A Perfect Analogy Between Swedish and British Communication and Travel
Posted by Daniel in Sweden on 05. Sep, 2010 | 0 Comments
In the week we came to Stockholm in 2009, the thing that most amazed me, and the thing I told everyone about when I got home, was the underground trains.
Compared to the London Tube, the Stockholm Tunnelbana is in another league. It’s clean. It’s smooth. It’s quiet. MY PHONE WORKS UNDERGROUND.
Photography: The Long-Awaited Comeback
Posted by Daniel in Sweden on 30. Aug, 2010 | 0 Comments
A long time ago (well, two-five years ago), I used to do a lot of photography. Not professional photography, but I used to go out with my camera and take pictures for the purpose of taking pictures. This started when I was a kid and my Dad let me use his Olympus OM-1 — a fully manual camera whose battery was optional and only powered the light meter. He taught me how to use it, how shutter speed and aperture size worked and what they did to the picture, and so on. From then, I was hooked.
Sweden: The Best Anticlimax Ever
Posted by Daniel in Sweden on 28. Aug, 2010 | 0 Comments
The buildup to this move was insane. We flew over to Stockholm twice — once in September 2009 to make sure we actually liked the country and again a month before the move to look at the apartment we’re now living in to make sure it was what we wanted.
We’ve been thinking about this move since March 2009 — 18 months ago. After that flight a month ago, we confirmed the apartment and things kicked into high-gear. The last week before we left was one of the most draining weeks I’ve had in my life — literally every day I had several things to do and places to go, often miles away from each other. A couple of days before we left, we visited a friend’s place and was greeted with “Bloody hell Daniel — you look knackered!”
An Unneccesarily Long Wall Of Text On Why I’m Selling All My Stuff
Posted by Daniel in Programming/Work, Sweden on 04. Aug, 2010 | 0 Comments
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my recent… saga.
A Short Story: UPS Blues
Posted by Daniel in Cars, Models & Gadgets on 25. Jun, 2010 | 1 Comment
“Ha! Suckers!” I thought, ambling into work at 9:30, pleased at being almost on time for work for once. I’d queued up at silly-o’clock once before, for the launch of the iPhone 3G two years ago. It hadn’t gone well — my store ran out of iPhones before I got to the front of the queue and I wasn’t that far back at all.
For the iPhone 4, I pre-ordered for delivery instead. I sat at work smugly tweeting about not having to queue. You can set your watch by the UPS van here — if your watch is only accurate to 15-minutes, at least — so I was confident I’d have my iPhone by 4pm.
Refresh refresh refresh. Online tracking assured me my parcel was out for delivery?. Refresh. Out for delivery.
The Performa of my Childhood
Posted by Daniel in Cars, Models & Gadgets on 20. Jun, 2010 | 0 Comments
Sometimes you see something that you absolutely must have. The reason might be stupid, but the instant you see this thing you know you have to have it in your life. A few days ago I saw something on eBay that had just that effect on me. Thankfully, I won the auction for only £10 — making it the least expensive “must have” item ever.
Screw this, I’m outta here
Posted by Daniel in Sweden on 20. Jun, 2010 | 0 Comments
When I was young, I had the great privilege of traveling around Europe a lot – my father was a freelance journalist and had a lot of work around the continent. That and the fact that my mother was born and raised in France and can speak French as fluently as I can English means that being around people who don’t speak my language is almost normal, much less daunting.
I’ve always wanted to spend a significant amount of time abroad, be it traveling for a year or actually living somewhere. Going from Uni straight into a full-time Indie developer means I’ve skipped that opportunity since I need to be stable enough to actually get some work done. The thought has been at the back of my mind for a long long time, cataloguing the places I’ve visited and whether I’d like to live there. France is too full of French people, and I’ve spent so much time there it’s practically a second home anyway. California, especially San Francisco, is beautiful. Australia is too hot. Sicily is too empty. Venice is too smelly. Germany is awesome. Etc etc etc.
Twitter as a Language Learning Tool
Posted by Daniel in Sweden on 12. Jun, 2010 | 0 Comments
If you follow me on Twitter, it’s no surprise to you that I’m moving to Sweden in a few months (if not, um… surprise!). I can’t really go to live in another country without at least trying to learn the language, so my girlfriend and I are doing just that — we attend weekly Swedish lessons.
Now, I’ve already tried to learn a language — French. I learned it at school and my mother is French, and although when I was a kid I hated French and didn’t want to learn it (something I now regret greatly), I seem to know a lot of words. However, what I can’t do is properly form sentences. I’m a step above the AVEY VOU UN CUP OF TEA? level, but the French grammar more or less eludes me.
Graph-tastic!
Posted by Daniel in Programming/Work on 21. May, 2010 | 0 Comments
I’ve haven’t been shy about sharing my personal financial difficulties on this blog. However, one thing I was worried about was that my financial troubles were being caused by fundamental cracks in the foundations of my company. The year’s accounts have just been completed, and I’m very relieved to find out that isn’t the case. Allow me to present a graph to demonstrate.
How I got a Vodafone Sure Signal for FREE!
Posted by Daniel in Cars, Models & Gadgets on 18. May, 2010 | 0 Comments
Unfortunately, my office is located in a very small mobile phone signal blackspot as it’s nestled at the bottom of a small hill — move a few metres away outside and signal returns to normal. Recently, Vodafone released a little device called the Sure Signal — a mini cell tower (femtocell) that provides your phone with signal.
Pretty much anywhere you see a Sure Signal review, you’ll see comments talking about Vodafone’s evil plans for ripping off the consumer by charging extra to supply their service over the customer’s internet connection. Well, I managed to use a SUPER SECRET method to get my Sure Signal absolutely free.
