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Last night, at around 9pm, Nero called me to look off our balcony, where we could see a massive volume of smoke pouring out of what looked like central Eslöv. Actually, towards the bottom of the smoke, in one direction, we could also see a really bright orange glow. Then and there, I said to her, "do you want to go jump in the car and see what is up?" So we quickly got our shoes on and headed down towards town, where firetruck after firetruck were screaming down the street. The police also started to block off portions of the area, and lots of other people (like us) were just getting in the way. So we decided to head to a different part of town where there weren't police or firetrucks - I'm not the biggest fan of being one of those people who just gets in the way of public servants trying to do something effectively without all of us impeding them. >_<
So we did find a couple of areas of town where you could see some flames and where you weren't in the way. Lots of other people had also been driving and walking out to some of these "hot spots" to get a look of the actions.
Sadly, the building that was hit was adjacent to a pet store - the owner came out quickly and had to evacuate all the animals. According to the reports today, the pet store did end up burning to the ground as well. 
While we were out checking out the fire, there were many other people around doing the same thing; I overheard one person, and Nero says she overheard three people who said something to the effect of "this again".
You see, we have a small little town here of somewhere around 16 thousand people. It's basically a no-where's-ville for Sweden, and actually is often referred to as the most boring town in all of Sweden. So not much happens here, but we have the whole country's fair share of arsons. We seem to have a few arsons every single year I've been here. Since I've been here, there have probable been 10+ arsons that I can recall.
At this point, this fire hasn't been confirmed as arson yet, but the unofficial word in the press is that arson is at least assumed at this point. It sure won't surprise me if they officially state it is (again) though.
Like I said, we get them all the time - 2 months ago some gym was burned down (arson), about a year ago some small hamburger restaurant was burned down and the owners completely lost their business (arson). About 2 years ago, several of the buildings at one of the schools were toasted (arson). When I first moved here we had this large gazebo area outside by the lake that was also burnt down (arson). These are just some of them I remember off the top of my head - we've actually had several others throughout the years.
No one has been caught and no blame is ever fairly resolved.
[rant]
This leads me to my frustration. A year or two ago I was under the impression that Eslöv just had some young pyromaniac. But some of this doesn't make total sense to me. First of all, there seems to be more arson activity during the summer months (out of school), and the fact that arsons are still occurring more than 7-8 years after I first witnessed one here leads me to believe it probably isn't the same person every time. Unless they have a hard-core pyromaniac disorder, it's likely younger people with an interest in fire and playing around, causing trouble and all that jazz - but if that is the case, it would imply to me that the ones who did this many years ago have since grown up and other folks may be doing the more recent ones.
And this is where I get more frustrated and angry at the same time: Eslöv - our meager little town of only 16,000 people has more undercover drug cops than Malmo (Sweden's third largest city - with a population of 290,000 people - just 30 minutes away from Eslöv).
Something in that equation doesn't make sense! We have more police in this little sticks-ville trying to bust peaceful people like me smoking up herbs and eating funcky fungus, than Sweden's third largest f*cking city.
Our police are so f*cking busy enforcing codes of living onto everyone and telling us non-violent people what the f*ck to do with our lives, that they have no f*cking time to stop these murders, rapes, and arsons. We have so many unsolved crimes on the books, and the swine just sit in their offices going over how they can keep us all in line, and occasionally go out on undercover patrols to nab all of us "bad drug people" - while real (and major crime) like this goes unsolved, unaddressed. Not to mention, people like me pay for the damage in our taxes, we pay for the public servants to address it, and we pay for people to lock us up for harming no one.
Even more angering is that I suspect a root cause of a lot of this being kids in this town just not having $h!t to do. I know it, because I was there when I moved here. I may not have even started smoking hash, had there been something worth while in this town to occupy my time with. We have no f*cking (real) shopping malls, no gaming centers, no (real) festivals, and basically a whole lot of nothing for young people to do. Yet at the same time, we have one of the largest senior populations in all of Sweden, we pour tax money into BUILDING PLAYGROUNDS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS, and don't give two shits about our troubled/misguided/bored/hungering youth.
So in my opinion, we not only are setting excellent conditions for stuff like this to breathe, but we are fueling the fires by wasting law enforcement on petty victimless crime.
[/rant]
(the last pic was just taken minutes ago - like 18 hours after it happened - though the pet shop is still partially in tact, the building that the fire started at was completely burned to the ground)
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For nearly a decade now, I have accepted (with pride) any labels such as "anarchist" or "libertarian" - just about anything that would dissociate myself from the mainstream left, the mainstream right, the mainstream socialists and the mainstream capitalists.
Most people will tell you, "every young rebel has a 'phase' they go through in which they reject authority". However, I think it's safe to say that, as my feelings, passion and heart have not changed in 10 whole years, and as I am now approaching 30 - this is more than a "phase". If anything, my passion for libertarianism only burns brighter and stronger as I age.
Now while some people may insist that with the state of our world today, it's more difficult than ever to be a truly devote libertarian, but I beg to differ. Because of the state of our world today (ethnic, political and religious turmoil), because of the contrasting differences between the left and the right (black and white politics), and because of the know-it-all-ism and political-correctness that saturates the minds of virtually every "open-mind" out there - now is possibly one of the easiest times to be libertarian.
Sometimes just defining that term (libertarian) can seem like a daunting task, but it really couldn't be any simpler. Unlike the left and the right, libertarianism is all about liberty (freedom) - whereas left and right politics is all about talking about freedom, saying you believe in freedom, but really just taking two polar opposites on most issues and rarely (if ever) basing political decision making on the simple question "does this violate liberty?"
For the earlier part of my rebellious youth, I found myself more closely relating to the sentiments of the leftish parties, and while that may still be in many ways, over the past few years I've started to finally make sense of why they are different than what I believe in. In short and sweet, the left really is no different than the right. While the left is usually looking out for what's best for everyone, and the right typically finding solace in man's selfish desires and wants, I really can't say the left is any better because both political ideas suffer from the same drastic flaw: they want to force what they think onto everyone else.
Here's an excellent example of what I mean; and actually the sole inspiration for what motivated me to sit down here and scribble out some of my thoughts on this whole topic of "political correctness":
Today I received a newsletter from change.org discussing some issues people have been discussing and voting on lately. One of the issues immediately caught my eye: "Racist Facebook App". In its petition text, it says:
Vaseline (owned by multinational Unilever) has just launched a Facebook application that will help India's Facebook users to whiten their skin in profile photos. The application is intended to advertise Vaseline's skin-lightening creams for men -- products that not only promote a distorted idea of beauty, but can also damage consumers' health.
Tell Facebook that apps are fun, but not when they promote racist ideas about beauty. Ask the company to take this offensive app off the site.
So here we are now with a petition on change.org - rallying for support to censor Facebook (for whatever the reason may be). First of all, let me make this perfectly clear: I am not a white-supremest, a racist, or in anyway think white skin is better than any other pigmant. While I may not necessarily agree with or even condone what Unilever has done here, I am behind them 100% with their right to do it. It may be a shame that apps like this may convey the ideas that they do, but what is even more of a shame is that 10,000 people out there actually think censorship is the solution. *NO* viewpoint, no matter how obscene, "offensive" or harmful to society should be eligible for censorship: PERIOD. I thought more of us believed in that sort of stuff, but apparently, it's just something we all love to talk about. Let us also not forget that ANY idea, opinion or believe runs the risk of offending someone: PERIOD. It is a frightening day when we've all collaborated on the belief that as long as it offends most of us, or even a lot of us, it's worth censoring.
And that is what separates people like my from those in the mainstream left. The politically correct way of thinking today is: "if you don't like what someone else is doing, saying or thinking - let's rally to take their right to do that away". That is exactly what is going on here, and exactly what I feel is wrong with leftish thinking. These people somehow believe a system of practicing intolerance (by censorship) will someone yield a society in which we are more tolerant - yes, that still baffles me.
As a libertarian I believe we should stop using our voices and numbers to censor and prevent everyone else from doing what we disagree with, but instead use our voices to intellectually debate WHY what others may be doing is intolerant. But of course, it's a whole lot easier just to bully people, companies and groups into submission than actually using our brains to rationalize with them and onlookers of why their ways are wrong.
That really is why I can't say I fit in anymore with folks on the left - because when you get down to it, they are no different than the right. They think they have all the answers, they think they know what's best for everyone, and they will use their numbers and whatever means necessary to ensure they get it (whether that means the law or what have you). Now while they may very well see issues from completely different angles, the bottom line is they both use the same fundamental practices. Worse of all, they both love to talk a lot about freedom while stealing it away from you in the name of "tolerance".
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 I'm excited cause I have some homemade jalapeno poppers in the oven now and I can't wait to taste them! 
As I've mentioned lots of times before, jalapenos are a frigging rip off in this country, averaging about 2 dollars for 40 grams. Because I got hooked on these stuffed jalapenos (with cheese and bacon), I decided I'd grow them this year.
This is the "hercules" strain. I'm not sure how mine did compared to normal hercules jalapenos, and maybe they even get a bit bigger after you pick the first ones. In any case, up until about 3 weeks ago, we have had very little sunshine this year, so they really didn't have much time to grow until just about 3 weeks ago. For much of the year, they were grown inside our kitchen (facing east). Our balcony also faces east, so we don't have direct light very long at all.
Anyhow, I think they turned out pretty good from what I've seen so far, and I'd like to think my constant care, attention and giving of nutrients (guano!) has helped them.
Hopefully I get a bunch more of these from the different plants I have going now. I'll let a few bigger ones ripen red so I can take out their seeds for next season.
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I've been wanting to update my username on Xbox Live for a long time now, but have been really hesitant because I didn't want to lose my 40,000+ gamerscore. I called up Xbox support today to get a confirmation of if it should stay or not (since as usual, a bunch of people are contradicting each other all over the web in regard to this question), and sure enough he assured me all that changes is the gamertag.
So my new Xbox 360 gamer tag is SikoSoft.
And sure enough I did get to keep my achievements - yay!
If you want to hook up and play something sometime, just drop me a line. RPGs and survival horror are my favorites, but I play almost anything. Plus, I have a nice collection of around 70 titles, so I'm sure I've got something you do if you want to set up a game date. 
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Just a quick update to let you know that:
1) Theia 1.0.0b7 has been released! More info @ http://www.sikosoft.com/item/whats_new_in_100b7
2) Tainted Thoughts has been updated to the latest version of Theia (older themes are currently disabled)
Additionally, I intend on updating my personal blog here to the latest Theia soon as well!
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I'm fairly baffled that no one has bothered to point this out yet, but then again - I didn't even catch it the first few times I heard about this law.
Los Angeles county has been at war with the hundreds of medical Marijuana dispensaries that have been popping up. It's often said that there are more medical Marijuana dispensaries in LA than there are Starbucks. This influx of "pot shops" has startled many, who see the presence of these shops selling the forbidden herb as something corrosive to their communities.
As a matter of compromise, the LA city council has been trying to please both the residents of the communities that are being "effected" as well as the dispensary operators. Yet, in a desperate attempt to find some middle ground, while drawing up new legislation, no one in any of those meetings seems to remember the basic principles under which America was founded upon.
The new laws state that medical Marijuana dispensaries cannot be located within 1000 feet from schools, parks or CHURCHES.
Maybe I've been in a social slumber for a decade or two, but when did we all take the time machine back to the days of writing legislation to appease religious sentiments we might not all agree with?
After all, doesn't anyone seem to remember the first amendment anymore?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
If you live in America and don't know the first amendment by heart, stop right now and read it over and over until you can say it word-for-word without fumbling.
In my opinion, this is possibly the greatest political theory and practice ever created, and understanding its different meanings should be a must.
We (in the west) are supposed to live in societies where you're absolutely free to believe what you want, but at the same time understand that you can't use the law to legislate respect for what you believe. I realized there was something wrong with this law after I had read about again, and it hit me: "why should I care if my medicine offends and disrespects a religion I don't even believe in?" Many of us don't believe in the religion you might believe in, so we - as a whole - should never be obliged be paying respect to your religious sensititivities.
After all, that is one of the most basic principles by which America was founded upon. Or, have we all forgotten that already?
WAKE UP LOS ANGELES!
(For the record, in 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that the first amendment does NOT only refer to the federal government, but government in general! - Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet)
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Well, if you're into JRPGs you probably already know FF13 came out today.
I got my copy (didn't pre-order it, because I've been getting kinda tired of all these really weak campaigns GAME and GameStop have been having lately). Actually, I didn't even go in myself to get it; NeroAnima was nice enough to pick it up for me after she was done at her job.
I've been working today on a client's project, so I haven't popped it in just quite yet (of course, I have played the FF13 demo in Japanese, as I imported the Advent Children bluray for that).
After checking out the review (@ IGN at least) I was a bit less enthusiastic to rush into it to, because I usually think games are considerably less good than the mainstream sites score them. Plus, normally the comments are 100% fanboys going off on how stupid the person is who wrote the review, but this time I actually saw several comments by people who agreed that FF13 wasn't that great. Too bad, but I'm sure it will still be somewhat enjoyable.
Looks like I got a big narrow adventure in front of me; it's ironic that I've been without work for a little while now and just got a client who needs his stuff done quickly. Since I know money is on the line, as well as my reputation, I'll have to play FF13 only a little bit until I am satisfied I can finish this guy's stuff on time.
Anyone else get FF13 yet? What do you think of it?
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 Since my passport (originally issued back in 2000) was expiring in March, I had to apply for a renewal. I applied just around 2 weeks ago and was told it would take about 3 weeks, so when it arrived this week, I was very pleased with how quickly it was handled! This doesn't even take into account that when I first applied for my original passport in the states, I had to pay some 30-40 dollars extra just to get it "rushed" and delivered to me within 4 weeks; this time (when applying through the American Embassy in Sweden), I didn't pay any extra "rush" fee, and the passport was delivered in a quicker time to boot!
But, that isn't the best part; the best part is that the new passports just look 100 times nicer than they did before!
The old passport was kinda boring and wasn't all that aesthetic in my opinion. Actually, I was jealous over NeroAnima's Swedish passport, which I thought looked much nicer than mine. But now that I got my new one, I can safely say mine is much nicer looking than hers!
The first scan here shows a side by side comparison between the old passport (issued in 2000; on the RIGHT) and the new passport (issued in 2010; on the LEFT). Pretty nice improvement, huh?
The second scan shows the typical visa pages of the old passport, which then only consisted of state seals on the background; pretty boring in my opinion. All the pages looked the same, just with different state seals in the background on different pages.
All the other scans are from the pages of the new passport, which all contain beautiful artwork capturing many moments of American history and heritage, along with notable quotes from various Americans - damn impressive in my opinion!
Kudos to all the peeps that put the new passport together!
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Just a bit of news here (been a while since I wrote anything, eh?); I will soon be taking down the pixelatedbylev.com website and instead redirecting it here. I will add additional links for things like the services I offer through SikoSoft, and scripts and stuff may be moved around.
I also intend on updating the look of this site a bit to take this big change into account. And hey, it looks good for my portfolio to create something awesome looking here!
If you've been coming to PixelatedByLev.com these past years, I appreciate all your support and use of my scripts over the years. I will still provide them (and may even update them), but my biggest focus now is going to be on Theia.
Peace!
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A big thanks for a stranger who visited my blog with the same problem in Oblivion (Game of the year edition) for the PS3.
A major bug, which seems to affect countless people, prevents you from ever completing the "Cure for vampirism" quest, as the witch will not accept your Bloodgrass.
No thanks to Bethesda (big, big surprise there... yeah right), the solution that was passed onto me works like a charm!
Basically, you create a save file outside of the witches house. Then you exit Oblivion to go to the PS3 menu system. A quick system language change to German, and load your game save back up again. Now, she finally accepts the bloodgrass, so all that is left is to resave, change the game back to English and play with it finally out of the way.
It worked perfectly for me on my first test of it (although I think I will have to redo it since I got busted buy guards and had to give up loads of $h!t I stole from people).
The solution where you had to use a NON-GOTY edition disc to complete the part and then go back to the GOTY edition didn't work for me, as my GOTY edition is PAL while the older version is NTSC/U.
So this solution really came in damn handy for me, because it didn't force me to buy yet another copy of the game simply because Bethesda doesn't give two shits about their fans after they got their money.
Here is a link that I was referred to, and I can vouch for its success:
http://oblivion.wikia.com/wiki/Vampire_Cure
Thanks again to the stranger who visited my blog and alerted me to the solution. To be honest, I didn't want to bring them down when they said they were contacting Bethesda because I knew it would be in vain. Although Bethesda makes some killer games, they don't seem to give a $h!t about their loyal audience who gives them the money that keeps their company alive. It's a sad state of affairs when a major game on a major console has a major bug affecting how you can play the game, while the developers do nothing for more than a year, and eventually have to turn to dedicated gamers out there to find wacky solutions.
In any event, it's finally done, and now I feel like I can go back to replaying the game when the mood strikes me!
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