entries on english: May 2003 Archives

- So what if I come to one of your parties and meet your new boyfriend for the first time and recognize him as a former inmate... what should I do? I would want to tell you somehow, even if I shouldn't.

- A code, we must have a code! Something that none of us ever would come up with the idea to say.

- Yeah, like... I could say: �hey, isn't "working nine to five" really good?� And you would reply: �the song or the movie?� and I would answer: �both�

- And then I would know my new boyfriend is a fraud and throw him out immediately. That's brilliant!

- But wait... "working nine to five" is a good song and a good movie. I could actually say that, we need a new song...

conversation on the phone with friend, I guess we both were kind of tired, afterwards I played "working nine to five" for her (mp3) and we decided we should see the movie someday...

The Swedish local government workers have been on strike for five weeks and on June 4 they might be joined by bus- and train-drivers from the public transport system in Stockholm.

If this becomes reality, no commuter trains or buses at all would be rolling on the streets and tracks of Sweden's capital.

Despite the fact that it would be catastrophy for those who have no car and live far from where they work, it could be quite interesting from the sociological point of view. When there's a crisie like this, people tend to help eachother out. The last time the busdrivers were on strike here, I remember reading in the paper about neighbours who never spoke to each other before offering one another a ride to the nearest train- or undergroundstation and things like that. With a mutual problem to solve, connections between people that didn't exist before might be established.

And if people living in the city went by bike or walked instead of the underground, what effect could a strike have on the public health?

Marysia Cywinska-Milonas, one of the key note speakers from the Blog Talk-conference, is thinking about starting to blog in English and/or French. I'm cheering her on, convinced that writing in another language then your mother tounge is good for many reasons.

• Practise. Since I started blogging in English about a year ago I know I have made progress. My German-blogging is still in the experimental phase so I don't think you can notice any progress there yet.

• Diffrent thinking. I'm convinced that writing in another language then your mother tounge forces your mind in new directions.

• Audience. There's nothing wrong with Swedish but hey, compare 9 million to 427 million Englishspeakers (or 121 million Germanspeakers or 116 million Frenchspeakers) and you have the answer.

Found a really interesting article in Der Standard today: Erinnerung an die Zukunft which discussed the issue about digital archiving. How are we supposed to store all digital information that is being created every hour on the Internet? The American Internet Archive saves 400 megabyte every day! That's 20 kilometres of shelf space!

The question about format is also interesting when it comes to digital information. You need machines and software to access the material and what happens in 200 years from now? Will software and machine be able to handle old files like that?

I also started thinking about my own homepage when I read that the average homepage exists only 50 days. steffanie dot net has existed since March 1998 but I actually have very few backups of my own material. Some are to be found here.

In order to get to Schwechat on time for hour 07.15 flight today we had to get up at 03.00. And considering I didn't sleep at all because it was so hot in our room, I guess you could say I'm kind of tired by now. I will probably be asleep before the nine o'clock news...

I took my bag as hand-luggage to be on the safe side this time. I didn't want to leave the airport without my bags as we had to do when we arrived to Vienna. I don't think anyone lost any bags this time but you can never be sure. And despite the summerwarm weather in down there I seem to have catched a cold. My throat is really sore :(

Tomorrow I must sum up my thoughts and notes from the BlogTalk-conference.

In 48 hours from now, I'll be leaving for the BlogTalk-conference together with Jen, Stephanie and Erik. Wow, I'm really looking forward to this!!!

Just like Moe, I think weblog maps are cool. He found a new one today, the Seattle Weblog Portal where you can see on a map where new entries have been posted. So when are we getting something like this for Stockholm? :-)

I finnished reading The Weblog Handbook by Rebecca Blood tonight and found a quote which hits right on the spot how I feel about blogging:

I see weblogs as the online equivalent of salted peanuts - it's impossible to to stop snacking after eating only one.

I couldn't agree more.

Erik borrowed me We Blog. Publishing Online with Weblogs by Bausch, Haughey and Hourihan. In the introduction-chapter, when trying to explain what weblogging is all about, they mention Blogathon.

A Blogathon is is blogging at least once every 30 minutes for 24 hours trying to raise money for charity.

I'm not sure anyone would want to donate money because of me promising to blog för 24 hours, but the idea of doing it makes me curious. I want to try it! So should I join the Blogathon 2003?

I posted some photos from the Blog Dinner in Malmö in my photolog starting here. Gustav posted a summary of the evening's discussions and a lot of photos. Mats posted not one or two times, but three times about the dinner!

On of the contributors to the BlogTalk conference in Vienna later this month is Hossein Derakshsan. He is talking about weblogs from an Iranian perspective and reading his paper is really interesting. Did you know that over 10 000 Persian weblogs emerged in the last 20 months? I didn't have a clue.

Derakshsan writes that many young women have started weblogging in Iran, writing about everything from personal diaries to political critisism. Weblogs have also been giving first hand information about student protesting and some webloggers even got hired by traditional newspapers to continue writing for them.

And since my Persian is a bit rusty ;) at the moment, I would be interested in Iranian weblogs in English. Is there any? URL, please!

"There have been occasions where I have put up a note saying, "I'm working on the following and here's what I think I know", and the invitation is for the reader to either tell me I'm on the right track, I'm wrong, or at the very least help me find the missing pieces".

Erik borrowed me Rebecca Blood's famous book on blogging last week and I found the journalist Dan Gilmore's thoughts on webblogging to be very interesting. He also shows something many journalists lack of, namely humbleness, as he explains:

"One of the things I'm sure about in journalism right now is that my readers know more than I do".

It's like looking at blogging as a process which the readers are welcome to participate in. I blog what I think I know and please don't shoot me if I'm wrong... I like that approach and it's how I wish my blogging could work.