Star Wars 1977-2007

My very good friend Embla featured in her blog the 30 year anniversary of Star Wars. Have a look at it here!

Another favorite poem: "Funeral Blues" by W.H. Auden

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

A favorite poem of mine: "If" by Rudyard Kipling

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Google Adsense

I have on several occations read about web publishers who have been banned by Google Adsense for so called click fraud, either by clicking the ads themselves or encouraging others to click on them.

First of all ... Google Adsense does not pay enough to make it worth while to cheat. I have had an account with them for about 2 years, and have still not reached the payout limit of US$100.

Second ... the whole idea of having ads on your website is to get people to click on them. That's what advertising is all about, and that's what advertisers pay us for. So what is the problem?

You see, I was recently banned by Google Adsense and was told that I can never ever open a new account with them again! Ever!

I mentioned that I was only a couple of dollars away from the payout limit. Here is a theory ... the reason Google make so much money is because they avoid paying people what they owe them. They owe me US$97. I want my money!!! I earned them!

The way Google conduct business is despicable. Sooner or later it will come back to haunt them. I used to admire Google and the creators behind the company, but now ... they have sunk to low for my taste. It's time they step up and take responsability for their actions.

Emblas värld

A very good friend of mine has started a blog. One of the topics she is passionate about, and which she will also write about, is Fair Trade. You should really have a look and take your time to read it. It's very good reading!

"Pride and tears over rising toll of teenagers sent to war

Britain allows the lowest recruitment and deployment age in Europe, critics say

The day of her 17-year-old son Aaron's passing out parade in Catterick last summer is a bitter-sweet memory for Karen Lincoln. As he marched past with his regiment, 2nd Battalion The Rifles, looking every inch the professional soldier, she cheered and wept, overcome with maternal pride. But it was also then she learned her youngest son was about to be sent to Iraq.
On April 2 - eight months after the passing out parade and just five months after his 18th birthday - he became one of the youngest soldiers to die in a conflict that has claimed 148 British lives. Of those, 14 have been teenagers."

Source: The Guardian

This is simply outrageous. These CHILDREN aren't old enough to vote, but apparently the British government think they are old enough to go off to a far away country to die. Outrageous!!!

"Milan thrash United to reach final

AC Milan set up a repeat Champions League final showdown against Liverpool when they brushed aside Manchester United 3-0 on Wednesday to complete a 5-3 win on aggregate."

Source: CNN

The formerly so great team Manchester United seems to have lost not only a place in the finals, but so much more. They're just not good enough anymore. A place in the finals used to be a given, but now ... well ... let's just say they don't deserve to be in the finals this year. A team that seems to rely a player like Rooney should not expect to get even as far as the semi-finals. Perhaps that's their biggest problem, apart from having a team of divas, ... they're not taking their opponents seriously anymore ... they think they're still as good as they were five or six years ago.

I predict that we'll see Man U drop considerably in the ranks over the next five years. Their top players are getting old, and they don't have any new player to replace them.