Interlude, February 15th

I want light. I need it, real badly.

I’ve spent the past few months at work just coping. Doing whatever absolutely needs to be done; making lists to cull the anxiety of not being as productive as I’d want to be.

I need sunshine and longer days. I need the sun to rise and clear my head of all the cotton. I need light to gently stroke my cheek and revitalize me.

We’re not even through February yet. March awaits. April and spring seem light-years away.

One can only hope.

3/365

Black and white seems to be turning into this weeks theme.

Today I listened to Hello Saferide and this one song stuck with me. It was the inspiration for the photo.

I’ve been playing around with slow shutter speed. Of course it resulted in motion blur, since I’m lousy at being entirely still. I like the surreal, dreamlike effect it adds to the shout though.

And suddenly, I don’t feel fat anymore
I don’t count my blackheads as a hobby
I don’t count the marks on the wall
And I don’t sleep well at all

I Don’t Sleep Well – Hello Saferide

Mattias, Emma and Märta came to visit today, so we spent the day hanging out at the bar while Johan tried to both work and be social. It’s been a really good day!

First Impressions: Election Year’s First Political Debate

This year is election year here in Sweden. Sunday night SVT (national TV) arranged and broadcasted the first in a long series of party debates.

If you are curious about the political party system we have, you can read about it here. In short we have a “red” (read: left) and a “blue” (read: right) side competing against each other in this election.

I found the debate both interesting and highly entertaining. The political aspect of it all – what was debated, who stands where on which issues – was interesting, but what captivated me the most was the tone and rhetorical tools that were used. (That might have something to do with me being a psychology teacher and the fact that I am at the moment discussing social perception and influence in one of my classes.)

Of course there’s nothing new about politicians using body languages and rhetorics to avoid questions and trying to gain approval, but this was the first time I watched a Swedish political debate and considered this particular aspect of it.

The general impression the debate left on me was that Swedish politicians have become (just like many other parts of society) so much more Americanized. This debate reminded me a lot of the debates I have seen from American elections and (yes, I’m going there) the ones I’ve seen on the show West Wing. It might just be a false impression but I’ve always felt that Swedish politicians were less preoccupied with social perception and more preoccupied with social issues. I have a strong feeling that politics now, more than ever, are more about sending the right vibes to the voters and winning the election, than actually having an agenda, a plan or taking a stand on a certain issue. I asked around at work today and it seems I’m not the only one to have this impression.

The target group of voters for the debate were women. Any and every topic brought up by the moderator was turned to be about women or was made to look like it was viewed from women’s perspective: Taxes was all about female nurses’ salaries; the issue of immigrants’ unemployment was steared towards the unfair disadvantage women in general have when it comes to getting a job and so on for most issues.

Apart from that, I also noticed that the words “financial crisis” were very popular with all party representatives. Let me put it this way:  Had it been a Saturday night and we would have made a drinking game out of it, I wouldn’t have been able to stand by the end of it.

All in all the debate was interesting. I’m excited to see what the next one will hold.

The Ex-Couch Potato

TV has to be one of the most time-consuming activities we engage in.

The Simpsons, Family Guy, Two And A Half Men and That 70’s Show. Legend of the Seeker, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dexter. Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live and Extreme Home Makeover. House, CSI and Criminal Minds. How I Met Your Mother.

The list of shows I have seen is long. In itself that isn’t a bad thing. The scary part of it is how few of them I would have seen, had I had to actively choose watching them. Let me explain: you know how when you get home, you kick off your shoes and take off your jacket. Then you might go on to change into something more comfortable. Maybe even get something to drink or a snack, check the mail, say hi to whoever might also be home. But almost inevitably after all that you end up turning on the TV and settling into the couch – either because a show you are interested in is on, or simply because you would like to take a minute to unwind. And this is where the trouble starts, at least for me: Once I’ve sat down on the couch I get stuck there. Even after the show I was watching has ended, even if there is nothing on that I want to see. There might be something worth watching later on. So I resort to zapping between channels, some tiny little part of me firmly believing that if I go through the channels one more time, something I’ve already dismissed will morph into a show I could settle for watching. And then it’s almost midnight and I haven’t done much else than sit in front of the TV, sheepishly staring at whatever might have been on. Let me tell you – that feels incredibly depressing.

Actually, that paragraph should have been past tense. I no longer own a TV. When I moved out of my last apartment I only took my computer, clothes and books with me. The apartment I’m living in at the moment actually came with a TV, but it was taking up a lot of space (and I’m not much for crowded furnishing) so I decided to move it into the storage room. I was working a lot, had a long list of books I wanted to read and planned on spending more time with my friends. I reasoned that having a TV take up valuable space in my living room was unneccessary. Turns out that wasn’t a half-bad decision.

I still watch shows (on my computer), but not having a TV to sit front of that feeds me whatever it likes makes things different. I have to actively choose what I want to see now and go through the effort of acquiring it on my own. Which means that I’ll only watch things that I feel are worth the hassles. Things that I feel are actually worth watching. It might not sounds like much of a difference, but it really is to me. It is the difference between feeling that I’ve wasted my time, waiting around for something to come on, or that I have settled for something I wouldn’t have chosen to watch myself – all that, and feeling that I have actively chosen to watch something. I watch shows at a time that suits me. There is no other programme after my show to make me sit in front of the screen for the rest of the night. It is the difference between being fed entertainment and choosing it yourself.

You may judge me if you want. Call me weak for reacting the way I do to a TV in the first place, but I strongly suspect I’m not the only one. For people like us, the internet and play TV are invaluable resources. The fact that play TV is flourishing seems to confirm that I’m not the only one who sees the advantages it holds over the television.

I doubt I will be getting a new TV anytime soon.