zwedishpzycho's Blog

Thanks for getting back to the old format. Its nice to hear the theme music again, and it seemed that the polarbear updates were pretty much just taking the place of the regular podcasts.

The music was pretty good. Not my favorite, but a decent choice.

Glad you brought up the election. Sure, it's not technically swedish news, but it seems to have an impact on the entire world, so it's newsworthy. I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the results, although plenty of my coworkers are fairly bitter. The political climate here is so hostile. People either love or hate a candidate. Very few of us actually look and see the positives in both candidates. I mean, I supported Obama from the start, but had respect for McCain (that is, up until he chose Palin as his VP...) Anyway, this isnt the place for a political discussion.

Thanks for the new podcast, always fun to listen to. Hows the book going by the way?

What is your favorite Swedish export?

It's a tough question, especially with all the excellent choices out there, like the ballbearing, safety matches, cars, etc.

I really love my Volvo, salty black licorice is amazing, I'm a fan of aquavit, and so many other things, but living in the US, the one thing I couldn't go without is IKEA. Source of many things Swedish, and almost like a home away from home.

I'm pretty sure the cinnamon roll (or bun) is of swedish origin. You can find it all over the world, but according to wikipedia at least, it is from that beautiful country in the north. For those of you with not too much time on your hands, I would highly recommend the pre-made mix you can buy at IKEA (at least in the US), add some cardamom to the dough while baking, then before rolling the buns up, spread butter and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the flattened dough. Delicious. Especially with a nice glass of milk (you should definitely try that Andy). I made sure to bake some cinnamon buns last week and freeze them so I would have some for October 4th. It was awesome :)

As for self-checkout at IKEA, I've seen that at several IKEA's in the US (in Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Chicago for sure). It is a pretty nice feature, but sometimes it can be problematic when people cant figure it out, or if the scanner machine doesnt work correctly. But it seems to be a theme all over the place in the US where they have self-checkout at grocery stores and home depot etc. as well.

I like this weeks JJ as well. Just so you know, the link in the shownotes for JJ's website doesnt link correctly.

Hahaha. Well, its easier to find the right words when 1) you've been listening to news about the matter and 2) you have plenty of time to think of what to write :)

I actually haven't heard any of JJ's work before. I'm looking forward to listening to the new episode, hopefully today (but I've got a lot of work to do today, and a date later on tonight, so who knows).

I can understand the phase out of the subsidies. Obviously the reason for the subsidy was to stimulate people buying green cars, and they government has gone above and beyond in its duty to subsidize this. Its great that this initiative was started, and it is a shame that it is going to end, but understandably there is a limit to what the government can afford. On the other hand, if the end of the subsidy leads to a decline in the purchase of green cars, there may need to be additional motivation (perhaps a decreased refund, or more education).
And I totally understand how you feel about spiders - I am the same way with snakes. I can't stand them.

The addition of Jesse Joyce was fun too. Very funny clip!

So besides listening to the awesome podcast that is the Polarbear Podcast to get my Swedish fix, I also listen to Radio Sweden. Just wanted to let people know that if you want general news involving Sweden, SRI Radio Sweden puts their newscast out on the web 5 times per week (oh yeah, it is in English, so you should be able to understand it). If you are interested in get more great news from Sweden, check out their website at http://www.sr.se/rs/english/index.htm . There is a podcast link, as well as a link to a 30 day archive.

Andy, sorry to hear about your problem with moisture seeping into your basement/studio. The machine you were talking about is called a dehumidifier to take the moisture out of the air. At my parents house in Minnesota we had to buy a dehumidifier for the basement as well. (oddly enough we also have a humidifier in the house - but that was from before we owned the house). A possible solution might be to paint the inside with a hydrophobic paint or something like that. I've seen products in the US where you paint the inside brick wall (if it is brick or cement blocks that you have in the basement) with a water sealing paint. It goes into the cement blocks and keeps water from seeping through.

Hey, minor note Andy, on the shownotes page, show #136 is listed as #128. Glad you made it back safe and sound from Greece :)

By now you've probably heard about the controversial FRA law that passed in Sweden. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Andy, I just had a quick comment on #133, the videocast for midsummer. I enjoyed watching it, and I definitely encourage you to make more of them in the future. The only problem was that I had to watch it on my computer (not that this is a huge problem). The movie format was not compatible with my iPhone. If you could use a different video format in the future, I know I would be appreciative.

In the interest of the upcoming Midsummer celebration on June 21st, I thought I'd make a post about it. I'm not sure if this is the correct category to post under, but it seems the most applicable.

I was wondering about people's thoughts on Midsummer (midsommar is it is called in Swedish... not a big difference). From my understanding it is considered one of the largest holidays of the year, next to the Christmas season, and is truly a uniquely Swedish holiday. The holiday has spread beyond the borders of the largest Nordic country, but it has consistently been celebrated in Sweden for many centuries.

How do you celebrate Midsummer (if you do at all)? What are your traditions and thoughts on the holiday?

The weather out in Pittsburgh has been pretty weird. For a while the weather was just rainy, cold and gray (Pittsburgh is one of the most overcast cities in the United States, so this is normal). But at the end of last week all of the sudden the temperature jumped to 35°C plus high humidity for several days. Then it dropped back down to about 20°C again for a few days, and now its back up near 30-35°C again...
Summer is definitely here, but I hope the temperature stays between 25-30°C for most of the time. If it keeps going up towards 35 and 40, my electricity bill for air conditioning is going to be huge!

Well, I guess I'll go ahead and introduce myself as well.

My name is Zebulon Plotnick, though most people just call me Zeb. I'm a 22 year old guy, working as a Nuclear Engineer, mostly doing preparatory and safety calculation work for refueling nuclear power plants. I recently moved to a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, but before that I have lived in Madison, WI (for college), suburbs of Minneapolis, MN (high school), and Stockholm, Sweden (where I was born).

As for now, I'm still getting used to my new surroundings, but in my spare time I enjoy traveling (way too much of my income goes towards gasoline and airline tickets), bowling, reading, running (if all goes well I'll be running a marathon by the end of the year), cooking, watching tv and movies, listening to music, doing "Swedish stuff" and spending time with friends and family.

Thats it about me for now.
-Zeb

Well, I guess I'll go ahead and introduce myself as well.

My name is Zebulon Plotnick, though most people just call me Zeb. I'm a 22 year old guy, working as a Nuclear Engineer, mostly doing preparatory and safety calculation work for refueling nuclear power plants. I recently moved to a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, but before that I have lived in Madison, WI (for college), suburbs of Minneapolis, MN (high school), and Stockholm, Sweden (where I was born).

As for now, I'm still getting used to my new surroundings, but in my spare time I enjoy traveling (way too much of my income goes towards gasoline and airline tickets), bowling, reading, running (if all goes well I'll be running a marathon by the end of the year), cooking, watching tv and movies, listening to music, doing "Swedish stuff" and spending time with friends and family.

Thats it about me for now.
-Zeb

So, this is not exclusive to Sweden, but thought I'd mention that the new iPhone 3G will be released July 11th to several countries around the world, among them Sweden. See the keynote address by Steve Jobs here: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/index.html

I'm not trying to market anything here, I just wanted to remark on such a cool product being released simultaneously to several countries. And, as a proud user of the 1st gen iPhone, I highly recommend it. I just wish I would've waited, so I could have the new one...

Wow.... all of a sudden I bad about complaining about gas prices in the US...
First of all, I should mention that there are 3 or 4 main levels of gas you can get in the US: 87, 89, 91 and 93 Octane. Most people tend to buy 87, because its the cheapest. In the Pittsburgh area, where I live, 87 has been hovering around $4/gallon (about $1.05 per liter). Last I saw 93 was between $4.30 and $4.50.

All the prices vary from state to state, and even between cities within the same state.

The main reasons why Americans complain about the prices (at least as far as I can tell) is first of all how steeply the price has climbed. In 1 year, the price has increased $1 for a gallon (last year around this time I consistently found gas for under $3/gallon). The other reason is that things in the US are much farther away and apart than in Sweden and Europe. We need our cars more to be able to get around (public transportation is hard to find, doesn't run very often, and isn't that cheap). I find myself filling up my Volvo V70 at least once per week, and that's mostly from going to and from work and to the grocery store, etc. (and I don't even have to worry about driving kids around, only myself).

Anyway, thats my view. I welcome anyone to give me their opinion on US prices as well.

-Zeb

I actually graduated from High School in the US, so I didn't get the privilege of enjoying "studenten". I was lucky in that a few weeks after graduation, my girlfriend (at the time) and I flew to Sweden to visit family and friends for a few weeks. It was great going back and seeing everybody, and to show of my much loved homeland to my american girlfriend.
Unbeknownst to me, my family was planning a Studenten like party for me. Two days before returning to the US, I arrived at my aunt's house and was welcomed with champagne, strawberries, and and placards with pictures of me as a little kid. After that we had a dip in the quite frigid archipelago of Stockholm and returned to the house for some pre-dinner drinks. Beer, wine and mixed drinks continued through dinner and dessert, and "femkamp" (a pentathlon/heptathlon-like game including activities usually requiring precision and coordination, but are fun at parties and social events, such as darts, etc.) Needless to say I had a great evening, although I don't remember too much of the end of it, nor was a able to move from my bed for the entire next day, but it was completely worth it. I was also happy to find out that I had amazingly come in second place for the femkamp.

When I'm reading through different Swedish websites online I occasionally stumble onto words that I don't understand or that I cannot explain to a non-swedish speaker. A good resource that I have used in the past is LEXIN (http://lexin.nada.kth.se/swe-eng.html), a Swedish-English dictionary provided by the Institute for Language and Folklore at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology). If you have any other resources for this, please share them.