Show & Tell: Power

This has been sitting in drafts for most of the week but this morning I could finally finish it! The post on "Oh my God, how embarrassing!" will have to wait until the weekend. Watch this space!

Taina's fourth theme of the month is makt or power. I haven't had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about. I have been contemplating a serious post about gender equality or about political power games but unfortunately I don't have the time for that right now.

Instead I thought I'd just list all the stuff I think of when I hear "power". It's mainly about power relationships and dependence, either between two people or between a person and something abstract, for example a custom. Sometimes it's more about "force" rather than the Swedish word makt. Other/better Englih words than power are perhaps influence, might, potency, power. Wikipedia explains well both in English and Swedish.

- the power of one individual over another; which can also be associated with coercion



- the power of a country over another

- the Cold War as in the demonstration of power or might and the balance of power

- the power of men over women; I would say men as a group have more power over women but this does not necessarily mean than an individual man have power over an individual women.



- related to that the power over one's own body; I'm thinking specifically about the pro-life/pro-choice debate in the US mainly

- the power society have on us, society as in structure, cultural conceptions and traditions



- the fact we also need to conform to the structures of society as in work, calendar time (the clock); though this varies from one culture to the other; not all feel the power of the protestant work ethic

- whether one feels they feel/have power over their own life (beyond the shackles of society as described above), for example having a say at work



- also the power bad habits have on us, how hard it may be to get out bad behaviour, whether it is nail-biting or crime

- democracy

- the power of money and capital



- the power of love;

- the mix of love and politics in flower power :)

- the power of fashion



- the power of advertising

- electric power or energy

- and the lack of power; powerlessness, impotence (vanmakt)

Images from user.tninet.se, sfs.se, jbsaint.wordpress.com, 12manage.com, resume.se, marianova.com and supportdell.com

Amusing

At the season premiere of Gröna Lund amusement park.


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No Show

Better report that my Show & Tell post will come later this weekend :)


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Fiat Yogurt

The best quotes about the volcano so far (taken from the Eyjafjallajökull's fan page on Facebook and its Twitter page):

1. Iceland's President to God: "I said CASH, not ASH!"

2. The best things being a volcano: 1) the attention; 2) allowed to smoke at work; and 3) after dinner you throw the dishes in the crater.

3. English-speakers can't pronounce Eyjafjallajökull: "Eye-a-fyat-la-jo-kutl, there you go"




4. You go Eyafjallajökull! Show mankind who's the boss!

5. Okay, Iceland had som bad economics, but it was a little early to press the self-destruct buttom already; I know you can get out of this one.

6. Do you lava me like I lava you?

7. How fast can you type the name of the Volcano?

And it's pretty cool that the grounding of almost 100,000 flights over the past few days have saved 1.3 million tonnes of CO2, equivalent to more than the annual emissions of many developing countries, e.g. Malawi, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and 50 other developing countries.

Show & Tell: White Lies about Nails

I'm behind on Show & Tell (and reading all your posts, sorry!) so I thought I'd pack the two latest themes together.

Taina's second theme for the month of April is naglar, i.e. nails in English. The Swedish word means finger nails specifically but I'm going to take the liberty of using another "nails", i.e. steel nails as in hammer and nails (spik in Swedish).

...So let me tell you about the time when I got a nail in my foot! A rusty nail in fact! It wasn't fun, I tell you, although it's obviously a pretty cool thing to have had happened to you, at least at that age (okay, I admit I still talk about it!).

Image from rosenskarasdiversehandel.blogspot.com

I was ten years old and it was the last few weeks of third grade (and also the end of the first three years of school, before it was time to move up a level; it was June). We had a sports day of sorts and were spending the day in a field flying kites and doing other activities. At some point we were playing at the top of the hill near an old abandoned house, or cottage really. That's when it happened. I had just jumped off the roof - our play was mostly climbing up and jumping off - when I took one step and...

I remember that it hurt more to pull back than when the nail went in... But first I actually ran all the way down the hill to my teachers and it wasn't until I sat down that I felt, or allowed myself to feel, the pain and the pounding. Luckily the nail hadn't gone all the way through but it was bleeding pretty bad and my pink trainers that I liked so much were staining quickly.

The immediate bleeding was stopped and the wound dressed but I was still in excruciating pain (as far as excruciating goes for a ten-year old). But did I say anything? No. Because later that evening my class had a party to celebrate "graduating" from third grade and also to say goodbye to each other after three years as many of us were not going to the same school or same class anymore. Did I want to miss that? No, of course not.

So I pretended. And this is where the white lies come in, Taina's third theme for April.

According to Wikipedia, a white lie "would cause only relatively minor discord if it were uncovered, and typically offers some benefit to the hearer. White lies are often used to avoid offense, such as complimenting something one finds unattractive. In this case, the lie is told to avoid the harmful realistic implications of the truth."

I guess my lying doesn't really qualify as a white lie as I didn't really lie for the benefit of the hearer but for myself. The lie was "told to avoid harmful realistic implications of the truth", but for me, not for someone else. My lie was more about being "economical with the truth", telling an "emergency lie" or "lying by omission", or essentially trying to get away with something, but it will have to do for the sake of the story :)

Image from imperfectation.com

So I told my teachers I was fine, "it didn't hurt that much", and also said the same to my dad when he picked me up. It wasn't until my mum got home a bit later that "the sh*t hit the fan". She yelled at my dad for not seeing that I was pale and just pretending to be fine and for not having taken me to the hospital (she wasn't too happy with my teachers either) while I tried to plead with her "no, mum, I'm fine, I want to go to the party, we can go to the hospital tomorrow!".

How the story ends? Well, we ended up going to the hospital where the wound was properly cleaned and dressed and I was given a tetanus shot. I was pretty upset about missing the party but secretely happy of not having to pretend anymore and being taken care of. And now, years later, who cares about that party anyway! And besides, my classmates thought a nail in the foot as pretty cool :)

Ring & Seek

Trying to find THE ring is difficult! Have to treat ourselves to some nice Japanese food.



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Spring in the City

With all the snow gone and spring finallt here one can make quite interesting discoveries, like finding one's bike being taken over by flowers.



P.S. Show & Tell coming soon!


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Balance of the Universe?

One of my best friends' mother passed away unexpectedly on Sunday and my thoughts are with her and her family right now.

Maybe there were too many good things lately or maybe these things just happen anyway?

Image from mimmiolsson.se

Japanese Hen

On our way back from Adrienne's (Peter's sister) hen party, probably the best one I've ever been to! The list of activities say it all: walking in high heels lesson, murder mystery in a haunted house, jumping castle and sumo wrestling! And great food and dancing!



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Guilt-Free Champagne

You may not have thought about it much but every time you pop open a bottle of Champagne (as you do on a regular Friday...er...maybe not), you release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air*. But due to new technique you will soon be able to drink bubbly without worrying (as much) about your carbon footprint. The new standard bottle will reduce CO2 with 8,000 tonnes per year, equivalent of emissions from 4,000 cars, made possible by reducing the thickness and thus the weight of the bottle from 900 to 835 gr.

* Not literally though; it's really about the production and shipping of bottles.

Show & Tell: In My Easter Egg I Want...

This year the Easter Bunny brought me everything I could ever wish for! A promise of eternal love and happiness! On our last morning in the Maldives Peter proposed to me and I said yes of course! I'm so happy I just want to scream (do you ever have that feeling?)!

This is just a temporary ring but wanted to show it anyway! It cost him 100 SEK at Ur & Penn apparently haha! We'll go together and look for the real thing!




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Under the Coconut Tree

A bit risky but we like to live dangerously!



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