Since I am brought up here I noticed I’ve also got some swedish drinking habits and it can actually be a little embarrassing sometimes. On a trip to New York a few years ago I went to a bar with 2 friends, both American (maybe I should mention that they both were a few years older and more well-travelled than me). Me and one of them ordered whiskey. We sat down chatting for a long time and I remember thinking that he drank so slowly, he never drank up and it made me feel that it wouldn’t be very nice to drink up and order more drinks as long as he had something left. But when we were about to leave I automatically took a big sip and finished my glas, because in Sweden you harldy ever leave something in the glas, it’s seen as such a waste since alcohol is very expensive. Well, he left his glas half full and both of them looked at me in a funny way and asked me if I wouldn’t get drunk when drinking so fast? It made me feel a little embarrassed, and a little unsofisticated perhaps, not appreciating good whiskey in the way you should..

Damn being a barbarian!

I guess it is in the human nature to be curious and compare ourselves with others (gosh, I remember the dressing rooms in high school), so of course it’s quite nice to hear that Paris Hilton also have cellulites, or that Jude Law had a zit last week. It sure makes the paper faces more human and easier to relate to. And if your perfect role model makes mistakes, the conclusion follows that it must be OK for you to make mistakes also. Nice.

It seems that the interest for internet junk is vast and the updating of webpages with the latest gossip never ends. Internet is of course the perfect tool for people to get a glimpse of the celebrity world that so many wants to live in but so few are admitted into. And even better, on Internet you can not only read the latest news about your idols, but also interact with them! A few naive years ago I was “friend-requesting” Bob Dylan on myspace, and it felt amazing when he accepted. It never occured to me that someone might be managing his page for him, or that he has thousands of friend requests and accepts them all. From what I chose to believe, Bob took the time to click “yes” on my request and who knows -maybe he even checked out my profile! The wonderful thing about Internet is that hopeful optimists and dreamers can choose what they want to believe… the dream goes ever on.

Used condoms winding up in people’s hair

USED condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China and selling well in local markets and beauty salons. But they could spread the sexually transmittable diseases the condoms were originally meant to prevent, state media said today.
Rubber hair bands had been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said: “These cheap and colourful rubber bands and hair ties sell well … threatening the health of local people,”. It also said that despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses.
“People could be infected with AIDS, warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while weaving their hair into plaits or buns”, the paper quoted a local dermatologist.
In the paper one could also read that a bag of ten of the recycled bands sold much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity. China’s manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both domestic and foreign markets.

But my concern is how accurate we in fact present ourselfs in these types of situations? Having all the possibilities to be what we imagine the dream person to be like, don’t many users take this chance? Even if it isn’t much, my theory is that most people “improve” themselves slightly at least. And there is nothing wrong with trying to look and act your best to a possible, future partner, it is very natural. But what happens when/if you in fact meet the object of your many passionate hours by the computor in real life? It seems so easy to apply your idea of a perfect partner to someone you’ve never met but still have an intimate relation to, and the other way around to adjust yourself slightly to fit the person you are interested in. Don’t we tend to romantizise the idea of the person we are getting in touch with on these communities?

On the contrary there are so endless posibilities when it comes to the internet, and one great thing aboout cyber dating I think, is that it is easier for people with more unusual or non-accepted needs or fantasies to meet suitable partners. I believe internet is an (almost) non-limited way of exploring and having interesting meetings with people from all over the world but as with everything, it can be abused.

This is an excerpt from Gerhard Blüm’s book Love/Crazy

Gay Romeo by Bernd Skupin:

It’s 2 AM in the morning and I can’t sleep. I just watched “Lost in translation” and feel like travelling to Tokyo as soon as possible. I like the mood in that film, the setting, the characters, good acting and of course the music; Pretenders, sex pistols, sebastian tellier, bryan ferry, elvis costello.. It got me thinking that most films I like also has, in my opinion, great music in them. Maybe taste in music and taste in movies often goes hand-in-hand? I wonder if it would be possible to tell if I would like a film by merely looking at the music.. will definately try that next time.