upcoming this fall...

i have so many plans, goals and wishes for this fall, that i feel like i'm going to burst! it's time to look forward, be constructive and take action!

i've decided that this fall, i'm going to...
upgrade my wardrobe! (save 15-20000 sek for a day of shopping good, proper, well-mannered clothes)

trim my body! (drop to 70 kilos or at least trim enough to fit in jeans size 30. right now, i have size 33 in some jeans!)

get a new job! i've started applying for new jobs and am on a look out for new openings. so if you hear anything, i'm all ears!

save money! open accounts, use my excisting accounts better. i have an account on iceland. start saving 1000 sek/month, so i have money whenever i go there, i won't need think of money, it's already there. and then one for vacation, one for my home and one, well just to have. let's get rich or die trying. =P

start writing a book! i have an exciting story line and want to put it on the paper. and when i'm done, i'll have a test group with a few handpicked people, reading and commenting. then, i'll be a fuck-yeah writer making doe! hehe... ;)

when it comes to my excercising my goal will be to be to go 3 times a week. and i'm a bit curious on both a dance course in salsa as in kendo. but first getting the gym in my weekly routine, so those things will wait till spring, at least.

then there's the food, in where i'll have to cut back on sweets, soda and alcohol. the last one won't be a problem since i get stomachproblems from drinking.

there's alot of things i need to upgrade! my poor canapé, that is in need of a make over, i'll need probably at least 10000 sek for the remake and maybe even more, if it's in need of new springs... but since i'm in search of a new job, a new wardrobe will fit better at the moment. so, it's just for me to save and save. and as i shrink, my clothes will fit better (they're all to small at the moment), i'll have a new job so i earn more money and then i can save more to in the end save up for my canapé as well as other things!

like a trip to iceland. me and my brothers have been talking about going together for a week this fall to iceland, but no more specific plans have been made. so i'm hoping we can take it later on. or at least i'll travel after x-mas sometime... thinking about taking a long one and maybe doing a us-trip like i did last easter. we'll see. =)

un(der)dressed?

this morning, while passing the crowds of office people, dressed in suits and dresses i couldn't help but think of how i was dressed. i know i'm not improperly dressed for my work, but it still feels like i'm not dressed quite right. like this morning, i walked past women, properly and yet summery dressed. guys, suit, shirt and tie... some wore jeans and shirt, a few wore plain t-shirts. me, i came to work in jeans and a t-shirt with big letters written 'orgy' all over it. Not maybe the impression i've wanted to make. so, a mental note to myself; don't wear improper clothes to work.

but i've decided to save 15-20 thousand sek and go crazy on shopping clothes for myself. even so crazy, i'm even thinking about taking a day off to do so. hehe... i mean, i still have vacation days to use. i can just imagine the call to my boss 'hi boss. i need to be free on wednesday, cause i'm going shopping that day.'

calm day at work, not to much to do now. i'll be off the phone, so i'm hoping i won't get to much mail and such. ;)

the stupid payroll office doesn't seem to know jack sh*t. just got a raise, from may 1st. the negotiation didn't end until now in july, so we have some extra money to cash in. but the payroll office doesn't seem to know when. :( i want that money for my vacation!

wiii

got my salary today. mo' money, mo' booz! :P happy midsummer, mf:s!

pandora closes it's box

got this in my mail recently:

Today we have some extremely disappointing news to share with you. Due to international licensing constraints, we are deeply, deeply sorry to say that we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S /.../

Delivery of Pandora is based on proper licensing from the people who created the music - we have always believed in honoring the guidelines as determined by legislators and regulators, artists and songwriters, and the labels and publishers they work with. In the U.S. there is a federal statute that provides this license for all the music streamed on Pandora. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent license outside the U.S. and there is no global licensing organization to enable us to legitimately offer Pandora around the world. Other than in the U.K., we have not yet been able to make significant progress in our efforts to obtain a sufficient number of international licenses at terms that would enable us to run a viable business. The volume of listening on Pandora makes it a very expensive service to run. Streaming costs are very high, and since our inception, we have been making publishing and performance royalty payments for every song we play.

Until now, we have not been able to tell where a listener is based, relying only on zip code information provided upon registration. We are now able to recognize a listener's country of origin based on the IP address from which they are accessing the service. Consequently, on May 3rd, we will begin blocking access to Pandora to listeners from your country. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

for those of you that don't know what pandora is, it's a webpage that gives you personalized internet radio stations. you type in a song or an artist and pandora creates a station playing the kind of music similar to the music you typed in. ingenious is a word i come to think of.

for the past few weeks, internet radio stations have been protesting against higher royalties.

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further.

this. this shit here, makes me mad! i use pandora all the time! i use it to find new inspriation. most of my newfound musical loves have been spotted on pandora. and it's apparent to me who's to blame here. and it's not pandora!

charter?

me and my dear friend mr a-whole have for the past few days talked about taking a charter trip somewhere in the world. and all we know we want is sun, beach, booze and an all inclusive. i've gone thru all the major charter agencies and just losely looked through some destinations and i can't come over the fact that it's all so f*cking expensive! seriously! i'm ok with 3-4 thousand SEK per person, but double that??! hopefully we can take a last minute trip to the sun. we deserve it. and we need it. yumyum, let's see the sun!

tax free?

called the swedish tax office yesterday. not as scary as i thought it would be, but somewhat of a thriller when put on hold every time a question was asked.

the woman answering was nice and answered fast, within 5 minutes, even though i was number 174 in line. crazy, i thought while i was chattering away about how i accidently misplaced my tax declaration. in the end, she had to take my number and let someone else call back.

dreadfully i asked the big question about me working on iceland and how this is handled between the different countries and boy was that a thrilling ride. we almost debated about the subject and in the end she took my number and told me someone was going to call. not even an hour later (and mind you, it's declaration time in sweden), someone called with the joyful news that since i'd already paid taxes there, i was not to pay taxes in the country i'm living in.

it might seem strange, i know, but in sweden, you're suppose to pay taxes even for working in other countries. which was why i asked.