I had a nice relaxing day today! The weather seems to have forgotten it is April, not June, and produced sunshine, a clear blue sky, and temperatures around 20C, which in turn has resulted in something very close to a green explosion. To enjoy this, I brought ice tea and a book to spend most of the day outside.

 

I thought I’d read the entire book today, but as my thoughts wandered off occasionally, and I wanted to think through whether the theories of the book made sense or not, I still have a chapter or so to read. The book is about if and how our positions among our siblings (that is, if we are an only child, a middle child, the youngest one, a sister to brothers, etc.) help shape who we are, and how we relate to others. Very interesting!

 

 

 

 

Here is some proof of Spring around the yard:

Light green

Crocuses

Green grass working itself upwards

Blackcurrant leaf

Well, it’s about time I return to my blog I think, and I thought Resurrection Sunday would be a good time. Of course, resurrecting my blog cannot in any way be compared to the resurrection of Christ, but still, it sounded like a neat idea to me…

I like Resurrection Sunday! It is a joyous day, as we remember that the grave is empty, and we are no longer in our sins (1 Cor. 15:17). I haven’t really celebrated Easter so much this year, and unfortunately couldn’t make it to church this morning either, but I have thought quite a lot about the reasons for the holiday, and woke up this morning feeling happy because of what Jesus has done, and still do, for me. The fact that we’re having the warmest Easter I can remember doesn’t exactly cloud my good mood either!

Anyway, here are some articles related to Eater that I’ve read today:

How Easter Killed My Faith in Atheism

The Overflow of Easter: A Whole Theology of Resurrection in One Chapter

Jesus and the Martyrs

"Zion, don't hang on the cross!"

I am a curious person. I love to learn things, whether 'important' or not. Yesterday, I began to wonder what kind of R-sound is the most common in the languages of the world. There are the trilled Rs, as in Swedish and Scottish, the English Rs, and the back-of-the-throat-Rs, as in French and Danish. Maybe some more variants as well, and with variations in pronunciation of the mentioned. I haven't found the answer to the question yet (what do you think?), but I found this piece of interesting information along the way:

"The alveolar or dental consonants [t] and [n] are, along with [k], the most common consonants in human languages. Nonetheless, there are a few languages which lack them. A few languages on Bougainville Island and around Puget Sound, such as Makah, lack nasals and therefore [n], but have [t]."  -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_consonant]


Also, for Swedes, this was a bit funny too:
"The Swedish as spoken in Skåne is usually considered to be a dialect of Danish"  -- [http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Guttural_R]
I knew it! Another language - that's why it's so hard to understand! ;-P

It was a while ago since I felt really good, and today was not a particularly good day either. Went to the doctor today, but unfortunately I didn't feel any better afterwards. Oh well, at least the doctor was really goodlooking. Seriously, the most handsome doctor I've ever had!

Anyway, I thought I'd post some videos here that make me smile. Smiling is good for you!

Grammar is interesting, and this is just the way to teach it:


Let's continue with some more animation. There are several of these vignettes of Wall-E, but I think this is my favourite:


Here's a guy that got to see much of the world. I love how all across the planet, people are essentially the same:


And the last one for today, some Potter rhythm that always stick in my head after I've heard it...


Hope it made you smile!

Today is election day here in Sweden, and the votes are currently being counted. It is a bit of a nervous time...
Election day is quite special to me. I am a politician's daughter, so I probably remember more from campaigns and elections in the past than most other people my age, and there are many things that are funny looking back upon. This day of course makes me remember them. Also, this day is special simply because we are allowed to vote. Let's face it, far far from all countries have a system that allows you to vote in freedom, and where the result is not manipulated.
Anyway, today, the sun was shining, and the weather was as lovely as it can be in the autumn. People I met in and out of the hall where I voted seemed quite happy. Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was because of the sunshine, but I thought it was almost a slight sense of celebration in the air. I straightened my back a little, and voted.
And now I'm trying not to bite my nails while I wait for the results!
Red or blue?

I learned something interesting in class today. I knew that British and American englishes are different, and I knew that in Britain you'd say pavement and in America sidewalk. However, in this new course I'm taking I have a teacher from New Zeeland, and I learned today that there they say footpath. Interesting! At least I think so - and it's my blog, haha...

Oh yes, and I also learned some interesting stuff about how to write a lead for newspaper articles, but I haven't exactly mastered it yet, so maybe that'll be a different post. But I can already tell that summarising an event to 30 words or less, and still getting the most important point(s), is quite hard! Summarising isn't really my thing, I think.
In my notes I wrote 5W+H as short for some things to think about when writing a lead, and I think it looks very scientific... It stands for the five Ws and an H:

So, I was just thinking about something.
Did you know that, on avarage, humans have over 100 000 hairs on their head? And that everyday you loose around 60 of them (and new grow)?

Now what I was thinking was about Jesus' words that "even the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:30). That is, even at the first glance, a big thing, especially considering the great number of hairs, and I have always liked that thought that God cares so much about me that He even bother to count my hairs. And now I finally come to what thought I had yesterday: Since we loose many hairs every single day and new grow out, to keep the right number, God must either re-count everyday, or keep close watch.
And I like that thought I had, that this illustration can both mean that God cares a lot about us, and also that he keeps caring every day. 

A painting I made last week for a friend. If you want to you can click here to see bigger.

A short story I wrote last year, and realised I had not yet posted here.

Pages of Bella

She opens the scrapbook at the beginning. There is no need for it; all pictures are already tattooed in her mind, and she only needs to open the last page to insert the very last picture, but as in a trance she looks through the pages. She spills no tears. Her tears had stayed in her heart and frozen into ice.

Her daughter, her own little Bella, grins happily from the first picture. It was taken the day at the market, with its merry-go-rounds and lollipops - a wonderful place for a child. It was the last day they had had in blissful ignorance. The next day Bella had come down with a persistent fever, and she weakly hugged the big teddy bear she had won at the market.
On the next page is the photo from the waiting room at the emergency ward. Bella had wanted the picture for show-and-tell in school and smiled bravely, unaware that this was just the first of all nights she would spend in the hospital in the months that followed.
A drawing is inserted between the next pages, showing a terrible monster with blood red eyes. It was Bella’s description of the enemy that tried to take over her small body; an enemy called  Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
The weeks had past almost as quickly as the pages were now turned. One page, and Bella’s light locks were gone, another page and the rosy cheeks had turned pale, and the eyes seemed too big for the bald head. There was the get-well-card from Bella’s class in school that had come the same week as the doctors had begun to prepare the family for the fact that the hopeful results of the treatment they all waited for might not come.

They had been wrong of course. Bella was such a little fighter, and the doctors said it was safe to go home for a while before further treatment. Happy pictures in the scrapbook. Happy memories of sunny days filled with laughter and hope. Until it all came crashing down, and they rushed to the hospital again, one final time.

”Don’t cry mommy”, Bella had said. “I get so sad when you cry”, and for her daughter’s sake she had not shed a single tear those short last days. Nor had she since. Her tears had stayed in her heart and frozen into ice.
She opens the last page, an empty page, and inserts the last picture. Covered in flowers, and with the market bear leaning against it, is an engraved little stone. Bella – beloved daughter.

Bella, my Bella!

And finally the frozen tears begin to fall.

Livejournal has something called "Writer's block" with suggestions on what to write about for the day. A moment ago when I logged in, I saw that the question for today was: "What was your childhood dream? Did you ever accomplish it?", and I came to think of one profession I desired as a young child. Of course there were many things I wanted to be - a teacher, a priest, a singer, a secretary, a doctor  - but for a short while my dream was to be a nun. Considering I have never met a nun, I wonder where I got the idea? I must have heard of nuns somewhere, for I had at least some idea of what nuns did, and I liked the idea of 'working for God'.

However, later I found out some more information that made me give up my nun dreams. First of all I learned that nuns are Catholic. I'm not. (I don't think I knew of converting at that age...) What really made me give up those plans though, was the fact that a nun never marries and have children. Which I wanted. Still wants. Longs for. Marriage and children has always been my dream, and still is. Whether or not I can accomplish that dream remains to be seen. But I have faith... :)