the Life On the Go

First Photo Assignment

2012-09-01T21:03:00.000+02:00

I've dabbled around with photography for a bit on my free time for a while now. Last weekend I had my first real assignment. Well there was this one time when I shot some promo material for a company a long time ago but that doesn't count. With my new camera in hand I set out to take the first real pictures with it and have a go at wedding photography while I was at it.

The wedding was a good friend of him from mine named Ivan. His wedding was very much a Stockholm summer wedding inspired by the region and their personalities.

My shots depict the wedding preparations and despite I made a lot of mistakes, used a lot of less than perfect settings some pictures turned out OK none the less. For a first session with the camera I'd giving myself the big stamp of approval. After all I only had about 20 minutes to get to know the camera.

Naturally the starting settings as ISO, aperture and some program specifics were way off for the couple of first shot. It was quite interesting to see the chronological changes for the first 20 shots where I adjusted the settings after every picture.

Something that was vary nice for this event was that I was shooting with my dad. As we could purposely choose differing lenses we could build a much more complete and varied visualisation of oru surroundings then one photographer working alone.

The result was quite nice. In fact it was good enough for my dad to suggest we start a photo business together. Coming from my dad, that's a very nice compliment. Probably the best one I've ever had =D

Photo vs Video

2012-08-30T18:08:00.000+02:00

The camera or the camera? I know it's not a dilemma most people face but I do. I often struggle with the choice of camera. Mostly weather to take pictures or to film. They both have their benefits and definitivily appeal to somewhat different sides of me.

The downside of using the video camera is that is usually takes a lot of time and footage to make something decent and even more time and planning to make something great. At least with a normal camera (in my case a Nikon D700) one can usually just pay attention and wait for those good moments to pop up.

I'd really like to get better at both Photography and Film but it just takes to much time to do both at the same time. Well at least without taking pictures and filming being the main focus. After all for me the primary thing is usually doing something else and just having the opportunity to snap a few shots. Now if those shots happen to be good that's totally a nice bonus.

Come to think of it, I've only ever been on a pure photographic mission. It was the Jungles of Sumatra and we where trying to get a few good clicks on some orangutans. Other than that there's been a few times I've been out purely to grab a few shots but not really as a real mission so to say.

This weekend was the last sailing trip with the long-ship Helgaholm and I figured I'd give just snapping a few frames the primary seat. I did bring a video camera but only pickled it up once. Not wanting to bring a lot of lenses due to my weight and size limiting mind set for adventure I went with a zoom lens. Something I think is fine these days. Yeah sure fixed lenses do get better Images, but not that much better warranting hauling around a lot of extra weight and the time changing lenses and/or cameras.

It was a short two day trip. But two days was enough to give me a cold. Coming back from the tropics less than 24h before departure, rain, wind, jet-lagged and sleep deprivation KOed my immune system. Still if was a real nice trip with a mix of all kinds of weather. Sun, Rain, Wind, in other words a typical Swedish summer. The crayfish where amazing and it was a good thing everyone brought lots and lots of extras as I did not have time to go procure food after arrival. In fact "bosö båtklubb" (or Bosö Boat Club) had gotten a whole lot of extra craw fish making the crawdads more than plentiful. Me likey very much =D

Best of North Sulawesi

2012-08-21T21:39:00.000+02:00

I found my Sulawesi gem as my last few days and my last destination in Sulawesi. Tankoko Reserve hit me with a mellow atmosphere and lots of wildlife to see. It's easy to get to and there are several trips available there from most dive resorts and travel agents. However the local transportation there is a bit trickier, but a lot cheaper. Besides a couple of hours of "rough" travel only makes it more genuine. Just ask the microlet drivers how to get there and they will help you catch the connecting microlett, buss or back of a tiny truck. One can easily get there from Manado, Tandano and Bitung.

My favorite part was walking around in the Jungle and seeing all the cool animals. The best part might have been the lack of mosquitoes. I don't think I encountered a single one. Which was a releif since I had no malaria meds. From what I heard the risk was non existent to low locally but looking at the maps from home most of Sulawesi lit up as a malaria zone. It seems as this is no longer the case however.

Some of the awesome animals we encountered where giant tarantulas at night, über cute primates known as Tarsiers, Makaks, exotic birds and Dolphins.
My only regret is that I did not have time to do any muck diving close by but that's ok. I'll soon be diving in some new cool places.

After some checking around we stayed at a home stay for 200.000 IDR per night. This included 2 meals a day for 2 people. In other words quite cheap. Fresh fish was on the menu just about every day. Breakfast could be a bit small for people like me who are used to a proper meal for breakfast but one can always request some Nasi Goreng instead which was much to my pleasing.

In this place I met an Indonesian - German family which was quite interesting. Although their kids where about 10 years younger than me, I kept thinking that it could have been my life would we have not returned from Indonesia after moving there as a child. This could have been a defining moment in my life and I become a tad bit happier every time I think about it. I'm very happy I got to have the background that I finally got. But more about that another day.

If you are ever in North Sulawesi, pop by Tankoko for a few days of relaxing and enjoying nature.

Sulawesi Higlands

2012-08-18T19:30:00.000+02:00

In the center of the Sulawesi Highlands is a city called Tomohan. It's not the biggest city but it's one of the most well knows for travelers in the area. Due to it's shape it seems a lot bigger than what it actually is as it's cramped between the volcanic mountains around it.

I spent a few days here and the area has enough things to do for half a week to a week or so. More if you want to climb all the hills around. A few interesting things include doing to the market where they happens to deal in the more unusual food stuffs. Dog and rats being on the menu feels quite weird but it's forth taking a look.

I enjoyed getting around with the local transportation such as microlets, local buses and hitchhiking on the back of trucks. In general one of the good things about the area is that cold beer is quite readily available. A nice change from many other non tourist destinations in Indonesia.

A Paradise Polluted

2012-08-18T05:42:00.000+02:00

Outside the coast of northern Sulawesi lies Bunaken, a small island with the potential of some of the greatest diving in the world. It once ranked in the top five dive spots in the world but had lost rankings in recent years.

As a diver I went in search of new wonders and to marvel while doing my flights through alien territory. The underwater world is truly an amazing one, with creatures one would think lived in the world of fiction. The waters of Bunaken have a diverse marine life and focuses mainly on the smaller life forms. There are a few turtles guaranteed to be seen but sharks and bigger wildlife is not as common.

It all started out with a very promising afternoon wall dive. The reef where I dived was in relative good shape and there was plenty to see. Then the local influence started floating by in the form of plastic and garbage. As the growing city of Manado is quite close by and up current of this “could be island paradise”, a lot of things tend to float by. Not uncommon are, plastic bags, dead animals, diapers or other random junk. It’s worst for the snorkelers on the south and east side who must experience all the floaters but it’s horrible for me as a diver as well.

After a few dives I had enough and could no longer stand the pollution of humanity and left the island after far fewer dives than I had initially hoped.

Without this pollution I’d easily rank Bunaken among the top 10-15 dive sports. It the reef was in perfect condition it would be even better but there is some damage due to earlier dynamite and cyanide fishing.

For those who do not want to dive there are a few other activities on the island. The beaches are not that good and quite polluted both from the wash up of Manado and the locals habit of throwing garbage about. The snorkeling is good if one can disregard the foulness floating around. There is a dolphin tour for about 80.000 IDR which is worthwhile and quite cheap for this type of thing around south East Asia.

It’s good to know that all the places to stay charge per person and not per room. All meals of the day are also included in this price. The cheaper alternative is to stay in a homestay in the little village on the south end of the island. The less cheap alternative is to stay at one of the many resorts with ad hoc dive centers or dive centers with ad hoc resorts. I stayed at Raja Laut (meaning Ocean King) and enjoyed it.

The price was 250.000 IDR per person and both food and accommodation was very nice. The diving part of our resort/dive center as also good but I think they value what you can see higher than what you don’t want to see. I although the corals might be more damaged on the North West part of the island I’d easily trade it for less garbage any time. Most of the prices for the resorts are in Euros and the local exchange rate is quite bad. So it’s much better to bring your own cash that you conveniently exchanged in your home country. There are also no ATMs on the island so bring plenty of cash. Although I felt quite safe ant not too worried about my gear in our bungalow it was still nice to be able to put out valuables in the dive centers safe.

The cheapest alternative for diving and also maybe staying is Daniels. I think the dives where 25€ at Daniels as well. At Raja Laut they were 30 € is you do 3 or more dives. For one dive I think it was 35 €.

On the unfortunate side of things I lost one of my go pro cameras with its new underwater housing and head mount. It will be interesting to see how to handle my insurance. And if I need to make some sort of report. After all I lost it in the ocean, do I still need to make a police report?

All in all, go dive Bunaken and see for yourself, if you are in the area. If not, go somewhere else. There are plenty of great dive sites in South East Asia to the west, north and east of Northern Sulawesi.

The Five Days of Crayfish

2012-07-30T17:53:00.001+02:00

Crayfish season is coming up again in a few weeks. I however happened to get invited to a pre pre-crayfish party. Being me and having awesome friends, we decided to go by Kayak and adventure.

The plan was to kayak for three days hit the party just in time and kayak back. It did not go quite as planned though. It turned out to be a hell of a chill out place and thus we decided to establish base camp.

Using Karolinska Institutets (KI) place in the Archipelago we did daily trips by kayak in the archipelago. Rock Climbing, Fishing, Kayaking and the occasional crawdad was achieved.

I strongly recommend kayaking the in the inner archipelago of Stockholm. It's a great way to get to know the land and waters which make up Stockholm and have contributed to what the area is today. In my opinion it might be the most beautiful archipelago around.

There were more than a few homely culinary treats out in our back yard. Fresh berries really helped give the pancakes that little extra touch. Who in their right mind can fail to appreciate fresh pancakes, ice cream, whip cream and fresh berries? Oh and so the pancakes here are the thin ones, the ones Americans call crepes, The original pancakes :p

Ending every night with a fire is more or less the rule out in our summer life style. Although "Danger Mouse" and associates had a fascination for huge fires we all escaped unharmed, something the leftovers from the burnt down sauna did not.

Sällskapsresan - På Tur

2012-07-23T23:30:00.000+02:00

This weekend I had a true Sällskapsresan like experience as we headed north for a mini expedition of hiking in the Swedish "wilderness". first of all It might be good for me to explain the concept of sällskapsresan. It's a classic series of movies written, directed and starred my the Swedish icon Lasse Åberg. The movies all star a quite geeky and a bit lost guy who is not always in touch with the times.
Read more about the original movie here. there are however several follow ups and the one called snow roller is definitively my favorite.

Our mission this weekend was to climb Sweden's tallest mountain, Kebnekaise. Despite only bolstering a 2102 meter rise above sea level it's trickier to climb than one might think due to fickle weather and that it's way into the polar region. There are two essential ways of getting to the top. The west route and the east route. Taking the west one is the technically easier alternative but also more physically demanding, while the east path heads over a nice glacier and sport a short stretch of climbing. I'ts about the easiest climbing one can think of and would most likely be a French 3 on the free climbing scale (basically a ladder or a stair). We aimed for the est path, booked a guide and got ready to get up. After walking up by, not the alarms, but by the wind pounding the canvas over our heads, I had my suspicions. Although out alpine tent managed just fine in the wind it was soon made clear to us that the wind might be a bit rough. Estimating it to be around 15 m/s we figured we'd give it a go. The guide disagreed.

The wind was in fact 25 m/s. It was cloudy and snowing. Although hoping for better weather throughout the day and night so that we might see the top, no such luck was to be found.
The back up plan was walking around in the area, taking in the sites and enjoying trading stories with other hikers. All in all a quite leisurely time spent.

I learned and relearned a lot from this trip and I think it was a great refresher for my trekking experiences. After three days and 54 kilometers my muscles are remarkably ok considering I haven't exercised trekking or any serious attempt at running in years. What I felt was a problem physically was my endurance, my tendons (particularly my paterllar tendon) and my ankles.

On my way up I had just thrown the stuff I could fin on very short notice and some extra stuff that I had managed to get on the way, resulting in a extremely poorly packed backpack and plastic bags. Having struck camp I finally managed to fix this and the rest of the walk was quite different in terms of weight and comfortability of my backpack.
I'm a bit interested in going again as we never hit the top but I might be even more interested in doing it winter time.

during our time in the region we realized me and Stefan where quite like the main characters in sällskapsresan. Stefan sporting shorts and knee socks was obviously playing Stig and me wearing my colorful clothing, taking about gadgets, and to random people, took on the role of Ole, despite not being Norwegian. We even added an excited Brit to our party, Snowroller style. We met him on our way up to the fjällstationen (alpine station) and he was the only party we did not overtake trekking up there. I think he was the most stoked about climbing the mountain of all the people in the region. As this Scotsman was as hindered as we were from climbing we ended up sharing a few cold ones instead which was not at all a bad way to go when you can't trek.

Trekking Prepp

2012-07-19T12:21:00.001+02:00

I haven't been hiking in a long long time and so when we booked our trip up north to climb Sweden's tallest mountain, Kebnekaise, I was stoked.
I soon realize that I was firstly way out of shape for hiking and secondly that my gear might me equally out of shape.

This is what I planend to bring:

Clothing and Footwear

Rain Gear
Underwear
First Layer/Second Layer
Second/Third Layer
Third/Shell Layer
Hat and Gloves
1st layer socks
2nd layer socks
Short Pants or climbing pants
Hiking Boots
Rock climbing Shoes

Shelter

Ground sheet
Sleeping Bag
Hygiene Bag
Alpine Tent

Cooking and Hygene

Water bottle/Hydration System
Thermos
Portable Kitchen
Cooking Fuel

Tools

Sharp Knife
Multi-Tools
Lights

Safety

Sun Glasses
Tape
Sun Screen
Med pack

The Gadgets

GoPro Camera
Lumia 800, Smart Phone
Nikon D200
Sony HDR CX-180

This is what I forgot to bring or did not have time to find:

Sun Glasses (can't find mine)
Tape (forgot)
Sun Screen (Not a priority)
First Aid (don't have one)
Multi tool (I got my knife)
Lights (not a priority as it's light all night and day)
Water bottle/hydration system (frustrated over not finding any of my systems. I would have liked to bring my camel-back system.)
cooking fuel (no time)
ground sheet (can't find it)
gloves
Salt, pepper and spices

I also noticed I might need:

Utensils
Washing equipment
Mosquito repellent
Lighter

Since I have a few hours during work today and also between work and catching the train I'll try to get these items in the following order of importance:

Water bottle
Utensils
Mosquito repellent
Ground sheet
Lighter
Washing equipment
Gloves

I'll outsource the cooking fuel to Stefan ;)

I'll let you know how the trip went.

Them Were Some Hard Balls to Crack

2012-07-16T22:55:00.001+02:00

As the the peeps in the Big Bang Theory we are a bunch of over educated boys gone.. older. So we decided to have a go at playing war again, just like kids. In other words it was Paintball time.

Seven of us made it there through the hardships of being far away out in the woods outside of Stockholm. These where however seven damn brave samurai. Yup, damn right we were.

Realizing we where playing pros with pro guns and shit it was a bit more scary, but we had a blast anyway.
Besides it was a good opportunity to try out my new GoPro mounts. Sadly I have no other fast way to mix my footage than using MS live movie maker which keeps messing and bugging out.

Sadly I have no other fast way to mix my footage than using MS live movie maker which keeps messing and bugging out.

The evening was rounded off with some nice Indian Food with birthday boy Stefan who I think might be hurting the most of all of us. So it was almost like an Indonesian style birthday event, except for the cake.

Post Mortem from Technical Writing in a Surprise Lean/Agile Environment

2012-07-11T13:28:00.001+02:00

Not too long ago I was assigned the task to write the documentation for this new product. although slightly bigger than the standard document size in my field I did no think it would be a big issue tackling the task.

I would be gravely proven wrong. In fact this project would grow and eat up all my time leaving my looking like a question mark a whole bunch of times.

The main reason the this project came to be more complicated that is should have been was in my opinion these factors.

Inconsistent Project Directions from customer
The documentation type, quality and target audience requirements kept changing for about half the project.

Not knowing what type of work process the customer used
Previously not dealing with lean/agile methods for this customer, not knowing they started using this for this team made previous processes quite inadequate.

Previous projects of this type did not follow the guidelines
In addition to creating new documentation it was later added to merge similar projects not following the specified requirements into this project.

Time Constraint
This was all done with a very short time frame. I believe it was the fasted up to date for our customer.

This in turn lead to a series of problems. I have listed the ones I found to be the most time and energy consuming below.

This Specific Project

Not knowing the project used lean/agile methods of working
Having my assignment description changed
Doubting all information channels
Not being on site
Inconsistency in input documents

Agile/Lean

Not attending daily project meetings
Working with off shore assets
Doubting all information channels
Weekly changes due to the scrum iterations

I'll try to illustrate by showing where my time went at first.

When I realized that they where working in a lean environment with daily project meetings. I started attending them and changed my approach. I found out that information flow to follow and somewhat decided on one of the order requirements. As a result my time could be spent somewhat differently.

Looking at the purple section which shows the time where I can actually produce content one can instantly see a huge increase in time spent (This is a good thing). Freeing up time from getting the right information made and instructions made it at all possible to finish this project although many a late night was required.

From this experience I take some lessons learned with me for future projects. Some are general issues that

Lessons Learned

Know how your team is working
Attending daily project meetings
Work flow focus
Review Process
Communications in and outside the team
Workload
Identifying and contacting SMEs
Identifying project goals and project type early
Identify document type
Who is the target audience
Key points to cover
Document style

Let me know if you have any ideas or opinions on this.

Bouldering Getaway

2012-07-08T23:43:00.000+02:00

This weekend we focus on some more physical activities. The name of the game is bouldering. Bouldering is a part of the general sport of rock climbing. What makes bouldering bouldering is that one only climbs lesser heights and without the aid of ropes.

Getting back into the Stockholm scene I decided to get into this sport which has seen a high increase in popularity during the last few years. After all it's like this almost valid excuse to climb trees and be a kid again ;)

I've engaged in bouldering for about two and a half month or so now after getting back and I've finally gotten to the level where I don't fall down on everything. Yay!
After our usually sauna time after hanging upside down Stefan told us about the cool spots on Åland that we could climb.
Åland is technically a part of Finland but they speaks Swedish and actually wanted to belong to Sweden back in the day when the decision was made.
Ok, lets go! I replied and so we arranged to go two weekends after or so.

Getting to Åland is quite simple and one can just take the ferry over from a number of locations.To find some good info just check out Ålands tourist office. To find more specifics about bouldering spots take a look at 27crags.com

The bouldering was fantastic and it's was an awesome weekend. I recommend this to anyone that likes rock climbing and nature.

Career Change

2012-06-27T13:51:00.000+02:00

Thinking a bit about what I want to do in the future and what I want to learn at the moment I weighed my options. Naturally I had to think about it visually.
Before that I should note my experience so far in CPI.
First of all Having worked in the field for short time and during that time having been in charge o one of the more complex and daunting projects I have learned a lot. Starting off from my tests they estimated I was on the level of a professional with five years in the industry. I´m not sure I agree with those assessments but I have developed a lot during this time. Although I still have plenty and then some to learn, I feel I could do this job for any company at this point.

To decide where to go I had to decide what I wanted. I started by identifying my primarily values at a workplace. Then I continued by approximation what each company and career or careers within that company could bring in terms of those values.
I did this estimation over a time span of 15 months.

The values I decided to list where:

Development Potential
How much I can still develop within this field at this point
Economic Conditions
Pay and other economical benefits
Flexible Working hours
How and when I have to work.
International Opportunities
The possibility or obligation to work abroad
Networking
The possibility to improve my professional network
Rate of Learning
How much I will learn per time unit
Skills Development
How many and what skills I may develop
Training
How much time the company will spend training me
Vacation
Vacation time and vacation benefits
Work Environment
Administration, management, co-workers and other soft values

Lets start with the value division of each company for me.

Moving on to Specific values over time we find this:

By summarizing the total of these values and displaying them over time we can clearly see what company that can provide me with better long term situation.

Graphics don't lie :p
I start in September.

Midsummer

2012-06-23T10:38:00.000+02:00

Swedes have for a long time been sea farers. I guess the vast costal area of the Atlantic coast and the Baltic Sea would do that to a culture. It´s something that´s been an essential means of communication and trade and today, spending time on the sea is a much treasured pass time. I was lucky enough to be dragged out on one of these trips. It was not my first one by all means. In fact growing up I have a brief stint as a sea scout. Something I was actually kicked out of. I was not always a little rule following, well-mannered little boy, as one might have guessed :p . This trip would hovever prove to be a little bit different and the ship would be just a little bit different too. It turned out to be a mideval long ship, a square rigged boat much to my liking. You can read more about her at helgahom.se

Taking her out in the archipelago has been more fun that my other time spent on the ocean and it gives a feeling closer to nature and also closer to what man must have felt a long long time ago exploring and ruling this part of the ocean. Maybe it´s in my blood. After all my roots are from two great arcipellagos, one freezing cold and one searing hot.

Midsummer or the summer solstice celebrations goes back a long, long time and is one the more treasured holidays in Sweden. It´s the day when the most babies are made, the most alcohol is consumed and the most heden frog dances are danced around a giant fallos symbol. Yes you read that right. Celebrating midsummer on one of the many island in is probably as Swedish as one can get. Feeling I should go one step further in my quest to re-explore Stockholm and Sweden I decided to do it with the Helga Holm crew and a few good friends of mine on the Viking to Medieval remnants of the city of Birka. Birka is a lost city that has been found on Björkö in Mälaren. It was most likely whipped out in a great battle according to the theories. It has however become a place of excavation and some attempts to recreate old housing and the feeling of living in those days. If you have the time, take a day and check out some Viking history.

Needless to say I enjoyed another good midsummer, stuffing my face full of food and drink.

Where Life Takes You

2012-06-14T10:48:00.000+02:00

Not too long ago I won a design challenge for designing user interfaces and user experiences for mobile applications. It all started with a buddy of mine recommending me to come. It was a get together organized by an IT solutions and management company (which will be left un-named for now) in the style I myself usually would organize back when I walked the corridors of academia more determined to study.

I was happy with my prize of a new cell phone and the chance to get some programming help to realize our application. An application I fare might dissipate to non-completion as it needs a weekend more of development and we don´t have the programming resources at this moment. You can still check out our idea at getmeetapp.com if you are interested.

Or get in touch if you would like to get together and create. It was a fun weekend and I did not expect what I received next, a phone call from the company wanting to talk to me. Although I had a few offers on the table by now, CPI is where my focus lies at the moment. After all I´d like to become good at it before I take on something else. But hey let’s check out what they do and what they can offer.

Spending some time with my friend working for this company I met some more of his colleagues and friends. It genuinely seemed as a nice working environment and they did have some very interesting areas I think I´d love to develop my skills in. We´ll see what happens.

It is all very interesting how much time it took getting that first job, after coming back from my travels. Somehow things always got postponed or ran out into nothingness as the business changed or their strategic goals changed. Among other things I went to two interviews and not getting the job, something which has never happened before. That is usually when I do well. In retrospect the first one I was quite rusty and had a feeling I would not get it as I left the interview. The second one I did too well and overqualified myself for the position. It´s interesting how the right balance is important for things in life.

Corporate Culture

2012-06-05T10:46:00.000+02:00

Team building can be done in many ways. Personally I like the idea of creating good bonds between people. Friends tend to not want to let each other down. Then again they might not take things too seriously if the environment is too relaxed and friendly. This should however not really be a problem in a professional environment. I find it interesting to see how team building and social activities are managed at different companies and different sites. Although I think I missed a few at my current position I had the pleasure of attending some. So far they have mostly centered around two things and been performed in two ways.

One is the company “fika ” on Thursdays, a afternoon coffee and tea time where time is taken to eat some pastries and drink a cup of something together. This is an extremely common occurrence in Swedish working life. It´s also an important bonding ritual that cannot be neglected of one want to maintain good relations. Usually people take turn to bring fika or bake something. I´ll try to get back to the nuances of fika another time as it´s much too complicated and stretches into social dynamics way out of this specific context.

The other one are shared activities with some sort of food and drinks involved. These tend to be either management organized with the company paying and planning it or “employee organized” where people chip in and contribute to doing something together. For the second alternative has mainly been “knytisar” of different sorts. A knytis is literally a potluck and can range from very organized to just bring something and let’s see what we get.

Workload

2012-05-20T10:45:00.000+02:00

The workload has been increasing rapidly and I now deal with four major tasks at work. One of these has been the first contact with CPI in a lean environment. Something that has been tricky to say the least. Not having much experience as a tech writer it´s been challenging working with a project that changes direction every week and getting larger and larger by the day. However it´s my project and I´ll be dammed if I can´t make the end result be, acceptable. By that I mean be outstanding from someone with my limited experience. Working towards telecom one might guess what companies I write for in Sweden. The most challenging task aside from getting the right technical information in time has been starting working with the range of the client’s tools and accesses. These two factors can probably take up to 50% of my time on projects. I guess there is just one thing one can do about it. Be a bit of a bitch and get in people’s faces until stuff happens. Usually literally getting into peoples face is the best way. Always arm yourself with a good smile and people skills though. Swedes and I think people in general have a real hard time saying no to people face to face when they think it´s a reasonable request.
I think to manage technical writing fast one needs two things: a good feel for structure and a way with technology or academia. One does not need to understand everything and this is where the shoe needs to fit. I think understanding is superfluous at times as a tech writer. It is great to understand, but it´s not always feasible to understand everything for every project. The important thing is to understand enough. I guess this takes one to the old dilemma of the good enough concept.
My approach is much like one would to back in school. Look at examples, analyze and re-engineer. Trying to divide your way of describing things in modules that has been proved to work will minimize chances of getting things wrong and also your creativeness. Then again how creative is a tech writer supposed to be?
It will be interesting to see how a dyslectic like me will fare throughout this project. So far all feedback has been over expectations. If I can manage my projects and my time here with good or great reviews I think I´ll give myself a pat on the back and determining I can do writing as a profession, with a little help from the spell check function and lots of read troughs ;)

Business Man

2012-05-10T10:19:00.000+02:00

Getting a Job

Getting a job was an interesting process of writing CVs, Cover letters and such. I finally decided to try something I never really thought I´d try. Writing. In my case, technical writing. Having taken one of those courses in technical writing back in school I figured it might be fun using my engineering background to land me a job in writing. I realized it´s a bit of a niched market in Stockholm, at least as a consultant.
In the end I ended up mainly talking to two companies, Semcon and Sigma Kudos, two companies in the same field with slightly different approaches to hiring. Semcon seems to focus more on having some kind of certified education in technical writing as its main method of measuring skill. Sigma Kudos uses a writing test as its main method of measuring skill.

I ended up with Sigma Kudos. Mostly because of chance, I think. The recruitment process went quite swiftly and I was soon on my first assignment as a technical writer.
The first few days I had time to lunge around the office for a bit while going through and online self-training videos and what not. I think this was just about my only real opportunity to admire the view from the 27^th floor. This might not sound that high but in Sweden where the skyscrapers are the dwarfish copies of large city ones the view is great. Turning around I had a 270 degree view of the horizon in the Swedish Silicon Valley (Kista). An interesting note on the name Kista is that it literally means coffin if pronounced, just as it is written. For some reason we don´t do that in this specific instance.
The reason I had a bit of lounge time would turn out to be that the work load was too high for anyone to give me a proper introduction. Something I would get my piece of as well.Somehow I feel like drunkenly singing the business man song in broken English with one of my Japanese friends right now. This is after all a bit of change in my life as a full time traveler.

Budget Dining Japan

2011-12-05T09:35:00.001+01:00

Traveling around Japan is in no means cheap but if you'd run out of cash or if you are low there are a few options of getting away fairly cheap concerning food. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it though. stinging too much on food since it's one of the main cultural experiences one need to explore while journeying into distant cultures and lands. So I've structured it into three different categories.

Cooking

In most cities that are bigger than a village there are your bigger grocery stores. They are in no means as large as the ones in Europe, North America or even other parts of Asia. However one can find a lots of things cheap and especially at the end of the day where a lot of fresh stuff is made available at a discount. Here one can find cheap sushi and other ready made foods like bentos for a couple of hundred yen. If you happen to have a kitchen made available to you picking up some stuff to cook can be a real money saver. Things that are cheap in japan are. Rice, Eggs, Ready made sauces, soups (like miso soup). Things that are a bit more expensive include meat, vegetables and fish.

Markets

Daily markets, fish markets and the likes is an other alternative getting cheap and nice ingredients. It usually requires a bit more out of the way transportation but the rewards are well worth it. At the fish markets one can get prime grade sashimi ready cut for 500yen which will be more than what you get in a restaurant for maybe 4-8 times the price.

Cheap Ready to Eat Food

In various small convenient stores around the country one can find little bentos, onigiris, premade cup noodles and soups. These will be your main stable if you want to live cheap on the go. bentos can go as low at 200yen and the most expensive ones usually reach 450 or so. Cup noodles can be found for 100yen at a lot of places. the 100yen stores sometimes have these. There are also the lawesons or other convenient store 100yen shops which usually carry this at 100yen prices. Here cakes, donuts and similar things can be bought at a discount as well.

Cheap Restaurants

This is maybe a tad more expensive than the convenient store food. It is much more enjoyable though and for only a moderate increase in cost the dining experience increases a lot. The cheap restaurants include gyudon chains, katsu shops, curry chains and ramen. In these restaurants one can eat from 250yen to around 800 yen. What is served is variations on dons. Something over a bowl of rice. Exempting the ramen places ofc. There are usually a range of sides one can order to the main dish as salads, soups, raw eggs and the like. Plain water is always free so one can save another 50-100yen in comparison to the convenient stores here on that. A lot of the chains are also available outside of japan. Usually they are a bit pricier than in Japan and the quality is usually a lot worse. My favorite dishes at these restaurants include.

gyudon (beef bowl)
oyakudon (chicken and egg over rice. in Japanese "mother an child bowl" )
katsucurry (fried meat and curry over rice)
ramen (ramen noodles in it's many chapes)

I usually go with a side of miso or similar soups and a nama tamago (raw egg).

Being a foodie total budget dining was is impossible for me in Japan. After all I partly go there for the food. Trying a few of these places will prove quite fun if you give then a shot though. Besides you always need to eat. =D

Japan Budget Travel

2011-12-03T05:59:00.001+01:00

Japan is not known for being the cheapest of countries. Anyone who's been on the road for a long time knows that the travel expenses quickly adds up an constitutes a major part of ones budget. Having been more or less on the road for a year now my budget was already shoot by the time I hit Japan. Not wanting to waste the ticket to Japan as Finnair won't let you change dates or name on their tickets I decided to go anyway. For some quick cash I sold my old ski gear I bought in San Francisco a few years back (with a profit) and decided to go into credit card debit. Hopefully I'll get a new job soon huh ;)

The absolutely cheapest way to get around in Japan is hitchhiking which is a valid way to travel if you have a more flexible time schedule. For me this was not really an option as I had dates booked where I had to meet old friends. This left me with the three other options buses, trains and planes. There is also the option of renting a car but it's not really economically valid traveling alone for most of the time. From outside Japan there is the Japan air-pass, Japan Rail Pass and the Japan Buss Pass. However The Willer Express Buss Pass can be bought online from outside of Japan. http://willerexpress.com
This is the absolutely chepset way of getting around long distances for cheap. The drawback being you need to access the site from abroad. Already being in Japan I fixed this using a proxy in france to emulate me being out of the country.
I used this french free site to do it. http://www.frozenway.com/
Just use Google translate if you can't read it. It's free and easy to just follow the steps. In fact they don't ask you to verify the travelers name by means of id at the buses and although it says to print out a piece of paper you get in the mail this can be skipped too.
As the days of travel in this buss pass are not required to used consecutively it's a very very good deal. Sadly I did't find out about it until the later part of japan trip.
One thing one can consider are the night buses. If sleeping on a buss doesn't bother you also save a night accommodation here.

Traveling a region of Japan at the time can also give your purse a bit of mercy. For example the Kyushu buss pass is a very valid alternative to single tickets if one tends to travel fast and light. There are however a range of tickets available online at very discounted prices if you can muster navigation the Japanese websites.

Getting to and from the islands can't really be done by buss so I tried both the ferry and by air. By air being the cheaper option to reach Okinawa from the mainland. it's 14000 yen for the cheapest ticket by ferry and less by air. If you buy you flights in advance using the Japan air pass it's a very good deal. Otherwise use Sky mark the new Japanese budget airline for some good deals. The further ahead you book, the better the deals in general with sky mark.

Getting around on the main island of Okinawa will require a lot of local buses or hitchhiking. Here renting a car for the day can be cheaper than the buss option. From Naha to the ocean aquarium in the north and back will easily be much more expensive than renting a small car and drive around yourself.

To Hell and Beyond, Beppu

2011-12-02T16:56:00.001+01:00

Beppu. Am ideal Japanese getaway. Beppu holds more natural hot springs than any other place in Japan. A Japanese natural hotspiring is called an onsen. One should be aware of the difference between an artificially heated bath establishment an sento and the onsen. Why? well for the sake of knowing. In most cases one cant feel or tell any difference between these two. To find a bath house look for the ゆ sign outside the door.

Getting into hot water and relaxing is definitively a favorite of mine so off to Beppu we go. The onsens are numerous and the pylons of white steams can be seen all over the mountainside. Despite being a top tourist destination prices in japan are generally not too unfair and Beppu is no exception. One can easily grab a very nice lunch or dinner without spending too much of ones hard earned coins. Getting around the area is fairly easy and buses is the more economical option. The other option is cabing it which is very feasible if you can share it on a few people.
Taking the buss can have it\s disadvantages though. Like when the buss driver ignores you per default as he cannot understand English. English is ofc the only language any foreigner can speak so auto ignore is on. This resulted in me walking my way to the hells.

Video is in Swedish

The hells are the onsen that are not for bathing in.They are purely for looking at and have their own little story. A interesting thing about these places are that they all have their little demons or devils to take care of them. Being Japan and all they are adorable and super cute.

On the brighter side of things there are plenty of onsens one can take a bath in. In fact most ryoukan or places to stay are likely to have their very own hot spring installation here. It does puzzle me though. When this abundant source of heat and energy is readily available why not harness is for geopower? Specially now with the upheaval at nuclear power in Japan. Well I do guess that could just do something about the terrible insulation most houses have first. That would certainly help to keep the heat in at least. Anyway make sure you Enjoy one of these onsens if you ever go to Beppu.

Sunabe the G.I playground

2011-11-16T08:34:00.001+01:00

I never expected the military presence in Okinawa. Despite the many resons and historical obviousness of it all I had kind of forgotten this part of Japanese life and culture. I guess it's due to my mind obsessing with the usual things; food, diving, food and maybe surfing here.

The Sunnabe area has a sizable chunk of ocean and along it a little gathering of bars. Frequented mostly by Americans military, Japanese and some randoms it's almost like a bar area state side. Specially when close to the ocean front or the sea wall as they call it here. Due to the Japanese fear or caution of tsunamis the prime real estate next to the ocean isn't that expensive and many foreigners have their spots here.

Things to do here. Include dining, surfing, diving and bars.
To dive one just needs to get some gear and head out on a shore dive. Do mind the reef getting out though. The diving itself is pleasant but not too exciting. To do some better diving head further away from this popular beginner dive area. The Japanese like to touch the reef and combined with all the activity the corals aren't in very good condition.
The absolutely cheapest way of getting gear is renting it through the military that way full gear will probably land you on less than 30 bucks. Which is way cheaper than the dive shops around.

For food there are a bunch of options. In all honesty just try what ever place you see and it will most likely be absolutely delicious. Naturally, just like everywhere else in Japan there are a Lawson and a Family Mart in addition the usual range of Isakayas.

Bars, Well here is a list of the ones I've tried.

Next door

bounty
coconuts

Located on the second floor it has a pool table and food can be ordered from

the pizzeria upstairs till 10pm

hard reef

plan c
key largo

The late night bar where everyone gathers when the others bars close.

Open till 05am. It's small so it will seem full when about ten people is there.

oh yeah
oh yeah plus
infinity
back drop

A few things to do in Osaka

2011-11-10T01:42:00.000+01:00

There are so many fun things to do in Japan and Osaka that it's realy hard to choose a few to do. None the less I've decided to write down a few of the things I really like about the place (almost inexchangele with a few things I like to eat here).

Getting a cheap bento or onigiri in the morning.

Even such a simple thing like this quite interesting. Coming from a culture where we don't really have premade lunch boxes this style it's a bit exotic and quite well tasting too. The Onigiri is a riceball or rice pack in any small shape really. Having the strong desire to individually wrap everything and eating fresh food, the onigiri wrapping is quite ingenious

Getting a Japanese Ice Cream

There are many to chose from and maybe one o the most delicious are the mochi ice creams. But don't miss out on the rest of the selection available at all kinds of places like mini marts. A classic for me has always been the "Jumbo"

Engaging in a cool Kaiten Sushi (conveyor belt sushi)

These places are all over Japan and come in all kinds of sizes and price ranges. Well they tend to be on the cheaper end of the scale. I've visited quite a few places during my time in Osaka. The chepest place serving for about 100yen or maybe even 80yen per plate. Remember that one plate holds two pieces of sushi unless it's a special one of some kind. Specials can reach up to almost 1000 yen for a place depending on what you choose. For me kaiten holds more than just the food. It's packed wioth great memories of great times and meeting cool people.

In fact last time I popped in to a place in the middle of Namba I sat next to this old couple. It's the obachans and ojiichans that have the time to engage in conversations with random strangers more often than not and they are always suprised (happily so) when encountering someone knowing more than a few words of Japanese. In fact my meal ended with me being treated to my entiere meal and forced to try some of the more rare and expensive fish since I just had to try em out. One of the fun this that makes this place in the middle of Namba special is the Jan Ken Poi (rock paper scissors) played against one of the bar staff. You play 3 times and if you win all 3 you're rewarded with a good treat of sushi for free. It's also free to play so when they encourage you to stand up and play. Do it!

Go splurge in a Hyaku Yen (100 yen) store

These store can be encountered all over japan and sell the strangest things. Sometimes one can find real finds here. More than not it's filled with Chinese made Japanese copies of things but sometimes there's some really interesting stuff.

That's it for now. There are so much more to do in Osaka but then again. I have to have something to show you in my next Osaka post.

A trip down memory lane, Osaka

2011-11-09T05:51:00.001+01:00

Most of us has good memories and times to adventure to look back on. For many of us collage would be one of those times. For me attending college in Japan was filled win good and sometimes strange memories. It was a great time that I've often looked back upon and enjoyed.
Coming back to Osaka truly hit my with some heavy duty nostalgia. The food, the friends, the places and adventures. なつかしい!

As so happens my good friend Rick joined me on this walk down memory lane as we relived the Osaka spirit. A place we had many a ramen, gyoza and beer was Kai ramen. Located only a block away from or old student dorm with the friendliest ramen master who knew almost no English is was our no1 old hangout. Boasting highly irregular but customer friendly opening hours of until late or last costumer one could always go there for the 4am drink.

Since we left Kai ramen relocated and expanded. It's still not much bigger than a hole in the wall place and both the ramen and gyoza still tastes great. Viseting we all naturally went for the Taiwan ramen. Despite still being full In pretty much took a breath of ramen and exhaled delight. Think I finished my Ramen in not much more than 11 seconds according to Rick.

Prior to Our contingency of Handai (Osaka University) students invading the Kandai uni area and it's much more conveniently located bar streets there whern't any Osaka uni student's going there. Now many years later they still do the pilgrimage to Wood Village and the bar area. Filled with cheap and not so cheap bars it's a natural hang out for the Kandai Students (Kansai Dai Gaku or Kansai University). Sadly Osaka University which is a way higher rated school has nothing of the kind.

The old owner is still around but naturally most of the bar tenders aren't around any more. Grabbing a few classics like violet fizz while also mixing it up with a few new ones like the ハルク (Hulk) it was very remenicent of the old days. I remember the drunken bicycle rides home in the rain. And the funniest crashes some people had. Wierdly enough my 2 crashes in Japan where while very very sober haha.

Oh well. A night of nostalgia ends but next time I go to Osaka I'm meeting up with another OUSSEP buddy Patrik. I'm excited to see what new adventures Osaka has in store for me.

Woody got Wood

2011-11-08T17:12:00.001+01:00

Wanted to try out hitchhiking from Toyo to Osaka but as I really didn't know where to start I ended up looking at a map to figure out what higway I should head for. Needing to be there the next day to meet up with old friends fom the Handai times I opted for a nightbuss. The nightbuss if a budget alternative in Japan and will cost you somewhere from 7-10K yen depending on when you go and what company you go with. I remember sometimes getting 6k yen ticket at the travel agency on Osaka campus 4 years ago. Considering you will save one night of housing which will cost a minuímum of 4k if you stay somewhere else than a capsule hotel or sleep in a manga kafe. The shinkansen (bullet train) that will take you there in a matter of hours will put a dent in your wallet of circa 20k + 1 night of cousing. The uber cheap and super hippe way I guess would be hitchhiking and couch surfing for a price of 0 + 0 yen if you have the resolve to do it. But let me warn you. Communications are an illusion for those of you who rely on wifi. What you really want is a Japanese phone to get in touch with people or someone to led you a 3G modem. A 3G moden to rest from softbak is avialable at 1.5k+ yen a day and is hardly an economical option. Stupid me thinking that I might not need to bring my old japanese phone.

Well in Osaka there is abunch of cool things to do. Like eat for example. Osaka is by many considered the gastronomical capital of Japan and is definetly the center for both Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki. That would be a Japanese style cabbage omelet and the second fried squid in ball shapes. There is a danger here though that most people having eaten takoyaki have experienced. It's hot! Hot, hot hot. Not in spicy terms but in heat. I and almost everyone I know always burn their tough and gums when not having eaten it in a while.

For a flora of options head down to shinsaibashi or namba station and head for dotonburi and the ebisu area. Along the river one can find as many stands as one could wich for. While there don't forget to grab a shot of the very famous glico man as well. Like mentioned before

Japan is a universe of it's own. Machines rule at times and the pervertedness repressed by the asian culture of face has given Japan it's unique qualities. One example are these wending machines selling little dolls. Check out the progress of topic.

But something that we laught at so many times was the fusion of east and west. One could go on and on about it in a range of areas like fashion, culture and economics. But more fun is just showing you this picture.

Chiba the Shadowland of Black Medicne

2011-11-03T12:19:00.002+01:00

In Japan, sleep deprived and exhausted I needed to set things right. Remembering this "In Japan, he'd known with a clenched and absolute certainty, he'd find his cure. In Chiba. Either in a registered clinic or in the shadowland of black medicine. Synonymous with implants, nerve-splicing, and microbionics, Chiba was a magnet for the Sprawl's techno-criminal subcultures..." I set my path towards Chiba.

Though modern day Chiba is strangely riddled with love hotels and morally unprude little shops blasted in in a dense semi suburbia my vice of choice was Lemon CC. Lemon CC is a drink mainly sold in Japan and is basically a vitamin C bombarded lime sofa of sorts. I haven't had one of these for about five years now and sipping on it as Iw alked down the street it really hit me. I'm in Japan again. Japan the land of inverse rules. Where things randomly makes so much sense and at the same time not at all.
Every time I come here I'm alawys plesently suprised by the politness of people and also not so plesently suprised with high prices of transportation.
One of these interesting things is that despite having an incredible internet and mobile internet penetration Wi-fi was easier to find in Africa and in remote parts of Indonesia. I do have to admit that if any country would be the first to be taken over by robots and zombies of zenchnology it would be japan.

In fact I think it's pretty munch self explanatory once one has checked out the rice cooker/transformer/robotic wife..

But back to the fixed of reality and less of the cyberpunk universe of the apocalypse which turned out a bit diferently that expected. But not that differently (Fukushima..)

Hello Food!

I'd like to say hi to along missed friend of mine called ramen setto! for a mere 680 yen dug on three plates of food or rather two bowls and a platter. This being a bowl of Ramen, a bowl of rice and a platter of gyoza. Although my home town of Stockholm boast with a godzilllion sushi restaurants it's desperately lacking on the other Japanese departments. So Yay for food.

For balance I'd like to share my experience with a Calpis Kiwi cocktail that was surprisingly good. Not being a big fan of calpis which in Swedish sounds way to similar to veal piss I was not expecting anything remarkable. At lest not in the good direction. I was happily surprised. The kiwi made all the difference and the coctail was remarkably fresh although not much of the white rum was coming out in the drink.