It’s been a mixed day, but things to be thankful for include:

• Marckus (sipho) — I am not sure why he hangs out with me (and I’ve even asked my mom to stop paying people to be friends with me), but I am not complaining 🙂
• Steve (sjneedham – always makes a bad day better, a good day great, and a great day fantastic!
• My dentist – who finished one of the two root treatments
• My ISP – Who upgraded the broadband connection for free and provided a new faster modem and wireless networking instructions
• (in alphabetical order) Markus, Max, and Warren – my best friends in Sweden. I would have never made it without them

Pictures from Berlin

Sorry that they are not so good, but it was a cloudy/grey day from the Berlin tower and this was the best I could manage. I promise that I will take better pictures when I am there in the summer 🙂

Notice me, take my hand
Why are we strangers when
Our love is strong
Why carry on without me

Everytime I try to fly, I fall
Without my wings, I feel so small
I guess I need you, baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, it’s haunting me
I guess I need you, baby

I make believe that you are here
It’s the only way I see clear
What have I done
You seem to move on easy

And everytime I try to fly, I fall
Without my wings, I feel so small
I guess I need you, baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, you’re haunting me
I guess I need you, baby

I may have made it rain
Please forgive me
My weakness caused you pain
And this song’s my sorry

At night I pray
That soon your face will fade away

And everytime I try to fly, I fall
Without my wings, I feel so small
I guess I need you, baby
And everytime I see you in my dreams
I see your face, you’re haunting me
I guess I need you, baby

Now that the weekend is coming to a close, I thought that it was a good as time as any to make an update.

Max’s birthday was this week so I knew that this weekend would be a big party weekend. On Friday a bunch of us were at his place and then we went out to Morchai. It’s a straight place but plays really good music, and we were a mixed crowd. So it was a fun time. On Saturday, we met up again – most of us anyway- along with Warren. We went out to Lino for their grand new opening after all of the construction – but it turns out that the construction was far from over. But it wil look great when it all done. And then we went to Obscur, an alternative club– because one of my favourite DJs in Stockholm was playing there at 01.00. So I stayed until it closed and then went and hung out with Warren. Markus also came out and it was good to see him out too 🙂

And now I just made yummi homemade chicken tikka masala and papadums. I ate too much, but I haven’t eaten all weekend really. Well I ate on Friday actually. So I was overdue for some nourishment.

Anyway, hope everyone had a nice weekend in their own way 🙂

So I know that it has been awhile since I have last updated. Really sorry about that. I haven’t been busy as much as I have been lazy and uninspired to write. But however, now I do feel so inspired to write and so a short update is in order.

My offer for a local contract with Sweden is still on the table. I have just not decided what I want to do. I have 4 really nice options and I need some time to think about them all. I suspect that in the next 2 weeks I will have everything all figured out.

Got my evaluation at work and I was pegged as an “Above Average” contributor. Which is fine with me. I guess I didn’t do good enough for a superior performance and there may be some truth in that. Don’t know. As long as my performance bonus is reasonable given the company and by business unit’s overall performance, I am content to just move on.

Markus came over for dinner and that was cool. Max and I good friends again and that makes me happy. Markus (a different one) and I are talking again and resoliving our differences. I am doing some light travel around Scandinavia. And I have return trips planned for Berlin, London, Prague, and maybe Paris.

And so far I am saving more money than I expected. I have a goal that between now and June, I should be able to save 60,000 SEK (about US$8000) just in case things come up. I realised that I don’t have a “Rainy Day” fund. My goals this year are quite ambitious financially speaking. With some commitment and sacrifice I can meet them.

Anyway, things are good overall. My health is relatively OK. Root canal treatments are almost done! yay! \o/ And my partying in 2006 so far has been no where near as intense as in 2005.

So hope everyone is doing well!

Love and Hugs,

Rodney

This is an interesting listing of countries by economic indicators:

http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/indexoffreedom.cfm

What interests me the most is Hong Kong’s position as #1. I don’t really understand how it completely earns that position, but as long as the criteria were objective, hey, it’s cool with me.