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    My Star Wars: The Old Republic posts.

Never trust a free backpack!

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Worst backpack EVER. Never trust a free backpack.

Worst backpack EVER. Never trust a free backpack.

Today my laptop wanted to see how skydiving, without a parachute felt like. I was going to get off the bus and it decided to take one small step for computers and a great giant leap for laptop-kind. Crappy pun warning; it’s a leaptop! It took a lap of faith! Oh… On top of it all, I lost my Travel Adapter / Converter as well (the most expensive of the bunch), so now we’re down to one way of charging all of our freedom loving electrical devices made in China.

We took care of some business today, involving getting my wife to pay for my hosting, because this o’l blog does not create any return on investment just yet, it’s strange how much $5.99 costs when you don’t have $5.99 to your name. But here’s to brighter futures!

So, I’m back and mooching off the free wi-fi at Norrtälje Stadsbibliotek. The future is now people, Internet in the air! I even found out that you can get free water from the café that’s next door, now I’m never going to be leaving!

Nothing new on the work front as of yet but I’m hoping that something will happen soon, my cell phone is today also reduced to nothing and singing the pay-as-you-go blues–I think it misses AT&T and America’s expensive (and totally unfair) mobile plans.

So, how do I like to be back in communist Sweden? It’s nice, the novelty wore off pretty quick due to a few hardships but at least the spring (even though it feels like summer) is here now to cheer you up. The nickels and dimes left from our move here was used to buy bed linens, twice! Who knew linens and things cost so much in this country? Anyhow, we are in good health sort of, and we have received socialized universal healthcare and it was good to say the least.

Swedish Men's Hockey Team Gold

The Swedish Men’s Hockey Team won gold after beating Switzerland in the World Hockey Championship 2013.

Wanted to get a line from my wife into this post and I asked if she likes it here she said: ‘Yeah, it’s a beautiful place’.
Makes me happy, believing I made the right choice. That and Sweden won gold in the World Hockey Championship yesterday, beating Switzerland, Canada and the US :) Didn’t know we had it in us, congratulations are in order!

Hope I can spend time with some of my old friends soon, the wife and I are walking around saying as soon as we get some money, let’s eat this, let’s cook that, let’s go there… Soon baby, soon.

Back in Sweden

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Hello everyone,

Well, I made it back to Sweden in the beginning of March. I’m re-established with my family and it has been an interesting journey, to say the least.

Old Town Stockholm, or Gamla Stan as the locals call it.

Old Town Stockholm, or Gamla Stan as the locals call it.

I’m now in a country house outside of Stockholm, with no phone line connectivity, so: no cable, no DSL, no nothing. Only thing to keep my comfort at the moment is my Spotify Premium subscription with my favorite songs on it.

I survived the chilling end of the Swedish winter in a house heated by real fireplace fire. Co-zee!

Today I found my favorite little people watching spot here in Norrtälje, inside the library, which co-incidentally has wi-fi! I don’t know what’s better, people watching or wi-fi, wi-fi, definitely wi-fi, especially when you’re being suffocated and your lack of information flow into your head slows down. It’s nice to be ‘unplugged’ for about a month, after that, I notice that I’m becoming just as lazy as I was when I was online.

I watch TV a bit more, which is like… 3 hours perhaps a day. I didn’t use to watch TV in California. TV hasn’t gotten anymore interesting, but it’s a source of information, kind of.

Downloading some Spotify tracks for offline usage while I’m posting on my blog, mooching on free wi-fi. Wish I had a coffee, srsly.

Can’t seem to get over the loss of my friend, find myself sniffling a lot more than I used to in California. Thought it would help to say good-bye to him but it’s proving to be a lot more difficult to deal with the loss. Haven’t met anyone of my old friends yet, hope to soon though…

Oh well, such is life here in Sweden.

How are you?

Back to Feeling Normal

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Just a quick update; after last week’s flu shot, I’m back to normal! Never had a fever, never had a problem. Just felt like a three to four day long looming influenza that never hit.

Time to own some noobs with the gnomies.

*launch WoW*

I have achy…

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So a normal thing after you have your flu shot, is that you feel… Like you’ve caught 10% of a flu. Fatigued, achy, drowsy… Just not feeling 100%, more like 90%! Found out that I’m more of an introvert than an extrovert. Like, on the scale of 1-100, I’d be… 80 introvert?

Useful video explaining introverts and extroverts:

I remember when people told you to shut up and sit down, I don’t miss that age.

Anyways! I’m in the mood for some chicken soup because of the slight flu symptoms, not really. That explains the way I’m physically feeling now, like “Ugh I’m sick” and then the next moment “No I’m fine!”. My throat feels like it should be hurting, but it’s not… et cetera.

Bottom line is, these symptoms will only last for 1-2 days, and it’s way better than a full-blown flu!

Flu Shot Day!

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Today was flu shot day, or what I like to call it; “I HATE NEEDLES DAY >.<” …

Anyways, I did my duty of immunizing myself from the nasty flu that’s spreading all across America. When we called a couple of weeks ago they were all out of flu shots, like, -everywhere-. Last place we called was Rite-Aid, and that was the only pharmacy that allowed us to actually put our names on a list and reserve a flu shot.

Flu season is comingThis is my second time getting inoculated with this vaccine, and it works great I haven’t had a flu since the first vaccination. Hopefully, they have something like this in Sweden too. It’s way better to get a 5 second pinch in your arm instead of weeks of misery and feeling like you’re going to die.

Everything in America has been more extreme on my Swedish self, the thunderstorms in the US are like Armageddon itself if you compare it to Sweden’s fart of thunders. Don’t even get me started on the influenza they have here! I was one of the unfortunate once to catch H1N1 back in ’09 … I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!

Anyways, Immunized, good, everyone should do it, unless you’re allergic to shots, in that case please don’t do it cause you might have trouble not getting allergic AND getting the flu-that would totally suck. And that would totally not be good, so don’t get it if you’re not supposed to.

I Lost a Friend

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I lost a friend exactly one year ago, a best friend. One of those friends you miss very much when you’re away from them more than a couple of days… Not a single day or sleepless night has gone by without him being in my thoughts and prayers.

Måns Forssblad1988 - 2011

Måns Forssblad
1988 – 2011

I hope I’ll get to paradise, just so all these worries, troubles and toils of the world can disappear, and I can be with you again. I love you like a brother, you’re in my thoughts always.

Today I Learned: Swedes can Cosplay too

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So I found this in my Facebook feed, Spite–one of my friends–attended this Cosplay (click to open up a Wikipedia article on the subject) show (sorry I’ve never been to one, don’t really know the terminology) called ConFusion in Gothenburg, Sweden. There’s a few characters I think I recognize but most of them seem to be tied to anime/manga which I’m not entirely familiar with as much as these guys. There’s some elaborate costumes, all crafted, worn and proudly displayed by the fans themselves:

Swedish Geek Looking for Work

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So, I’m looking for work, any type of work really. If you need someone to write stuff in Swedish, I can do that, or other things. I also make awesome meatballs, a mean cup of coffee and I love crafting sushi, except sushi is not very Swedish, neither is coffee, coffee is pretty international by now. I like video games, social media, coffee, computers, hardware… the usual. I don’t mind working as part of a team. I’ve never sold anything in my life but my brother is awesome at it, I don’t know if that sort of stuff is inheritable or not? I know how to run a WordPress blog/CMS (duh). I know how to make people get to your site (I got you here didn’t I?)

I like most things on TV/Movies that have the word “Star” in it followed by another word, like Star Trek, Star Wars. I instantaneously become less interested if it’s something to do with stars, like Dancing with the Stars–Was I the only person who thought that it would seriously be people, dancing with stars?

Men shaking hands, one of them scores a business card

Blogging 101: images liven up blog posts.

I’ve worked in different sectors, from service to tech. Food service/industry wasn’t that bad, if you like a clown to poke you with a stick in your eye. I like working on, in and around computers. I’ve been around one for roughly 18 years, not longer than 2 days in between at any given time.

School was interesting, I wouldn’t say I’m a genius or anything, but I’m a real nice guy to work with according to my old colleagues, I’m easy to get along with, I don’t smell–unpleasant, I’m drug free. I’ve got a flawless driving record, not even a single instance of the o’l fender bender.

Oh and I’m in SoCal if anyone’s seriously looking to hire me. Send me an email or something and I’ll send you my résumé. Totally serious.

I do not care for EA or SWTOR’s Free to Play business model

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SWTOR Reactivate

SWTOR Reactivate

I played a ton of Star Wars the Old Republic, as some of you know. Basically, I’ve paid to play for several months before leaving the game around the summer of 2012. Star Wars the Old Republic is now offering people like me, who paid to play before the game went completely free, to come back and play and receive their new “Cartel Coins”.

What are Cartel Coins?

Cartel Coins are virtual money used to buy “questing content” (i.e. the basic activity you do in an MMO) or “fluff” such as outfits, armor, weapons… you name it. So, you pay them money, in a free game, they give you coins, to buy things in the game, kind of like all these smurf apps and farm apps for iPad or iPhone, Facebook… that sorta stuff. Don’t really care for it, that’s what the post is about …

So, I decide “hey I’d like to check that out, after all it’s nice of them to offer me some of their new fancy coins, I might be able to find something interesting to buy. How cool of them to let me try this just because I used to be a paying subscriber!”. That’s just what I’ve come to taken as standard practice, because there are so many companies that reward you for coming back or, staying loyal!

I thought that since I played (and paid) for months of game time, I would’ve accumulated a large amount of these “cartel coins”. Well I was right, there was a good-sized amount, but also a caveat; I have to pay for my subscription, to get access to those coins I’ve accumulated. “Okay, that’s fair” I think to myself. WHAM, yet another caveat: You have until December 20th to pay for your account or your coins go away!

Okay – It’s over SWTOR, you’d have to pay me to play now.

Long story short (to get the full effect of my rant, you have to listen to this and read along - will open in a new window on a desktop, probably not on your tablet, or smart phone):

  • Star Wars the Old Republic is in development, I am following its every news release, hoping to one day get in the beta.
  • Pre-Ordered Star Wars the Old Republic
  • Star Wars the Old Republic is in public beta, I’m loving it! Eating it with a spoon! So different! OMG I got into the beta!
  • Star Wars the Old Republic gets released, launch is smooth and hassle free! This is the best MMO EVER!
  • The server populations are dying off, whatever I play huttball for 4 months! It’s because the game is in its early stages, more will come! They always come! …right?
  • Somewhere around here, Stephen Reid (aka Rockjaw) gets laid off, everyone’s favorite Brit and community manager is suddenly without a job?
  • The server merges are abound, the transferees merging onto my server received rewards because their names might have been taken on the new server, that’s fair, plus there are more people on my tiny (formerly huge) server! Win-win!
  • Star Wars the Old Republic “Super Servers” announced, because the regular server merges weren’t enough because too many people are leaving to quickly so… Free to play announced!
  • I leave Star Wars the Old Republic.

Mists of Pandaria is launching?

Pandas drinking water

LOL Pandas

Free trial you say? Sure Blizzard, we’ve had some fun moments in the past. What’s a scroll of resurrection anyways?

I posted on /r/wowscrolls that I was interested in receiving a scroll and or transferring server’s upon my return. I instantly received a free boost to level 85 on any character and 7 days of free game time and had a blast as always, decided to stay.

Why is it that Star Wars MMOs always start great but end in a fiery wreckage? Maybe Disney could make a good MMO! (Hah!)

Back to World of Warcraft and Mists of Pandaria

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A Red or Crimson Cloud Serpent in Mists of Pandaria

Well, after four years of absence from my past MMO addiction, with the release of Mists of Pandaria, I decided to pick up World of Warcraft again. I’ve played WoW again for a while now and uh… I love it.

Mists of Pandaria Background

When I first heard that Blizzard was making a game solely about Kung-Fu pandas and Pokémon battles, I laughed and continued playing Star Wars the Old Republic. I was one of the “Oh you hate SWTOR? Why don’t you play with your pandas and Pokémon then? LOL” people. I have to admit I am feeling really stupid right now.

Mists of Pandaria (MoP) is an expansion to the (in a couple of weeks) eight year old game, World of Warcraft. MoP makes the eight year old game seem lush, beautiful and updated. I loved Burning Crusade when it was released a long time ago, and this expansion is in style with that expansion pack. It’s loaded with fun quests, and the new species Pandaren are really fun to play.

I really thought the game would be more childish, but the only difference from previous expansions are the cute and cozy factor has gone up, while the dreadful villain must die factor has gone down. It’s a nice change of pace to me, it suits my personality more than any other game at the moment.

I missed World of Warcraft Cataclysm almost completely (I was in the alpha but didn’t play the final version), so starting WoW again with two unexplored expansions makes the game feel twice as big. The cross-server LFG tool is great (if you don’t mind the bullies…), the instances are more interactive. The quests are more different, WoW still has a few get me x amounts of these and return quests, but I feel like they are trying to strive away from those types of quests and trying to make them feel unique in their own way.

If you haven’t tried it, and have thought about trying Mists of Pandaria, my recommendation is to try it. WoW has changed a lot over the last 4 years I’ve been gone. By the way, you don’t need MoP to play the Pandaren species!

A Red or Crimson Cloud Serpent in Mists of Pandaria

Milix is back!

Oh and in other news I saw that video about The Old Republic’s “Cartel Market Place” or whatever. SWTOR, I am disappoint.

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