:: Turning gold to chrome

I am currently feeling slightly more stupid that I did just an hour ago.
Whatever possessed me to start experimenting with VBA in Excel?

First day back at work. Back in the dark and drizzly icebox called Stockholm. When people hear “Stockholm” most think of meter-high snow drifts, snow scooters and possibly polar bears prowling the streets. Sorry to say, there are no polar bears. And while snow and snow scooters most likely can be found further north, Stockholm is having none of it.

It’s bleak, is what it is. Typical northern-Germany-weather, except that it’s already pitch black at around 3pm. Coming back from sunshine and 25-30 degrees it’s all rather depressing.

So, the first day at work has been a bit of a challenge. Not ready to fit back into the 9-to-5 job and everyday life. It all feels a bit meaningless. Unreal.

Midlife crisis come knocking? Possibly. Maybe it’s time for a change.

I’ve never really understood the point of new year resolutions. After all if you want to do something just do it. Why wait until new year? And if you don’t, starting at the new year is not going to help you. The increase of people at the gym in January and the corresponding drop off in March can attest to that.

Lately I’ve started to see a point though. I treat new year like a scrum retrospect; a time to consider what went well and what didn’t go quite so well. And most importantly, what to do about it. A time to lift your head from the “small stuff” and take a look at the bigger picture. Am I where I want to be right now? Where do I want to be in a year? What should I do about it?

People change, priorities shift and sometimes what you imagined you wanted to achieve a year ago is not even in the picture anymore. If you don’t lift your head to adjust your path from one to time, you’re going to pass by your goal by a mile. Or walk into a tree.

I’ve had a lot of time to think during the last week. Zickzacking across the argentine pampa will do that to you. There is only so much plains and cattle you can take before you start questioning life. I’ve realised that my priorities have changed a lot over the last three years. When I set out to acquire my motorcycle drivers license in the beginning of 2009 I didn’t think it’d end up having such an impact on my life, my way of thinking.

Having had the privilege to travel to Bolivia, Chile and now Argentina helps to give you a certain perspective as well.

Last year the boyfriend and I travelled 7000 kilometres in 17 days through Norway, Sweden and Finland to the north cape. This year we’ll be gone for four weeks. Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, possibly Macedonia, Greece, Italy.

If it doesn’t fit on your bike, you don’t need it. Sounds simple, but it’s turned out to be a lifestyle. One of my plans for next year is selling off a lot of the “stuff” which inevitably is acquired by most of us over the years.

Of course, there is no need to pick new year as your yearly retrospective. In fact, a year may be too long a period to begin with. But it’s important to do this once in a while and to get started, new year is a good a time as any.

You know you don’t wear makeup a lot when…

…instead of returning your greeting, your colleague exclaims “But you’re wearing make-up!” upon entering the office.

Compliment or insult? To be decided..

Next time you remove the battery, it might be a good idea to check whether or not you’re already driving on the reserve fuel tank. And if you are, how much of it you’ve already used up.

But if you fail to do either of those things, at least have the brains to fuel up at the first opportunity.

The meter might show that you’ve only driven 30 kilometres on the reserve and you might think that you have 20 kilometres left. But trust me on this: you don’t.

Ever had one of those insane tea cravings? When all you want to do is sit in a tea house, with you perfectly brewed tea in front of you and a really good book? Because for some reason tea houses are one of those few places where it is still socially acceptable to sit alone at a table. Without people automatically assuming you’re either too pathetic to have any friends or you’re desperately want a guy to approach you and deliver his one-liner.

And then you head to the office kitchen. Pour some water in a cup and shove it in the microwave. Because the coffee-maker (which only produced lukewarm water to begin with) has been removed and a water cooker has yet to be purchased. And you wait for two minutes, all the while trying to not think about that tiny little tea house you found some time ago, where they managed to get the tea just right. And then you open the microwave and retrieve your cup. And you put your tea bag in (because, of course, you’ve run out of the real tea some time ago and haven’t had time to buy more yet) and you set your timer and you go back to your table.

And then, after your timer has gone off, you extract the abomination from your cup and you look into the cup. And you see that your tea bag had been punctured.

Your know? It kind of sucks.

The year is 2009. DevExpress receives a request for the ability to be able to hide the column headers of an ASPxCombobox. The request is processed and accepted.
Fast forward to the year 2011. Nothing has happened.

I shudder to think how it takes for them to develop an actual feature.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[Ozymandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley]

Winter just does not want to end this year. It could be another hundred-year-winter. But no, we already had Christmas. Fimbulvetr? No rising water levels yet, but there is still some time for that. Let’s you know when it’s alright to start panicking properly.

On a positive note, it seems that the beginning of the end is finally here for the US military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. The advocate being.. one Admiral Mullen? Who would’ve thunk.
Still – about bloody time. So kind of you to join us in the 21st century. What took you so long?
[New York Times]

An entire week without any questions concerning my sexual preference. Wow. Must be loosing my touch.

Been somewhat bored at work, but that might be looking up. Let’s hope so, self-motivation has been drying up a bit lately. Been pondering just dumping it all, moving to Canada and starting a Llama-farm. I’ll let you know how that works out.