 I coded in HTML and didn’t use any CSS whatsoever. My first site was basically two frames. One with a text link menu and one main window for the content. The menu frame had a black and white background with tree branches (a photo I scanned) and the main frame was black. It didn’t look too bad considering what many other sites back then looked like. I’m proud to say that Whirlwind never have contained ugly clipart, dolls or annoying moving GIF images. Besides my celebrity blend phase I’ve always kept it pretty simple, not using too many colours or too much graphics.

I wish I still had my first layout saved but every layout I made up until 2001 were lost years ago. There wasn’t that many of them but still, it would have been cool to be able to look at them.

When did you start web designing and what did your first layout look like?

Plugs: Marie Claire, Lady, Kristen, adastra, Rose, Dee

Posted in Yada Yada | Tags: My home | Archive | 23 Comments »

I often complain about how I hate living in a small town but never talk about what’s good about. Because believe it or not, it’s not all bad.

In Sweden housing shortage is a big problem. At least when it comes to affordable apartments. Young people with low incomes need patience, luck or connections to find a place to live with a decent rent. Many live with their parents, with friends or rent an apartment “second hand”. I don’t know how to translate it properly but I’ll try to explain. Person X’s name is on the lease but person X won’t be able to live in his/her apartment for a while, because he/she is travelling the world for a year or whatever. So while person X is away you rent the place – from person X, not the landlord. Since you have to move out whenever person X wants the apartment back this obviously isn’t the best way to live. Still it’s the way many young Swede’s live since it’s very hard to get your hands on a affordable apartment with a “first hand lease”.

It’s a lot easier in a small town though. For me it was ridiculously easy. The first apartment I was offered to have a look at is the apartment I live in today. In one day I found out there was a vacant apartment with a low rent, got the keys to have a look at it, saw and loved it and finally signed the lease. I realize I’ve been very lucky because this is not the way it usually goes.

Right now I’m looking for an apartment in Gothenburg, the second biggest city in Sweden. They e-mail me whenever there’s an apartment available that suits me. So I get an e-mail once in a while and always let them know I’m interested in whichever apartment’s available. About 3000 others do the same. Yep, that’s the usual number of people interested in each apartment available. No wonder I’m not having any luck because there’s no real queue system in Gothenburg. They just choose whoever “suits the apartment best”. Whoever has the highest income I bet. Because really, when you have 3000 people to choose from obviously you prefer a tenant with a good income rather than some poor student living off a student loan.

At least I have a home of my own. In the wrong place but it’s still a home, which I love. My apartment may be small but it was renovated in 2004 so everything is new and looks good. Not to mention that three out of four rooms are blue! My favourite colour when it comes to home decoration! The only things I’d like to change is the colour of the kitchen cupboards, the kitchen floor and the hallway floor. Other than that everything is perfect. It’s my home sweet home.

Plugs: Nikkole, Jennifer, maria, Maria, Deanna, Mallory, Shaina, Karin, Alyssa, Angie, Chiui, Kristine, Ashley, Malin, Sean, tiff k, Natasha, Daniella, Aly, Tiaralynn, Cecilie, Pim

Posted in Yada Yada | Tags: Music, Videos | Archive | 6 Comments »

This is one of my favourite songs by the band KMFDM. It’s called “Anarchy”.

Plugs: Lady, kitty, Maria, April, Cara, Sean

Posted in Politics & Society | Tags: Religion | Archive | 7 Comments »

Do you find it surprising that I even though I’m not religious or believe in any god whatsoever I still think Jesus existed? I do. I don’t think he was god’s son though. Just a wise prophet who preached about peace and loving each other. Kind of like a hippie.

Why do I believe this? Well because I think there’s some truth behind most religions, except Scientology which is just a whole lot of BS. It must have started somewhere, right? And I think Jesus existed but that through the centuries his original message have been terribly distorted until not much of what it was all about in the beginning is left.

Speaking of Scientology. That must be one of the most ridiculous religions ever. If you haven’t read about it it’s a bunch of mumbo jumbo about aliens. Not unexpected considering the guy who invented it was a Science-fiction writer who did psychedelic drugs while writing his “bible”. There’s also proof that he made up a religion purely to profit from it. To make it even better they not only have a utterly ridiculous theology made up by a Sci-Fi writer on drugs but also like to use illegal methods to shut up anyone who’s publicly questioning them. Nice “religion”. Really.

Plugs: Kristine, Rachel-Rebecka, Zanna, maria, Joebs, Daniella, Shaina

Posted in Yada Yada | Tags: Movies, TV, Twilight | Archive | 7 Comments »

When I was a teenager it bothered me that the actors depicting teenagers in TV-series always were in their twenties. A show I watched a bit was Dawson’s Creek (I’m not proud of it OK?! &gt_&lt) and at the beginning in 1998 they were all supposed to be 16. The youngest of the actors playing the leads was actually 20 and the oldest 27! So here’s a show I’m as a teenager is supposed to identify with but yet they put a 27 year old in it? All it did was create these weird ideals of how to look which obviously were impossible to follow for most teenagers.

Now though, more than ten years later, I look at this in a kind of different way… You see I still enjoy TV-series and movies set in a high school environment. I might be 26 and prefer to watch movies about people my age but I can still appreciate something set in that environment because well, been there done that. I can relate because once upon a time in a not too distant past I was a teenager myself.

Not much have changed in the casting of actors for these series and movies in the past ten years. I have changed though. Now I’m very happy to see someone aged 27 playing a 16 year old because for obvious reasons I prefer to look at 27 year old guys rather than 16 year old kids. Take Glee for example. The character Finn is 16 but the guy who plays Finn, well he’s 27, my age that is. And damn he’s hot! And don’t kill me now Twilight haters but I think Rob Pattison is hot. Well at least in his vampire make-up. So he plays a 17 year old but in actuality he’s 23, not that much younger than me. Great!

I still think they should try to hire actors who are around the age they portray for a more realistic feel but I’m not really complaining any more. I’m glad they did choose Rob Pattison rather than a real seventeen year old.

Plugs: Aly, kitty, scott, maria, Angie, Tiaralynn, jeniffer

Posted in Yada Yada | Tags: Work | Archive | 7 Comments »

“Just because they serve you… doesn’t mean they like you” is the tagline of movie Clerks which I’m watching right now.

Anyone’s who’s worked retail knows how true that quote is.

This is partly why I want to work as a web designer. Minimum social contact. I’d love working as a web designer and just sit in front of my computer and not have to deal too much with people. Of course I want to be the web designer of my own company since I’d prefer to live without co-workers doing things the wrong way and bosses telling me to do things in a way I don’t like. When it comes to my work (whichever work) I’m kind of a control freak. I do things my way and really hate when people mess up and change things I’ve done in a way I think is good. I was in charge of the book section at my old job and it really bothered me when co-workers messed up the system I maintained. I knew exactly where to put things and then people put things in the wrong place. It bothered me more than it should since mostly no one but me noticed these errors. Yeah, I’m a perfectionist as well and it’s really not realistic to expect people to fully grasp my way of doing things all the time.

So yeah, working alone is my thing and hopefully in the future that’s exactly what I’ll do.

Plugs: admin, Maria, Natasha, Christine, Aly, tiff k