Tips to save money #1 defrost your freezer

 I plan to make this a series with various tips the aim of them is to not only save you money but also help you live a little more environmentally friendly. 

Defrost your freezer

This is something that should be done regularly and I found that once a year to be sufficient. Doing his will make your freezer work more efficiently, using less electricity and so extending the freezers lifetime. This might seem like a small saving but every little helps and it's not like this is a large job. 
As a bonus it also give you more room to store your food. That permafrost can take up a lot of space. Most importantly cleaning out and putting everything back in will let you take inventory and organize what you have. This means you will have an easier time using it and you don't need to double buy things. 

Taking my own advise

The best time to do this is in the winter when the food can be stored outside on a balcony without thawing. Unfortunately I don't have a balcony anymore so it will need to be stored in the attic. My attic has bad insulation and with outside temperature dropping to just one degree it lies at 3,7. Cold enough that my food wont thaw. Especially since I put it in a thermal-bag.

A good advise is to, in the days, week or month leading up to this to prioritize using the things in your freezer. Limiting the amount of things to move and store. I have been doing this for the last month and it takes a surprisingly long time. I have a tendency to cook too much stew and not enough pasta or rice to go with it so as a result I have weeks worth of chili and Stroganoff and lentil stew to go through before I can even begin on the raw ingredients. There's was also some cake but that disappeared quickly.

I had some trouble getting things to line up, mostly the weather has been relatively warm for a while and when it dropped last week I took my chance even if it means that there is more food then there could be. my thermal bag is not that big hopefully it will all fit. (spoiler alert it did not).

First step in this is turning off the freezer which is harder than I feel it should be and I ended up  checking the instruction manual to make sure I had done it correctly. It was confusing since turning of the freezer also turns of the light in the fridge.

This picture is mostly for me, so I know what to do next time.

Donning some thick gloves because cold makes my hands hurt. I emptied the freezer. Despite everything some things didn't fit and I had to get my smaller thermal-bag as well as put some things in the fridge. Those are things that I wouldn't mind if they thawed. A half empty ice-cube tray I just put in the sink. I had to move things around a bit in the bags, food in Tupperware are difficult to fit efficiently even more so since some of them were half empty.

I then carried it all up to the attic and left the freezer door open, put some plastic on the floor to protect it, fixing the runoff spout and placed a bowl to catch the meltwater. I then pulled out the trays/boxes and put them upside down in the bathtub. There is some ice in them but mostly it's to improve airflow. 

13,30 I was done with the preparations and left it to melt. It was only 10 minutes later that I could hear it start dripping. There are things you can do to make this go faster. Placing a bowl of hot water in it or turning on a space-heater. I just poked at it randomly, breaking the loose bits of ice and removing them.  

Remember to keep an eye on it just to make sure it isn't dripping water everywhere. I had to empty my bowl of water three times. I also noticed that there had formed a puddle on the plastic and that it had overflowed onto the floor so that got replaced by a towel.

19,30 and I finally got rid of the last Ice. Most was gone after an hour or two apart from a thick layer of solid ice at the top. I probably could have let it thaw by itself but I fear that would have taken several more hours. So I ended up pulling out chunks by hand. 

Now all that's left is to dry of the water. Start the freezer and once it has cooled down some bring my food back in.

Goals for the new year

I don't do new years resolutions not for any real reason I just never have. What I have been doing for the last few years is setting goals for the next year. Is there a difference? Maybe, maybe not but phrasing it like goals makes it easier to do and it allows me to have several smaller ones. This also lets me plan ahead and I can have follow up goals for years ahead.

For 2025 I don't really have any major goals, mainly because I got most of the big things done this or last year. Both my career- and living-goals are sort of on pause until 2026 

Career: keep working on my masters degree. 

Financial: Reach 2 million kronor. This is more of a hope than a goal since it will depend entirely on the stock market. I won't be too upset if I don't reach it, but it would be nice. Since I started studying I have effectively cut my income in half and it's now lower than my average expenses so I will aim to keep these low. As part of that will be doing a series of post about tricks to save money.

Books: Finnish proofreading and publishing my next book. This is a hold over since last year and I have realized that I'll need to do another round of proofreading and fixing before I'm satisfied with it.

Blog: I'll continue trying to get it indexed not that I have much hope for it. It's very frustrating.

So those are my goals we'll see how many of them I get done. 

Winter is coming and my apartment is cold

My apartment gets cold in the winter. Last winter it got as low as 17 degrees and it mostly hovered around 18 (64 for all you Fahrenheit users). This is far to low to be comfortable so last year I called my landlord about it. They came and checked but since all the radiators are working there's not much they can do and they left again. The reason, I suspect, is a lack of insulation in one of the walls. On google maps it looks like there used to be another house against mine that has been removed. Meaning the wall there is an internal one acting as an external one. This also happens to be the longest wall in my apartment stretching over three different rooms. To make matters worse I get cold easily.

Here I will explain some of the things I have/will do to solve this problem and hopefully give you some inspiration if you happens to be in a similar situation.

Catbed

First thing first. I have to make sure my cats has a warm place to nap. This is rather simple since one of them decided a few years ago that the carrier is her bed. Anyone who has ever tried to put a cat in a carrier will know this for the blessing it is and I don't want to discourage this. So once summer ended I put it next to the radiator and then placed a flat catbed in top of it for the other cat. This will give both warmth. Unfortunately it looks ugly so a cover will have to be constructed. However this will be a post for a later time. This is a larger part of making better use of my heat sources. Last winter I moved my kitchen chair so it was closer to the radiator. 

Prevent heat loss

This is really the key to a comfortable living space. It doesn't matter how much warmth your radiators produce if it just goes straight outside. A common tip is to use thick curtains to stop draft from windows and doors. However I wont be doing that my windows are all modern I can't actually sense any draft. I will therefore keep the curtains I have prioritizing not blocking the radiator and letting in what sunlight there is. 

The wall on the other hand is a problem. But just to be sure I bought an Infra red thermometer to get quick readings of the different parts of my apartment to see where the biggest problems are. Each morning for seven days I measured my bedroom wall and two places on my living room wall. The three places were mostly the same with only a 0.1 degree different. But I can say the problem wall was almost one degree colder than the other walls.

I said the wall stretches over three rooms namely the entryway the living room and the bedroom. The entryway is the first of them but here that wall is mostly covered by wardrobes so not as big an issue. However getting some boxes to go on top of the wardrobes would plug the gap between them and the ceiling. I don't think this will do much but every bit helps and I'd rather have them here than in the attic.

So far I have only put one box up there, filled with my summer clothes, but it lets me test it's efficacy. When I measured the back wall was 19 degrees. The edge of the wardrobe on the part covered is half a degree warmer than the same spot on the uncovered wardrobe. This is more difference than I had hoped for and I will keep filling the space up. 

For the bedroom and living room this wouldn't work so here I'm taking a page out of history. Tapestries were used to not only look nice but also provide insulation during winter. It's like a blanket for your walls. It's also the renter friendly alternative to anyone who wants a mural.I did a small test before I did anything too involved. I have a painting on this wall and measuring the temperature on the painting, behind it and beside it there is definitely a difference. I am going to have to move that painting though.

This is technically a tablecloth but I bought it last year to stop drafts from my door. Only to realize it's not the door that's the problem, instead it will be given a new home on the wall. Unfortunately it's not very thick but every little bit helps. If it's insufficient I'll just have to change it for next year.

 For this I sewed a channel for the curtain rod. Then did a bunch of measuring, both the cloth and the wall to get it centered how I likes it. Before getting the tall ladder from the attic moving the furniture away and putting up the adhesive hangers. It's similar to command strips but a different brand that I like better. I feel command over-promises their carrying capacity. 

Since my cat pulled it down half a year ago it's been showed in the back of the my closet so before I hung it I took the time to iron it. Let's face it if I don't do it now it will never happen. 

Hanging it was fairly straight forward. I'd chosen to center it to the wall which means it looked pd with the bed pushed up to the wall. I've moved it for now and I'll see how I liked it. I might lower it a bit but that's for later. 

Measuring the temperature the next morning and I can rapport that the cloth is half a degree warmer than the wall. Eagle eyed readers will note the extra blanket on the bed. It does make a differences and I have blankets on every chair I sit in.

For the living room I plan to make a new tapestry. But that deserves its own post. Also it will be a project for next year. 

Heat sources

When I write this it's mid September. Outside the temperature has been falling and it's in that awkward state where you need a coat and gloves in the morning and just a thin sweater in the afternoon. However the low temperatures at night still means that it's cold indoors. 19 degrees according to the thermometer on my nightstand. So I contacted my landlord asking them to turn on the radiators. They answered that the radiators are controlled by a thermostat and that they can't turn them on or off. This was not the answer I wanted but it does give me some important information. Since the thermostat is by the radiators it mean that whatever heat sources I want to add should be placed as far from the radiators as possible. I don't want the heat I add to turn them off.

So apparently I'm getting radiators which annoys me. I already pay for heating as part of my rent and I feel like I shouldn't have to pay for the electricity too. Now, I won't say I'd never needlessly suffer to make a point but in this case it will hurt me far more than them (I'll still inform my landlord about the temperature just because). So radiators and with some app controlled sockets I can time it for when electricity is the cheapest. However it turned out the socket I bought requires you to by a hub too. A hub that's far more expensive than I want to pay for a thing meant to save me money. So I'll be using one of the manual timers I already have and a space heater. We'll see how long I'll bother reprogramming it.

Clothes

Putting on a a sweater is a tried and true advice when it comes to temperature. I'm of course going to o that but since I already have several sweaters there isn't much to do. However along with sweaters I would recommend long woolen skirts. 

An advice I have read in a lot of places is Uniqlo Heat tech. Last winter I bought two of differing thickness and honestly they are... fine. One of them is a bit tight in a way that shows of my ribs more than I want but they are just one layer and I will wear a sweater on top. Any claims that they are as warm as a sweater is a lie and I don't really understand the idea that the fabric turns sweat into heat, or rather when you are cold you sweat less so it doesn't seem like it would do much.

What I am going to do though is finish my cape. It has been half done for a while (several years) but I want to wear it when I sit at my laptop to prevent my shoulders from getting cold and stiff. The post where I did this is here.

Last but not least indoor slippers. I started to make a pair last year but before I was done I got a pair for Christmas. These I wore everyday until they were worn out. Now I have the dilemma should I buy new (better quality ones) or finish the ones I started. Bearing in mind that I don't have enough material to finish them like they are and that I might have made them too small I would more likely just re do them. I will mull over this for a while longer and in the mean time I'll just use my thick socks.

Habits

Since I'll be home during the day studying I'll have opportunity to do things differently. One of these things I can do is that rather than buying bread I'll bake it. Letting all that nice warm oven air out into the apartment. I haven't done the math on this but I suspect that the money I save from making my own bread will offset the added cost to my electricity bill. Also fresh baked bread is nice.

The second thing is regularly blow drying my hair. Partially to again add heat but mostly to not cool myself down by walking around with wet hair letting it air dry. 

And lastly pray to the old gods and the new for a mild winter. This has gotten me thinking though. The plan with this apartment was to live her for two years, see if I liked the neighborhood and then buy a condo. However one of the reasons it's cold is that my apartment is old perhaps when I move the temperature is something I should keep track of. Perhaps I should prioritize showings in the winter and bring a thermometer.

What are you best tips for staying warm in the winter leave a comment down below.

Redecorating my study nook

One corner of my living room looks like this. It's where I pay my bills, write my books, edit this blog and other things. It's been fine, or rather there have been other things I had to focus on first. But since I'm going to study for my masters degree this year and the next I felt an upgrade was necessary. Also this is the view from my couch where I spend most evenings.

The desk will stay it's also my antique treadle sewing machine and I'll give it up over my cold dead body. It also fits in well with the aesthetic I'm going for. The rest however is up for I'll be getting rid of or at least move somewhere else.

But that is getting ahead of ourselfs because step one of any renovation or redecorating should always be cleaning. Nothing looks good if it's full of clutter and it's important to start in the right place.In this case it meant moving the wast basket and getting rid of things that aren't supposed to be there, hairdryer, cat toys and a ball of string lights, even cutting the tags of my chair. This did make quite a bit of a difference. 

But not enough. Even cleaned and sorted there is still three different colors of wood and I do have a need for more storage. This isn't primarily because I got more things but rather because, when I moved I got rid of one of my bookcases. Everything still fits since I also got rid of some books at the same time, but in my main bookcase things are sorted were they can fit rather than any other system. Also right now things are stored in open shelving that really should be hidden away.

I also have some pictures I wanted to put up and walking past a thrift store I checked if there were any nice frames. Preferably golden ones to match the noticeboard and other frames. But they were all a bit shabby and also about the same price as new ones so I'll keep an eye out for those.

Assembling a bookcase

But first is to buy a new bookshelf. I decided on a Ikea Hauga. Its not my favorite looking one or made of my preferred material but the wall I want to put it on is a bit short. More importantly I wanted one with closed storage to keep my eyesore printer in. So it's a compromise. 

The bookshelf came in three heavy packages which was a lot to carry upstairs in the almost 30 degree heat and this was September it's not supposed to be this hot. 

The first step was of course to emptying out the old shelf  and moving it away. That way I can put it in place immediately. In box one I found the instruction the parts for the bottom part was divided among all the boxes. The bookshelf is made of two parts which makes it easier to maneuver it in place. By now my living room is a mess with parts and packaging everywhere. Placing the upper part was difficult but worked even if it forced me to do things in a different order since I had to lift it myself. 

Now I just need to decide exactly what I want to have where and how. It is tempting to prioritize my pretty books for the new shelf but managed to contain myself. This also allows me to restructure my other bookshelves. Making them look less cramped and by books more organized.

Decoration

The new bookcase lead to a number of other changes. The chest no longer fit here if I want to be able to open the doors, so it got to trade places with a small side table and a plant. In general I did mostly look around my apartment for decor. I'm considering if I want to move my rug here. Maybe, well see.  For now I'm taking a trip up to my parents and the flea-market there. They had a large selection of frames and I snagged four for just 30 kr. However when I went to put them up I realized they were all smaller than the pictures I wanted to put in them so the hunt continues. 

It's not perfect, there's still several minor changes I want to make. But its better and for now that's good enough.  More importantly I have other projects I need to focus on. 

The longest day

So just a thing. My course did not start in november. It started in the first week of september and that was when I wrote this. But I value my upload scedule more than timeliness so it gets posted now.

The lead up to this started months ago when I applied to get a masters degree. I'm doing it online but the lectures on the first day will be on campus so 3 of September I need to be in Uppsala. I coincided a few different ideas for travel. Weather to go there the day of or the day before and sleep in a hotel. In the end I decided to take a plane there that day and then the train home. I book my tickets and basically forget about it.

Then about a week before I had the idea to write in all the lecture and seminars in to my wall calendar. I'm lucky I did because I now see there's not two lectures starting at 12 but rather three the first one starting at 10. By my estimate I would arrive there at 11 so this is a real problem. I double checked that it is correct and there won't be any more changer (they claim that the early lecture has always been there but I'm doubtful). I then re-booked my plane ticket, well not really mostly I just bought a new one since it was non refundable. Yes I'm still salty about this. 

3.50

After a night of restless sleep my alarm rings. The plane leaves at 7, the airport wants me to be there 2 hours early. This seems excessive but I haven't been there for almost 20 years, So what do I know. Anyway I have to wake up at 4. In preparation for this I have set my alarm earlier and earlier during the last week. The earlier departure time also means that there was no things done on that day. So everything is packed and prepared days ahead.

Still I packed up the last few things, feeding my cats I feel a bit guilty for leaving them and I'm off. It's still dark out and the streets are nearly empty. I say nearly there were maybe 10 people but that was one if the busyness streets. About the time I get to the train station and about now the tiredness gets to me. 

5,45

It only took me 45 minutes to get to the gate. But I can see how at a time with more passengers it would take longer or if I had more luggage than a single backpack. Having learned from previous flights I put all my tech things and liquids together in  bag. Of course I then got to go through the big scanner so I didn't have to remove my tablet anyway. Though both it and me got flagged for a further check. Once in the air I realize this might be cased by my smartwatch that I had forgotten to take of.

 Anyway I now have a coffee and an hour to kill. For which I brought one of my textbooks.

Also boarding started 6.30 so just one hour would have been difficult. It's so annoying when they are right.

I had bought a ticket for the cheapest seat in that i didn't choose one and let them pick whatever was left for me. Jokes on them I still got a window seat and a whole row to myself (insert evil laughter). The only problem was that most of my view was taken up by the wing but it's not like there are much to look at anyway.

8,10

Landing I had severely underestimated the time it takes to get to the train station. First 15 minutes to get of the plane, then ten minutes walk before I even saw signs to the train. Ticket weirdness and the nice 20 minute gap until the train was gone. Luckily there are several. Even though they were delayed.  

Despite everything I arrived with almost 40 minutes to go before the lecture started. Uppsala is a nice town. Like many others it's a mix of old and new buildings though far more two or three storied buildings than I expected. If I ever Have time I wouldn't mind exploring a bit. Not today though. It's odd Uppsala is the fourth largest city in Sweden but it does not feel like it. If I had to guess at the population I would have guessed half of what It has.

10.15 

This is the building the lectures was in. It's very pretty but has the most horribly echoy foyer. With a class full of students talking it's very loud.

Them the lecture begins. By now I'm tired, have a mild headache and has 6 hours of lectures to get through. My experience is that the first lecture are more about the course than anything else. Though the last one today was a proper lecture and as a bonus it gave me an idea about a thesis subject. It was nice meting other students and I discovered halfway through lunch that I can fall into another persons accent in as little as 30 minutes. 

16.55 

And I board my slightly delayed train for the first stretch home. It's old, worn and someone is siting in my reserved seat. This is just one of the reason I don't like booking seats. A transfer in Stockholm gave me enough time to get some dinner. Which was a burger, fries and soda from Burger king. I have had a craving for fast food fries for a while now, but I can't really justify something so unhealthy. However between the train being late finding my seat and eating the burger the fries were cold. Which was not what I had envisioned.  

23.15 

The delay in leaving continued and by the time I arrived it was half an hour late. Once again I'm walking through dark streets. Not quite as empty as this morning but Tuesday is not the night for vibrant nightlife. Still its a comfort to know that you are never truly alone.

I'm finally home and after doing the bare-bones of a nighttime routine and I get to bed. By now I have been awake for 20 hours.

Culture Night in Lund

I'm uncertain if that's the right translation or if there is a specific phrase that's used regardless every year at the end of september Lund, a city close by, has a city wide event showing of art, culture, music and since it's a university town various lectures. 

It's this Saturday and I'm going.

While it might be called night this is not entirely true since the first event starts at 9 in the morning with the majority of things happening in the afternoon. Having checked the program I could conclude that nothing I'm interested in starts before 1. This gives me enough time to bake some bread and do some cleaning also eat lunch at home.  

It's unseasonably warm right now but my apartment has heating issues so it's rather cool which means that I made the decision to wear both a sweater and jacket. This  meant that the brisk walk to the first even left me a bit overheated. But I justify my actions by thinking that I'll need it later in the evening.

As I said I had checked the program in advance and had everything planned out. At the first place (the Pufendorf Institute) I saw two lectures, they had a theme of food and sustainability. I should say, all the lectures I watched were about 20-30 minutes I realize there are a few of them.

The first was about using liquid carbon-dioxide as a green solvent for oil extraction in the food industry. With the aim to replace hexane. 

The second one was about Using yeast and plants to control pests in crops. Rather using yeast or genetically engineered plants to produce pheromones more cheaply than creating them artificially. Then using the Pheromones to disrupt the insects mating.  This also included and explanation of how the moths make their pheromones in the first place.

The next lecture here was about food that makes your teeth whiter but as is usual at this types of events  there are many things happening at the same time and there were a lecture about ancient Greek robots that sounded more interesting. So I headed of to the Lux building (this is one the main humanities building at the university). 

Here I had a bit of a time gap so I took the time to get a soda hoping the caffeine would help my headache. By the way did you know Pepsi has artificial sweeteners in their cola. And I'm not talking about the sugar-free version it had both sugar and sweetener. I'm fine with the sugar but I don't like the taser of sweeteners hence why I don't buy sugar free things. This makes me feel distinctly cheated. 

Anyway here I did run into my aunt that were here for a different lecture. 

The robots (technically the title for the lecture was AI in the ancient Greece and Rome) were mostly in Homers Iliad and Odyssey. Basically the gods doesn't have slaves but also can't be doing manual labor so there are just automatic things like doors and ships. Homer liked things doing thing by themselves. unlike Virgil who doesn't have any.  

The next lecture here was Space archaeology. Using different methods to see how the landscape has changed in the last couple of thousand years. How sedimentation can cause a harbor to now be miles inland or below the water.

At this point I meet up with my family they had made the decision to not come here until three. As I suspected this upset my carefully constructed schedule. They being of the, we'll go somewhere and see whats there strategy. In previous years this has resulted in many hours of aimless wandering.

They wanted to go to the Astronomy house to listen to the science lectures there. I just need to point out how badly they had handled their ques. Mainly how the ques for looking at the sun through a special telescope filled the access ramp and covered the door. The lecture here was about dendrochronology (measuring time through tree-rings). Also all the things one can learn not just about the climate but also things like frequency of forest fires. It can also be used for dating buildings, paintings or other wooden things. 

The last lecture I wanted to see was unfortunately canceled which I didn't find out until we had gotten there, but I also had seen quite a few by then so it wasn't a huge loss. I feel I should say, there are a lot of other things to do and see not just lectures but that was what I chose to do.

At this point my plan was to go to a cafe and eat dinner while listening to stand up comedy. But when we got there it was full so we had dinner from a food truck instead. The things I ate were quite underwhelming it was filling but terribly bland with no spices or even salt but a very hot sauce. The sauce didn't really make up for it since it was hot but didn't really have much taste.  As is usual there were no seating so we ended up sitting on some steps to eat.

A few short stops. There was someone teaching about coffee but it turned out to be mostly selling their brand. I asked them about which coffee is the least bitter but didn't get any good answer(they claimed coffee shouldn't be bitter) and their coffee when I tried it was very sour so not an improvement. 

A quick look through a bookshop buying the poetic Edda not the thing I was looking for but something I have been meaning to read. 

Then home. It's nice that I now almost never need to wait for a train. I did unfortunately forget to take any pictures. So this post is looking a bit dull. And no even as I was walking home it was warm enough that I didn't really need my jacket. I had been carrying it around all day for nothing.

What I did this summer part 1

This is a collection of various things I've done lately, Smaller things that don't warrant an post by them self but that I still wanted to share.

29 June

This day I went to a concert in the park. A free concert organized by the city. I'd seen about it while looking up whats happening at work. I'd written down time and location Willow pond park but not what or listened to how they sounded. 
I honestly didn't really feel like it. I'm introvert and I'd had a lot of things happening that week between  work, and celebrating my sisters birthday the day before. Visiting my parents to cut their lawn meeting a friend. All in all I'd had a lot of social interaction and at this time I mostly wanted to lay on my couch and watch Youtube with some tea and cinnamon rolls. But I can do that every day so I decided to go anyway. After all if I didn't like it I could just go home. 
I did take the time to fill a thermos with cranberry juice and ice to bring and doing some more involved makeup trying out my eye-shadow. I then ended up wearing sunglasses the whole time so the effort was completely wasted. 

I arrived there late partially because google said it would take 10 minutes, I had assumed 15 and it took 20, but also because I had to stop and check where I was going. I got slightly lost on the way but on the plus side I found a place where you can pump your bike so that's good.
I have been to this park and this stage before but had apparently forgotten what it looked like. I thought it would be basically unlimited space, forgetting it is an amphitheater. Between that and getting there late all of the seats were taken and I got to sit on the slope to the side and slightly behind the scene. Also looking almost directly into the sun.

There I found out that it was Ida Nielsen & the funkbots.
Apparently funk is that one melody in Seinfeld but in this case as a full song with lyrics and also better. Unfortunately all their songs sounded like that plus or minus some freestyle rap. The songs were all good but very samey. So 45 minutes I left. 
As a bonus since the event had started at 19.00 by the time I got home there were still plenty of time for tea and cinnamon rolls before bed.
This is why I wanted to live in the city. Travel adds an hour to everything and I probably wouldn't have gone if that was the case but with the barrier to entry so low I did.

13 July

For my birthday last year I got among other things a gift certificate for a Sherlock Holmes themed escape room. And now that people have time me and my sisters went. The place also has a cocktail bar again Sherlock themed, the menu looked like an old newspaper and some of the drinks were named after characters. It was very nice and a place I might go to just for drinks. Or to try one of their other games.

As a feature you could take drinks with you into the rooms and on the way there we made fun of it. Why would anyone think alcohol would help with puzzle solving. Jokes on us as we all got drinks. It was a nice drink though. 

The game was meant to be 45 - 60 minutes. We did it in 30. Proving what we all knew. We only needed a hint on one part though even after we couldn't figure out what the system had been. The hints and exposition was all prerecorded conversation between Holmes and Watson. All in all a fun time.

3 August

Nothing much happened. I took a walk in the park because it was nice weather and I needed inspiration for an up coming project. My plan was to draw pictures of different landscapes scenes. But I ended up only drawing two and taking pictures with my phone for the rest. It's hard to draw while standing and holding everything.

10 August

I haven't done much so far, mostly I've just been working. But yesterday was my last day of work and will be for a long time. I took a bit of an easy first day. I finished writing a post, started reading a new book, then lunch, some cleaning and I'm off. There's a festival in the city this week and I'm going down to see a thing about green cities. On the way taking a picture of the book I'd just finished. I'm hoping that if I take pictures of the books I've read rather than copying the cover I can trick the google algorithm into liking me. Update the algorithm still hates me but I like the pictures so I'll continue with it. There was some music on the way so I stopped to listen to some thing called Rydm crew. It was sort of advertisement for a longer gig they were playing later that day. unfortunately it was at the sale time as another thing.

The green city's thing was a disappointment, it was literally just a container with information on placards and some trees in flowerpots. Wandering around aimlessly I walked by the main stage. They were preparing for the next event which was an opera. I went in search of my other goal for the day ice cream. My plan for this day had been to make a mojito but my mint had Aphids so that idea got scrapped and ice cream seemed like a good substitute. I found some lemon sorbet and pistachio ice cream that was quite delicious and sat on a fountain eating it listening to the ungodly noise that is an orchestra warming up.

This went on for about an hour while the audience grew. But finally it started. The opera was an abridged version of Giuseppe Verdis opera Giovanna D'arco. It became more interesting once I realized that they provided subtitles on a screen.
It was enjoyable until halfway through when it started to rain and half the audience left along with the musicians who scrambled to protect their instruments. At which point I went home. Because I was starting to get hungry and was not dressed for any cold.

For the rest of this week I have been down there most days. I didn't listen to any music because most that seemed interesting was too late. On the other hand I listened to some of the actual green cities lectures that was interesting. 

22 August

I found a fossilized coral in a pile of dirt and stone. Sometimes the thought just strikes you that you have become like your parent. I didn't set out to looking for it either. I was on my way to a larger thrift store, where I wanted to look for kitchen chairs (there wasn't any) I found some blackberries. On the way back I picked some and looking for some more I found a  parking lot. At least it was a place where people had parked their cars it did not look in any way official and was tucked next to a train track. There wasn't any more black berries but glancing at a dirt pile probably left over from some construction that I passed I found two coral pieces. They now live in my bookshelf. 

24 August

I've decided there is a limit to how much time I should spend inside. So far I have used most of my vacation for errands and proofreading my next book. Hoping to remedy my shut in ways I took a trip to the park partially to take pictures of some books.

There I found some berries and considered picking them but apparently the seeds are poisonous so I decided against it they did look tasty though.

This it the closest park to where I live and is next door to the gym I used to visit. Despite this I have never been here before. Its a very functional park. There is a pool for kids, place for dogs, an outdoor gym, a playground. With neither kids nor dogs less useful for me and the rest is mostly a lawn with trees along the edges. I still stayed for a while enjoying the late summer warmth and reading. On the way back I found a hidden path which was nice except for the dead rat. 

And that's all. then September arrived and although it was nearly 30 degrees several days i do not count it as summer. But stay tuned for the projects I did.

search consol redirect issues

 For a while I have been trying to get this blog indexed on google. For those unfamiliar with it indexing is necessary for it to be searchable. This has been an exercise in frustration so far nothing is working and I don't know why.

A tip I got was to check which post got indexed and which didn't. Unfortunately all mine got labeled as having redirect issues so that doesn't help. 

First step was obviously to check the redirect. According to the checker https://wheregoes.com/ there is no problem. This makes sense since neither bing nor yahoo has any issue.  

So the problem is something with all my posts but only for google. 

I am at the point where I'm open to trying anything. So this post is a test if having all small caps in the headline will make any difference. It shouldn't but Blogger makes it's links from the head line so who knows.

Also with neither pictures or outgoing links it is a very barebones post.

Update: So this didn't work, on to test number two trying to input some code I found.

If anyone has had similar issues and managed to solve them I would very much appreciate a comment about what you did. 

Or if you have other issues and just want to went a bit that's fine too.

Update 2: also didn't work. Today I'm trying two different things. Number one double the link to this post. Number two removing the sitemap from google search console. This might seem counter-intuitive the whole point of a site map is to help with indexing. But bare with me. I have older discontinued blog. while I tried to get this one indexed I fixed somethings on that too. Checking in on it I saw that basically all the posts has gotten indexed. But here's the thing the blogs are pretty much identical when it comes to content the most obvious difference is that I never bothered to do a sitemap for it. Also the sitemap I uploaded didn't really work with google. It doesn't keep track of the new posts. I should say I'm only removing it from google search consol not from the blog itself, I also have it on bing and there it works fine.

Update 3: Still no change so I'm going to try and removing the site map all together. I may have been too hasty singing the praises of Bing since it has apparently only indexed 12 of my 30 pages and doesn't seem to be checking the sitemap.

Update 4: Success finally...sort of...maybe. What happened was that the latest post, the one I uploaded after update 3 was not tagged with redirect errors but rather with the "Crawled not currently indexed". I choose to see this as a hopeful sign though it's still not indexed and I now have to figure out how to fix this issue so far the definition from google seems to be "there's nothing wrong and we'll maybe get around to it or not"

Update 5: I may have spoken too soon. The posts I uploaded have all gotten redirect errors and even the one I thought was working had too. New plan is this. I have an older blog that I'm no longer using. Annoyingly it gets indexed. So what I'm going to do is simply to copy it. All the settings all the layout and themes and hopefully this will do something.

Knitting a bolero

I have a dress I really like and want to wear. My problem is that it has short sleeves so I can't wear it unless I have a sweater no top which defeats the purpose or it's quite warm outside and the ac isn't on. That means basically never. But rather than admitting defeat and leaving it in the back of my closet for ever I decided that a bolero would be the answer to my plight. My original plan for this was to find a store that had one and try it on together with the dress and see if I liked it as much as I thought I would. I was however thwarted in this endeavor as I after some googling realized that the only store that had one in the style I wanted was Shein and that is not an option I'm willing to consider. So I decided that the only solution was to make one myself.

Now I have a bit of a confession to make. While I'm a quite good knitter I can't actually read knitting patterns. I usually take one look at them decide I don't know what any of it means and then go on to creating my own pattern. So far that's been fine, I would have made my own alterations anyway and I like problem solving. But that does mean that I can't write a proper pattern for what I did and I'm instead forced to simply write a description of it.

The pattern itself turned out to be quiet easy but I'm not sure a beginner would understand explanation of it. Also the stitch and row count is based on my measurements and this yarn specifically, so alter as needed.

Some pinteresting and thinking later and I had a plan.

If I were to simply make a tube going from one arm to the next with slits for the torso and neck. It should function as a bolero and achieve the look I want. But since a straight line is boring I decided to spice it up with some dramatic bishops sleeves (it's my favorite sleeve type but I had to do some googling to find out what they were actually called). 

Tools and materials

5 skeins of Merino wool yarn 50g and 175 meter. It's soft but not very warm which is fine since its meant to be used during the summer.

3,5 knitting needles, for the cuffs I used a double sided set.

But mostly I used my interchangeable circular set it gives lots of options but it does have a habit of unscrewing while you knit.  

Row counter, mine is cheap plastic and kind of bad, they only go to a hundred but finding any three digit ones is hard. I also only have one because my cat chewed on the other. 

Row markers, useful when you need to make sure both sides are identical. But you can use paperclips and pen and paper. 

Try one 

15 rows with 40 stitches for the cuffs using ribbing to make then stretchy. That then gets doubled twice widening to 160 stitches and becomes a smooth knit. This turned out to be far too wide and it stretched the cuff in a way I didn't like. It also took a long time to make each row. So picking up my other yarn ball I started over keeping the old part for comparison.

Try two

I still used 40 ribbed stitches for the cuffs but now for 20 rows. This is then doubled to 80 stitches. 

Row 30. This try was better than the first but not quite as wide as I wanted. So at I added another 20 stitches or adding one for every four stitches.

This was enough so then I just kept going. and I've now spent most evenings this month knitting on my couch while watching Critical role season 2.

Row 90 and the first ball of yarn is gone. Since at this point I was only halfway on my upper arm I estimate I will need 4 balls in total for this. Since I'd only bought two I'll have to buy more. I had assumed I would have to but it's easy to get more and I have overestimated the amount of yarn needed for a project before.  

Row 150 and since the sleeve now reaches my armpit it's done. Which means it's time for the first slit. So rather than continuing round I simply turned and start goes back and forth. It's a bit tricky going from a circle to a flat but it's manageable if you use several knitting needles. I should have included a picture but honestly black knitting in a badly lit room makes for terrible photos.

Row 165 and it's now halfway up my shoulder and I divide it again making a gap in the middle for my neck. I continuing in the front with my existing yarn and add another ball of yarn to knit the back. While knitting the front I did reduce the width a bit, the idea is to show a sliver of skin between the neckline and the bottom of the bolero. I'm not sure if the reduction made much difference but I didn't want to redo anything so it stayed.

Row 195 (205 for the back) and I've reached the middle. I did a few rows of purled stitches in the middle partly for decoration and partly to keep it from rolling up. Then having reached the middle I did everything again but backwards. I have been using a row counter for this project so the easiest thing was to simply start counting down instead of up and looking up in my notes what I'd done where. 

Sigh, 30 rows left and I'm out of yarn again. So close.

16 rows left and I'm working on the second cuff. Only to realize this is meant to be ribbed and I've not done that. So I'm unraveling the last four rows and redoing them. I kind of feel like it's too late and I should stop for the evening but at the same time I'm so close and want to get it done today. Which is how I've done things before often to terrible results.

And it's done. All that's left is weaving in the ends and removing the row markers.

But that's for tomorrow.

Results

It's cute. The pattern definitely worked and I'm considering making more. Maybe I'll do a colored one or with different sleeves. Merino wool is very soft and this is smooth so wearing it directly against skin isn't a problem. The sleeves being that wide does pose a bit of a problem making it hard to wear a jacket on top but that's a problem with several of my sweaters as well. I think the only solution is to sew a wide sleeved jacket but that's a project for another time.

Taking the picture for this I really wanted to do the Hamlet pose but unfortunately I don't have a skull anymore since Mischka knocked it of the shelve and broke it. 

More and more I have come to realize that doing something myself is the easiest way to get what I want. It also wasn't that expensive and the cost ended up roughly the same as if I'd bought it, which is a moot point since there wasn't any in this style anyway.

As an extra benefit it doubles as a scarf and the sleeves are wide enough that I could use them as pockets at least for small and light things.

The state of the blog 2024

This post is mostly just a general update of things that will happen this autumn that will have an impact on this blog one way or the other. That is assuming I have any regular readers who would care. 

Adsense

I have started the process to get adds on this blog. Since before there are affiliate links to amazon on some posts but no one has clicked on anything, as far as I can tell. Therefore I'm trying a different way namely ads. I don't know how annoying they will be and if I don't like it I'll just remove them again. So far I have applied and the blog is being reviewed. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Studies

This spring I applied to several universities with the plan to spend the next two years getting a master degree. If I got in that would also mean taking a time of from work. The result of this is that there's a lot of things waiting on this. Form the small things like weather or not to by new work shoes or if I should save money or invest it like I usually do.

But also just the stress of not knowing what my life will look like three months from now. Along the little voice in the back of my head reminding me that I might not even get accepted. In that case I'll have to have an awkward conversation with my boss. There's been a lot of preparations for me leaving and getting replacements and letting them know what things they need to do. My leaving has been publicly announced to my coworkers. So for months they have been asking how it's going and I'll have to say that I don't know because the schools hasn't announced that yet.  I have been worrying weather or not I got accepted. My coworkers are all very encouraging and they all assured me that of course I would, but this doesn't actually help with my anxiety at all. 

So yeah its been a lot but now they have finally announced who is admitted and I (after an hour waiting to even log in to the website, not nerve wracking at all) got accepted to my second choice. Which is an online course in Uppsala. 

What this means for the blog is that after august I don't know how busy I'll be and won't know how much time I'll have to write. I won't need to commute every day but also I can't write during downtime at work. The question is also if I'll even have time to read or do other projects. More pressing is if I after reading course literature and writing papers all day will feel like reading fiction and writing posts about it. But only time will tell. In any case I have posts scheduled for some time.  

On a more personal note while I would have preferred to study on campus it is a good test. For some years now I have aspired to FIRE(Financial independence retire early). Basically you save money, invest it, stop working and do whatever you want living of the dividends. In my case I would probably write. But being an introvert and homebody I worry that if I were to retire I would just stay home all day. I worry that I would never talk to anyone and get lonely. But it's equally possible that once I'm no longer forced to interact with people for work I'll have more time and energy to spend with the people I like. These two years of studies would aptly test that. If in the next years I barely see anyone then I will need to rethink my retirement plans. If I join a writers group, meet my sister for lunch etc then I might do better than I thought. But only time will tell. 

Sorry about the anxiety but it helps to write it out. Anyway the long and short of it is that I don't know how much or little I'll write in the coming years but hopefully this blog wont die like the last one did.

My lamp or why I spent a saturday sitting on the floor

When I moved into my current apartment I got more space, more rooms and suddenly found myself needing more ceiling lamps. With over 3 meter ceilings I felt I needed something big and one with no visible bulbs because it gives me a headache to look at them. 

I originally bought one that was fine and hung it I'm my living room with the plan to move it to the bedroom when I found something better. Which finally after living here for almost six months I have. And yes this does mean that for six months I had no lamp in my bedroom except for the small one on the bedside table.

The one I finally found had black metal bands and as you can see in the picture also visible light bulbs. This is partially because I forgot but the light caused headache has been less of a problem in this apartment think its because they are higher up. Also I have a plan for that.

Step one repairs

There's nuts and bolts holding the rings together. As I carried it home I heard the soft sound of one falling off and disappearing forever. Looking closer I realized it was not the only one and that another nut were missing with several being loose. Of course the missing ones weren't the same size and so I had to go buy two packets because you can't just buy two nuts. At least screwing them on was the work of seconds. 

Step two basic functionality

I installed a new cable because of how the electrical outlets sits in my apartment. First measuring from the outlet to the lamp 1.9 meters and shortened the cable to fit because the only one they had in the store was three meters. This was all went fairly quickly mostly because I had already done something similar to two other lamps when I moved in. I also needed light bulbs and decided to splurge a bit and bought light bulbs that lets you change the brightness and color using a remote.

Step three Decorations

And now we come to the fun bit. Since the moment I saw it I had a plan, using the metal as a foundation and cower it in ivy or something similar with the aim of making something cottage core/witchy. Unfortunately real plants was out of the question I'm not using a ladder every time I need water my plants not to mention the weight. So fake plants it is. I'm usually opposed to this because up close they tend to look bad and I associate them with dustiness. But it's a ceiling lamp so no one is ever going to look at it close. I did consider making my own it but fake Ivy is too easy to get and none of the pictures I found of diy-ivy looked any better (most looked worse). 

I also considered adding hanging butterflies or little glass birds and I might still do that but that's for later. This lamp does give me the alternative to change the with the seasons but with high ceilings that's is quite an undertaking. So maybe just a summer and Christmas theme. But again that is a thought for another time for now I'll just make sure it's all easily removable.

Because the exposed bulbs are a problem (also ugly) I decided to make some lampshades for them and going with the plant theme made them to look like flowers. I did a test of the method for these a few weeks ago and you can read about it this post, it has some more detailed instructions.

But to sum it up I cut out petals of crepe paper. Painted them partially pink and glued them it to a metal wire. This time I made it in an L shape. Wrapping the longer piece in paper and painting it green. And then wrapping the whole thing around the lamp. 

I first did one to make sure my plan worked. I didn't want to make three just to realize something was wrong. But it was fine and I went ahead and made the rest. 

With that done I went ahead and wrapped it in my fake vines. It was fiddly and it turned out I had bought more than I needed. But the excess found its home around my bathroom mirror.

Step four Hanging

Hanging it wasn't hard per say and since I had cut the cable correctly it worked fine. But it is unnerving being that high up. Standing on a tall and not quite straight ladder. Looking down and thinking that if I fall I will likely break something. This is one of the reasons I'll probably not change the theme of it with every season. I did however end up redoing most of the vines since what looked even when lying on the floor wasn't when hanging in place.  

At this point it was after 3 and I had been doing this since 8 most of it sitting on the floor hunched over. So I seriously considered just hanging the old lamp in the bedroom without adjusting its cable. But I know if I don't do it now it will annoy me for months until I deal with it. So i did the adult thing and fixed it now.

Results

You can tell the vines are fake, the bottom of it is quite far down so you can get fairly close to it. But I'm hoping people aren't going to look too closely and after a few days I do find it less noticeable.  

The flower shades are actually more of a problem since they make the light pinkish and somewhat muted. I'll keep them for now and maybe exchange them for white or yellow ones later.

But all in all not too bad, it mostly looked like I imagined it would which isn't always the case. But most importantly I now  after having lived here for half a year finally has a ceiling lamp in my bedroom.

My day as an Election worker

This really started last autumn when I applied to become an election worker for the EU election. Or maybe earlier. Since I did work at the last general election and found it to be a fun if exhausting experience.  

There was a bit of trouble this year in that I moved during the application process. Knowing something of what the likely schedule for the election day would be I did not want to do this where I had to do any commuting. But this was before last autumn when I was on the cusp of getting a new apartment but hadn't yet. So to be safe I applied in both the town I lived in at the time as well as the city I planned to move to. Then once I'd moved I turned down the position in my old town.

8 of may

Some time ago I had gotten an email with approved as a reserve. Today I'm leaving work early to take a two hour seminar to learn all the rules and routines we must follow when working. It's mostly the same as last time but with some minor changes. But it was two years since I last did this so the reminder is always good. Also they offered sandwiches and tea. 

7 of June

A while ago I got an email with my posting along with some additional duties. Specifically I got the job to pick up the voter register and bring it on the election day. Unfortunately the place where I'm meant to pick it up is only open between 8 and 18 on the Friday before the election. During these times I'm usually either at work or commuting, but there wasn't much for it than to go pick it up before work. Luckily it's on the way to the train station and I'm fine with getting to work late since I didn't have any meetings that day. At least it was done quickly, just finding the right room showing my I'd and I'm on my way to work.

9 of june aka election day

I wake up early, well it's the same time as I would get up during the work days but for a Sunday it's early.

A quick breakfast and collecting my things then I'm away. Taking my bike there it's not far 10 minutes according to google maps (they lie) and I got there with five minutes to spare despite stopping a few times to check that I was going the right way.  

I was there for the first shift which means helping setting everything up and figuring out how things are supposed to be set up. Unlike last time there's no offered lunch or snacks. It might be because it is a different election EU not general or because this is a different municipality but it is noted.

8.00 Everything is in place for the first voters to arrive. 

8.30 Everything is still in place for the first voters to arrive. So far there hasn't been any just party members leaving ballots for some of the smaller parties. There has been voters but they were all going to the location next door. Theoretically my job right now is greeting and directing the voters. But so far it's just been a lot of standing around. Or rather sitting strategically placed where I can watch the front door.

8.45 The early votes has arrived and some voters has started to come by not a rush or even a steady stream but still it's something.

9.30 I take my turn receiving the votes. It's cold here it might be summer but not warm and the doors open. I'm bringing a thicker sweater when I get back from lunch. Mostly so far it's gone well. Not that many voters but so long as we are still dealing with counting and registering the early votes it's actually preferable.

12.00 It's finally time for my lunch break (I've been fantasizing about hot ramen soup for a while now) and I'm taking my bike home. Lunch, doing some chores and then relaxing on the couch for a bit. This does ruin my schedule a bit the break is only a 2 and half hour and I usually does most of my chores on Sunday. Some things I did yesterday and some will just have to wait for another day the rest I'm trying to squeeze in where I can.

14.30 And then the day ended rather anticlimactic. Halfway back from lunch and I almost fainted when my blood pressure dropped. I ended up calling in sick sitting on the sidewalk before stumbling across the street to a corner store buying painkillers and licorice (it raises blood pressure). I then sat on their floor for a bit before feeling good enough to slowly walk home. My blood pressure dropping like this has happened before at least a few times a year and although they pass quickly within the hour I could tell that this one was partially triggered by the exertion of cycling in headwind so continuing going back and forth wasn't really an option. 

Reflections

I need to get better about eating my iron supplements. It has shown to be effective to stop the fainting.

I had forgotten how exhausting it is working from 7 to 22 and then waking up early the next day to go to work. Sure there are breaks but it's still a lot and the breaks aren't really long enough to do anything more than the most basic things. I would recommend everyone to try it but I'm not sure if I Will do it for the next general election. On the other hand I plan for my life to look quite differently then so maybe I will. 

Making A Lamp shade

I have a project to fix my ceiling lamp as a part of that I wanted flower shaped lamp shades. But getting ones that fit and that I like is hard. So I figured I could make some and as usual checked Pinterest for inspiration finding this tutorial (I then followed basically none of this but still). 

My ceiling lamp needs some things before I can do the lampshades. But I have another lamp that also needs a shade and I've been looking for one of glass but haven't found one. So as a test I made on for this lamp instead.

I'd planned on using tissue paper like I think is in the video but at the store they were out of the white one and I ended up buying thin crepe paper instead. It's thicker and more structured so it holds it's shape and was probably a better choice.

I only bought white paper rather than colored partially because there wasn't any of the shade I wanted and if I did I'd have to buy four rolls which was way more paper than I actually needed. 

Tools and materials

There wasn't much materials needed for this. 

Crepe paper

Metal wire

Wire cutters 

Acrylic paint 

Paint brush

Lamp (I'd suggest thrift stores, lamps meant to have shades usually have them when bought new. Otherwise this or this might work.) 

Pencil

Scissors 

Glue

something to protect your work surface the painting got a bit messy.

Mostly these are things I had at home so all together this was a very cheap div. Eagle eyed readers might notice that some of these things aren't on the picture. There is a very good reason for this. Which is that I'd forgotten them until I needed them and didn't feel like taking a new picture.

What I did

I started with drawing out the petals using the first one as a stencil. It's important to make sure they are long enough to cover the light bulb, mine is thin so I make five of them have them overlapping. Realizing as I did it that this type of paper is terrible for drawing on. The lines barely show up and if I press too hard it tears.

Cutting out the petals makes it obvious that crepe paper also isn't good for cutting either it's soft and almost sticks to the scissors. But soon enough I had five large and five small petals.

Before I started painting them I tested the paint on a small scrap. I want the light to shine through and I worried the paint would be to thick. It wasn't so I went full steam ahead and painted them. 

I thinned out the paint with water to make sure light can still come through though this wasn't really needed.

An advantage of painting them compared to buying colored paper is that I could make a gradient on the petals. First painting the whole petal yellow then the base orange. The tiny petals I painted green. All of them I painted on both sides. 

Crepe paper isn't really good to paint and one broke while painting. I made a new one but was more careful going forward, limiting the amount of paint on the brush.

Leaving them to dry I turned to the attachment. The lamp is meant to have a shade and so there is already parts to fit it onto the lamp which made my life so much easier. All I needed to do was to cut a piece of wire and shape it to the attachment point. Taking it of and anchor the ends so it didn't unravel. I now had a wire circle.

At this point the petals was mostly dry and I attached them to the Wire. Folding the lowest edge of the petals and gluing it to the ring. The petals on the outside the fold on the inside so the ring it encased in the paper. I started with the large petals shaping them a bit as it did gluing them on with quite a bit of overlap. Then gluing the small petals on the outside, folding them out because it looked a bit thin and unbalanced.

I'd estimated I'd need five petals but only needed four so I took the best ones.

And then its just putting it all together. Screwing on the shade and lamp pieces. 

Results

I think it turned out quite decent though it looks a bit like a cucumber flower. There are some spots that could have used some more paint. The lamp  is in the art nouveau style so it probably had a shade not to dissimilar to this originally. The bulb is not an LED and does get hot, so it is a bit of a fire hazard. But I'll be careful not to leave it unattended. Regardless it works and now I know what to do for the ceiling lamp.