Category: Uncategorized

Awesome stuff is on the way….

 

I bought these at the Adis Gladis A+:), a mecca 🕋 for sustainable, vegan shopping.

Chose to visit the offline store and was exalted! Friendly shop staff, explaines all the pros and cons of the products I was interested in and assisted me in making a great choice.

I wanted something to last and invested in the top-of-the-line solar panel. Thus I avoided the trap of buying one product and later having to add another just because I was to cheap to invest in what I really need directly.

Let’s look at each of the four investments individually! 🕵

This is a really heavy thermos, but I like carrying extra weight! 💪

With it I can bring hot prepared food or beverage to warm me or a friend up in the cold winter which is coming!

In these beauties I can bring a variety of raw or cooked food ingredients! Prepare any meal in any place!

The fact that they can be placed inside each other like Russian matrushka dolls when empty is magic! Saving space for other treasures in a bag.

I bought these because of their timeless design! I am not sure about the rubber rings, time will tell!

The solar panel is so I can continue to bring you blog posts and other blabberings from anywhere I go!! 👍

It can be hung onto my backpack and even hug a tree! I used the cord from my pyjamas pants like a true McGyver 👏

That’s it for now! Stay tuned!

Today I wanted a vegan yoghurt for breakfast, but had only soy milk. However, I did have soy milk! So why not experiment!

Let’s start with some pictures from the mess I made

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I heated the milk in a pot to thicken it a bit. I began on medium heat and then lowered to 20% when I saw that skin was forming! No skin please, the fat needs to stay uncoagulated!

I craved some fingerfood as well, and pulled out four 🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮 Finnish flags? No, super savoury sourdough crackers! Some crunchy peanuts spread, four banana slices on each and four nuts; walnut, cashew, almond and hazelnut!!! What a fortuitous formation for a family feast free of faunic fatalities! 🐒 Fabulous! Translating the alliteration: I am glad to present you such a unforseen yet perfectly servable (both my parents ate a cracker) cruelty-free vegan meal! ❤🐮🐷🐔🙏 #govegan #7dayveganchallenge #compassion #endspeciesism

What more could I do to get a good consistency for the yoghurt replacement? I rummaged through my parents freezer and found a plethora of frozen berries which I all threw in a mixer; lingonberries, blueberries, pomegranate cores and blackcurrant!

I whipped up the soy milk in a separate more narrow container. It was A LOT, and sprayed all over the kitchen when I tried whipping in the pot.

But by mixing the berry sludge with the whipped dehydrated soy milk, I got a yummy replacement for yoghurt! In fact, it was not as thick and perhaps good for losing weight.

I topped with sliced kiwi and grapes and the banana piece I had left from preparing the crunchy nutty finger foods.

Finally, there was still soy milk foam left, I served it in a high glass with blueberry juice!! Vitamins

I served everything on a tray, and went out on the porch to get a more beautiful shot:

Tadaa! Some close ups

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The photos of the drink were grainy, and I had to take one later indoors with my mobile phone, since my camera had run out of battery

Some of the foam was later used to turn my mothers black coffee into a cappuccino ☕

I prepared chick pea soup for lunch today. Soup is great for warming up an inactive body as mine has been lately. It is getting pretty chilly here in Sweden!! 🌬☁

I cooked a whole container, first letting the peas rest in cold water for 8 hours to soften.

Cooking a larger batch is more energy and time efficient. The soup will be a welcome complement to any meal the coming days!

I added vegetable stock, olive oil, various salts, dried spices such as cumin, chervil and nutmeg.

The red color is from powdered organically grown red beets, rich in minerals (potassium, iodine, calcium and manganese) and vitamins (C B2, B3, B6).

I mostly spend my time in the cellar working on this website lately. I have a bed and a small office set up, and gradually I am getting the infrastructure to brave the outdoors:

1)

My old bike which was unusable is now in shape to bring me around shorter distances. I just want to clean it a bit better and replace the batteries in the rear lamp before I roll out again!!

2)

My mother divinely ordered sewing kit helped me make a pair of wind resistant pants my father gave me fit my slimmer waist!

I folded the pants in two symmetrically aligned places in the back, placed a needle pin in each fold to hold the textile firmly in place and made two straight seams with the sewing machine. Perhaps it took me 15-20 minutes. Most of the time was probably spent searching for a black thread to replace the white one with.

Sorry for getting so sidetracked.. Back to the food!!! 🙊😇🙃🙇

I served the soup with couscous, sliced raw zucchini, red bell pepper and mushrooms.

I used the same vegetables on organic dark whole grain bread with sunflower seeds, except I made a yummy spread to top it with from

• a banana 🍌
• cashew nuts
• olive oil
• frozen raspberries
• blueberries
• salted peanuts

My father tried it and approved! Phew! 😪😝

I reused the green tea leaves from the early morning breakfast by refilling the empty tea pot with a glass of water heated in the microwave.

Have a marvelous day, and don’t be afraid to leave a comment and share this post with your friends and family! 😘

After a few nights of coding I was smelly and without any clean underwear!

Confidential sewing machine XD

I borrowed my mothers magical sewing machine, it has a retro look but runs smooth like a spaceship from a slick Sci-Fi movie.

Underwear with hole in crotch

I started sewing without using any assisting needles to hold the cloth together, confident enough in my abilities! Just folding along the seam.

Only halfway there to a repaired underwear

I somehow underestimated the length of the hole and got just half of it on the first go.

Good enough to go without balls through the holes

After a second try I considered the result sufficient.

I proceeded to wash both the underwear and my sweaty shirt in the bathroom sink, using just handsoap and lukewarm water.

The trusty Good Times shirt dyes the washing water purple, gradually changing its appearance.

Now I had my clothes washed but my body was still smelly! Time for a relaxing warm shower!

After the shower selected the best photos from the first photo walk around Frösundagården. I will add them to the photography section of this webpage.

You might have noticed that the website has a much shorter URL now!!!

The option to choose a custom domain name came with the recent upgrade! To make the site name easier to remember and share I chose the initials of my birth name Björn Kenneth Holmström, followed by .me.

I think this is such a natural and coherent choice, I would even recommend it to others!

Night

I spent almost all the night working on various ideas. I also browsed the web to plan for my future.

Programming for the future!

To start with I for creating a program which takes genealogy data and creates a visualization of human relationships. I would like the program to be capable of reading data for the entire population on earth, and also stay compatible with the currently projected cap, which is estimated to be around 11.2 billions. I calculated the necessary bits for a unique ID for each individual to be 34. But for convenience, I think it can be extended to 40 by ‘zero-padding’ so that the ID can be converted to 5 bytes which is easier to convert to something readable.

For now the project has the name HuGe Vision (Humane Genealogy Visualization). I think Java would be the best programming language to use, and I would love to get some practice with programming graphics.

I will also need to write a basic and general program for the data tree. The working name for this it is SuSTrA: Supersmall and simple search tree application. The abbreviation is partly inspired by the Buddhist texts called sutras and the spanish word for a short scare followed by relief, ‘un susto’.

I discussed the idea with my father later, it looks very promising!

Website and games

I upgraded this site! Having fun trying the new features. To start with, the Minecraft game worlds are now downloadable both directly and from the site and from the previous mirror host! And the ads are gone, making everything look sparkly clean!!

I also wrote to Mojang, the company selling Minecraft to ask for their opinion on charging small sums for my world downloads. It should fall under fair use for original creations! It would be cool if they want to check out the worlds!!

Bicycles!

I looked at motorcycle gear … here is what I plan to get

• Gloves
• PETA-approved suits and boots
• High-tech helmet!
• Awesome italian bike!

I read about requirements for licenses in Sweden and found this instructor nearby! Taking the license A for heavy motorcycles directly makes most sense to me. The theory is similar to the license B, and if you have permission to drive heavy bikes you can drive the light and medium ones as well.

Now I just need to get enough money $D

Until then, I am fixing my muscle-powered bicycle and getting used to life on two wheels again!

Morning

After sleeping a few hours in the early morning, I did the same yoga program as in yesterday’s post. I am feeling the improval!

My breakfast is smaller than previous days since I planned to only stay at the office and catch up with the website and blog today. It is basically the same as previous days. I am drinking green tea. I added some biscuits which has palm oil… I don’t think I want to each more of those, but I emptied the packet and will use the plastic bag to keep in my rucksack and pick fruits, berries and mushrooms in.

My mother just came home from morning errands and suggested shopping some clothes at a nearby shop which is having sales. Perhaps if I am lucky I can find something made of linen or hemp to have some warmer clothes now when winter is coming. It could be worth checking out, and I would also get some fresh air!

There are also some interesting shops in Södermalm I would like to visit another day. And the option to design and sew my own clothes directly from some high-quality cloth! That would be really cool!

I am curious about the state of my old bike which has been here since a few years. It is a bit damaged, but it should be repairable. I hope to add a photo of it later.

Afternoon

Practised portrait photography with my amazing artist mother!

From around 20 photographs, we settled for this as the most honest and natural portrayal, taken when both of us felt most relaxed and comfortable!

I applied some automatic filters of colors, light and contrast

Followed by healing some spots on her skin.

Finally I applied sharpening, blur and healing of some wrinkles and sent her the first version. I offered to work on ordering her hair as well. In fact, I want to do it anyway, to try out the image editing software on the laptop I have borrowed from the company my father is the creator of.

I also want to brushed up the photo of him I took a few days ago outdoors, I think he looks so badass!!

Yesterday I read a bit in Ashtanga Yoga by David Swenson and found some useful things to add to my practice. To start with, one can use a dedicated cloth on the typical rubber yoga mats. It will keep the practice more hygienic since the cloth is simple to wash. I used my bed sheet which is 100% cotton, but want to find a dedicated cloth eventually, preferably some locally produced linen or hemp that is not too rough.

Then I also tried adding a jump in every other sun salutations, together with staying in downward dog for 6 breaths instead of one. It was fun to break up the usual routine a bit!

the note from today’s yoga routine in swedish

I added to my previous program!

Eye and head rolls, Spinal twist, Headstand, Triangle, Eagle, Sitting warrior and a long Corpse pose to end with.

As I am typing this I notice I forgot the leg stretches!! Bummer!!! I will add it to the program directly after the sun salutations

I noticed how curative the headstand is for any intestinal problems, it really activates awareness of that area!! Highly recommended!

Then I prepared today’s brunch

Fibrous bread, peanut butter, raw vegetable, fruits and a fresh smoothie.

I struggled to find a dark vegan chocolate at the closest supermarket yesterday and had to settle with a note sugary and fatty one… I added one white and one brown to the yoghurt which was featured in this blog post

The last major thing of the day was a photo walk north of where I live. Enjoy these colorful pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two days ago I took a walk with my father in autumn colored Vallentuna.

The weather was chilly and cloudy weather and the air clean and refreshing!

First we got an errand dealt with; inscribing me in the Swedish social security, which has its office next to the town square

Then we visited the local church which origins all the way back from the conversion of the Vikings to Christianity.

Some runes are inscribed on the corner of the church!

I would love if anyone with runic knowledge could translate it for us!

We entered the local cultural center which is in an awesome modern glass building! We had an enriching tour through an exposition featuring local artists, finding interesting commonalities between the art of computer coding and the art of weaving. We also particularly enjoyed a photograph which had captured light reflecting on a frozen lake in a manner so that the flat surface seemed to take on three dimension ality.

Finally I really enjoyed this other church which has an architecture reminding me of modern A-frame houses, a style which I like a lot, since the inside can be left completely open leading to a nice bright and open atmosphere.

Today I plan the first of several walks near 3 churches to the north, I hope to give you some nice photos while experimenting with the two camera objectives I have used the least; the telescopic and the wide angled one.

I borrowed a bundle of art supplies from my mother.

At first I messed around on this old sketch of hers to familiarize myself with acrylic pencils which I have never used before.

I filled in some flower petals, leaves and played a bit with the water and contours of the glass. Then I felt I should work on something new..

… and began this drawing using graphite, tinted charcoal, crayons and acrylic pens. I worked less than an hour on it, but I it will need four more hours to be complete.

A good yoga session;

 

Sun salutations to get the body warmed up

Deep belly breathing for the inner organs

Cobra to improve upper back posture.

Hip opener since I struggle with a tingly sensation in my thighs

Candle both for digestion and to relax the back muscles

Straight and tucked leg raise laying on my back.

Then I prepared the following amazing breakfast from my parents well stocked cupboards and fridge:

• Green tea
• Soy yoghurt with blueberry juice, Mom’s müsli and yellow kiwi
• Fruity bread with sliced zucchini, plum tomatoes and thyme
• Seedy cracker with peanut butter, cashew nuts and thyme
• “Archipelago bread” with peanut butter, kiwi and walnuts

Couldn’t wait to start eating as I was typing the post!! ;P

After taking my parents advice to return into the Swedish social security system, we took an energizing walk around the beautiful mix of residences and wilderness in Vallentuna.

Here we are at runestones telling the history of ancestors in the age of the Vikings, a millennia ago.

Full pictures of the stones to learn how to read and write runes from!

My father tracked our walk in detail with an app on his phone. We were out for over an hour in the refreshing autumn air and covered over five kilometers of varied terrain; streets, pavements, gravel and forest tracks.

We also stopped and sat by the lake, I will show you more of it in a future post!

My father told me the local authority decided it has too much fish for people to swim in it and are hiring people to fish from it. That sounds ridiculous to me. As a lover of nature and vegan, I say, why not just swim with the fishes?

Now I will help carrying up and sorting out the groceries my mother bought.

#economy #recovery #nature #runes #history #family #relationsships #socialcritique