Every where you did go in Sweden, you could see these typical red painted houses. On houses built from wood, not only the peoples houses, but also other buildings - even outside toilets!

We begin to see a big change there since quite a while back, they started to be replaced by other colors and other types of building than the typical red cottage.

I think it’s very sad to see, because for me and for many others I’m sure, these red cottages represented Sweden. Now it feels like Sweden is on it’s way to be blurred out or vanish completely. Don’t take me wrong here, I like changes, but not all of them.

In the 17th century in Sweden it was a sign of wealth and status since bricks, like they had in other European countrys, were very rare at that time.

The red paint originate from a small neighbourhood called Falun, hence the name of it: “Falu rödfärg (redpaint)”. It’s based on a pigment which is a by-product from the Copper minings there.

They have closed the mining, but they say that it’s still enough piles there for making the paint for several centuries more.

So our strong wish is that people start to paint their houses with it again. It is environment friendly and protects the wood, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to make people want to use it.

Maybe we should state it as a sign of wealth and status again to make it more appealing.

Would you like a red color like this?

Did I ever tell you about my COLORFUL DOLLS?

I remember having some really colorful dolls in my childhood. Of course they weren’t that colorful from the beginning…

My parents didn’t have much money, so I had to long for a bigger doll for a long time before I finally got one for christmas when I was around 5 years old maybe. How happy I was! The doll had to go with me every where. So I decided that the doll should take a bath with me. Of course she had to change her clothes to come and bath with me, so I dressed her up in her green swimsuit.

We did take a long hot bath and had very fun until my mother came in and screamed discovered that we were 2 green aliens from planet Mars in the green water in the tub! We had both turned all green from her swimsuit! I got rid of the green color after awhile and oh, about thousands hours of scrubbing and no skin left any more, but my doll never did. She was an unusual colored alien doll after that. All my friends were so jealous of my new cool doll!

After a couple of years I got another big doll that was more advanced, more like a real baby, soft in the body and with real hair on her head. My older sisters were very nice to me and sew a lot of clothes to her, so I had a lot of fun with her - totally normal playing with the doll. For a short while. Then I got ill and ended up a couple of months on hospital and couldn’t take my doll with me there (it was totally different at that time on the hospitals!), so I made my sisters promise that they should take really good care of her.

One day when they visited me at the hospital, they told me that my doll had been sick and they had been forced to take her to hospital for an appendix surgery, but she was OK again. They just wanted to prepare me for the fact that she now had a little scar on her right side of the stomach. That was a really big scar, but I was a big girl then and could take it as the accident it was. The real reason was that one of my sisters and my brother had been fighting and with the dolls as a weapon, so they just “happened” to rip her apart during the fight…

Even this time, my friends were really impressed over the fact that my doll had been put under surgery and wanted to hear all about it. So I had to tell the story about the hospital many many times from that day. The only thing I thought was a pity was that she didn’t get that scar in her face, that would have been more striking… Then I could have called her scarface. I was very fond of scary stories when I was a child even if they did scare me and made me afraid of the darkness long up in the ages!

The last doll I got was a Barbie doll I inherited from my older sisters. She had her hair in a pony tail, very nice and neat hairstyle. But of course I wanted to brush her hair so I let the hair out. I shouldn’t have done that… She was BALD! The hair began kind of around her ears, very long hair but what did that help when she was bald on the top of her head?! I just couldn’t get that pony tail right again, so from that day my Barbie always had the most cool’est hats.

And once again my friend were so jealous of my cool Barbie…. Setting the fashion trend there with a very cool (read crazy!) hat fashion.

So I learned very early in life that being creative and with a little imagination you can turn the most awkvard situations into something good or even exciting.

Even Albert Einsten once said: “Fantasy is more important than knowledge”.

Today it’s Mothers Day here in Sweden and we’ll be occupied visiting my mother. Sadly enough Mr Lifecruisers Mom isn’t with us any longer. I never had the chance of meeting her, but she was a wonderful mother as I can judge from the nice things I’ve heard of her. I know I would have loved her.

Since my mother is very fragile and beaten by life, there isn’t much she can do to make the day pass. She can bearly see anything, so she can’t read or watch TV and her hands is crooked so she is not able to use them any more. Her skeleton is literally falling apart from the inside. She can’t move around by herself, which makes her days pretty difficult, even though she gets a lot of help at the elderly home.

Of course us siblings are visiting her every day too, but obviously we can’t be there all the time. It’s a pity that she need so much special care, because that makes it almost impossible to take her home to one of us. It’s really sad and frustrating. I do hope that we can take her out a little when the weather is better.

The only thing she can do is listen to music. That’s why she is getting CD’s as a gift from us this year. It’s her favorite kind of music - the kind of music she have danced to in her whole life. I think she will be very pleased with these ones, something new to listen to and remembering her dancing days.

In Sweden the tradition of a special Mothers Day wasn’t started until 1919 and it was moved to the last Sunday in May instead of earlier as many other countries do. That’s probably because it’s easier to find fresh flowers to give to her in the end of May, it’s too cold earlier. We’ll see what flowers we can get here today.

A lot of mothers is still getting coffee in their beds in the morning with a cake and is taken out for dinner besides getting flowers. That’s unfortunately not possible any more with my mother. Another really old tradition is to make a drawing to your mother, that was what they did at the old days, but since she hardly can see it I won’t be doing that either.

Her condition is rather pending from day to day, so we’ll see how she is feeling today. What she can manage or not. She has been extra fragile lately.

As a little girl I always thought that my mother was the most beautiful in the whole world. I still do, because no matter that she’s old and having wrinkles now, she still is the most beautiful and caring person.

I deeply admire her enormous strength to survive and laugh despite all her disabilities. There really is no words for her struggle. She has struggled all her life.

Imagine to be in her shoes, not capable to do ANYTHING (and I really mean anything!) on your own - and yet she is so easy to get to laugh. She amazes me. I’m very proud of her.

I’ve helped her writing a blog (see the link in the bottom of this post), because I think it’s very educating to know how life can be when you get old. We can all learn something from older persons if we just listen to what they have to say. They have great wisdom to share.

It’s my mother that have made me to the person I am and I’ll never forget that, she’ll have a special place in my heart for ever.

Mrs Lifecruisers mothers blog Lifelessions

The night between Wednesday and Thursday, May 25th, at 01.10 we heard like a big explosion, like some one was blowing something up with dynamite. No, it wasn’t us trying to force ourselves into the bank vault…. *lol*

We didnt get worried because it wasn’t that close. Normally we don’t have noticeable earthquakes in Stockholm, so we didn’t even think of that cause, but yeah, they say that we had an earthquake here!!!!

The epi center of it was only about 2 miles from here (3-4 km), so it was close enough to give us a little feeling of the shivering. *lol*

This was only a little baby earthquake at 2.0 at the Richter scale, but it was very scary for the people living close to the center of it of course, which houses were shaking so they had to run out on the streets to be safe.

The whole Sweden only have about 10 per year and they’re small ones. In Stockholm we have only had about 3-4 of them during several hundred of years, so this is a really unique happening.

I’ve never experienced any earthquake before anywhere.

The forces behind the earthquake is the movement of the plates and the landmasses that raises after the ice age.

Shake it baby, shake it ;-)

1. Be myself - which I’m almost an expert on, but there is tiny little situations where it’s easier to just float with the stream to fit in and I want to avoid them too.

2. What I say to people may be washed out after a while, but they’ll never forget how I made them feel.

3. Always treat others like I want to be treated myself. In every situation, think after what I myself would feel, want, think if I were them. Act - or speak - first after that.

4. Normal people are people I don’t know. Statistics about mental health says that 1 person of 10 is suffering from some kind of mental illness. Then think of 9 of your friends. If they are totally OK, it could be you. In my case I’m already convinced that it’s me, but my friends too? Is it normal to be crazy? *lol*

5. All every day happenings shall be seen as small miracles, because they are - if I start to think about them. I shall not ever again get so used to them that I don’t appreciate them.

6. In every person there is something to love. Or at least should be… I’m trying very hard sometimes to find it…

7. I am so grateful that I was born as a women (Mr Lifecruiser is just nodding now *lol*). I think it has some BIG advantages… [insert imagination here]

8. Smile and laughter is contagious, so I should always start smiling and laughing and people will follow my example. (Maybe not 6.30 on a Monday morning though… :-)

9. Always be honest to myself and others without being brutally honest. Make clear to others that I’m honest and ask them if they really want a honest answer….

10. Do something really crazy, totally standing out from my normal schedule or habits, just to get a real hang of the feeling of being ALIVE and not so darn predictable.

11. If there is a problem, I will concentrate on finding the solution and not on the problems negativity. I don’t waste energy on whining - I will do something about it instead!

12. I don’t worry - be happy :-)

13. Being happy doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is perfect. It just means that I look beyond all of the imperfections and decides to be happy despite them.

♥ I LIVE, ENJOY… LOVE… LIFE!

It’s very easy to be swept away by the cyber wave, but you don’t have to drown in it if you’ve learned how to surf with sense. Ever heard of the Swedish word Lagom? It means “Just enough” or “With moderation” and that’s just what’s needed when it comes to the internet.

The cyber world and real life don’t have to take out each other. They both needs to co-exist to form the modern human community. We geeks do exist - we’re just unknown to the “none geeks” as they haven’t done any proper cyber handshakes.

It’s no good to stand outside the real world, but it’s not good to stand outside the cyber world either. The ones that do, takes the risk of being hopelessly lost in the future - and that is a lot of persons. They simply don’t have the opportunity or will to explore the cyber world. There is so much to experience in both worlds and I don’t want to miss any of them. I really pity the ones that does.

There is a lot of people standing completely like living question marks when it comes to cyber stuff. I actually find them being a bit “off the world” even if they do have reasons for it. Then on the other hand, I’ve met people who lives only by the cyber world and that is not good either - but what’s the alternative for some of them?

In most of these cases I noticed that if they shouldn’t have the cyber world to turn to, they would have had nothing or none. And that’s bad. I find it better that they at least communicate with people through their computers than not at all. Sure you can think that if they didn’t have the computer, they would be forced to go out and take contact with other humans, but the answers isn’t always that easy. Most of them won’t do that anyway, partly because they have problems that won’t let them. It can be some illness or whatever every day reasons that prevents them.

I’m sure that many of the negative remarks about computers and internet that “none geeks” gives us, comes from the fact that they feel a little bit scared of the unknown and left out of it. Unfortunately, the longer they wait to learn something about it, the harder it gets. It’s almost impossible to stop the evolution and they will be left behind.

There is nothing like being touched in real life, but you can get another feeling of being touched in the cyber world that is a good experience too. You also get to know people you would never have met in real life and you broaden your views significantly. Some of us even met our loved ones over the internet.

I’ve found loads of very different information on the internet that I would NEVER have found in real life and therefor I’ve learned so much more. I’ve even benefit from it by knowing more of my own back problems and have been able to use it in my real life in my arguments with the doctors who doesn’t tell me anything valuable. That’s some real use of it.

How ever, it takes some strong self knowledge and discipline to balance the amount of time spent in front of the computer versus real life, socializing with friends, family and others. Some people don’t have that self-discipline and may need some help on the way.

Actually I think that it’s the same when it comes to watching TV, some people disappear into the TV world. I find that even worse, because you’re not socializing at all then and some programs can be really bad, not educating, developing or challenging your brain in any way at all. The cyberworld is offering much more.

I see it like two different dimensions that together build an entirety - the cyberreality. They complement each other like a happily married couple ;-)

Sure, we are weirdos - but we are wise weirdos *lol*

I’m proud of being an elite weird freak geek…

NOTE: Special thanks to you Napfisk for writing your post The Elite over at No dependecies /No logo about the geeks being The Elite that don’t exists. It made me come up with this thoughts, partly as my answer to his post.

Did I ever tell you about my MONDAY MORNING?

I always hated Monday mornings with a passion as strong as my love for Friday afternoons. This Monday I woke up. Almost. A sort of. Not even near the time I should have been woke up. The alarm clock didn’t go off… I’m a time freak normally - always on time, I feel very bad if I’m not.

No shower, not enough time for breakfast (which is a catastrophy for this hungry monster), dressed up with something I just found laying around and with a hairstyle like Albert Einsteins sister, I rushed from home in a very, let us say, not so calm mood.

Of course I came to the subway in time to see the back of the train. I tried to sleep on the way in to the city. That was not to happen. There was people chatting in the train. The most annoying was that it was in forreign languages, so I couldn’t even understand or listen to what they said… It must have been something really interesting, because they were speaking so loud, fast and with such a passion.

At the central station I had to “climb” these very very long escalators, which not really is my favorite exercise at 6.30 in the morning. When I had climb over half of it, there is this little man, reaching to my shoulders - barely - that’s actually is hitting on me!

At that time, a monday morning, in my condition and with his no length, in that place - talk about stinking bad timing! Poor man, I’m afraid that I might had destroyed his self confidence for ever with the steaming - not suitable to write here - answer he got together with me really looking down on him like he was a little cockroach that I was about to kill on the spot.

I must admit though that he was brave. (Or maybe he just didn’t have a brain?)

The first thing I did was to go to the newsstand, here in Sweden called Pressbyrån which also sells a lot of other stuff. I stood in the long line for very long. I desperatly needed strong mint tablets called Vicks Blå - to make the bad taste go away. When it comes to my turn, I’m kind of asleep again so I say: “One bag of Pripps Blå” and in the same moment as I said it I heard what’s wrong. Pripps Blå is a common Swedish beer….

So, naturally I start to giggle, which the sulky hag with absolutely no humor did not. Not even a little smile. Which makes me giggle even harder and I turn to the crowd behind me - which heard what I said and should be able to laugh with me - but no, not a reaction in any face. I now giggle so hard that I’m folding, not able to make a sound and still no one moves a muscle in their faces.

Geeez, that’s exactly how boring Swedish people are in a monday morning at 6.30…

Oh, and I wasn’t late for work - that day I should start to work at 10.30, that’s why the alarm clock didn’t go off!