Karl New York City, United States of America.

Meet ‘The System’. It’s the man. The System. The alcohol monopoly of Sweden, and I’m in the queue. Like an addict.

Watch this to get a better understanding of why it’s running things.

Basically, since a long time ago, Sweden was the highest consumers of alcohol in Europe, much thanks to the vikings. Now, it’s the lowest, no thanks to the System. The monopoly was put in place to control the consumption of alcohol. Back in the day, you used to have to keep a log book of your purchases, so that the System, and effectively, the Government, could keep a watchful eye over your alcohol consumption.

Now-a-days, we stand in line, like rats at a food dispenser.

But, it’s cheap. Like, really cheap. Like, beer for AUD$2.00 a can cheap.

This is because the System also, while owning the alcohol retail industry, also is not for profit. In other words, the alcohol is cost price. The System doesn’t believe in profiting from alcohol. This is good for me, because I can buy what would be AUD$40 Wyndham Estate Bin 555 for around AUD$10.

That’s right.

However, the Swedes think the System is expensive and are constantly trying to boycott the institution. But, from an outsider looking in, this is one of the best ideas a Government can come up with.

Not only is alcohol related death, injury, violence (domestic and street), and sickness at an all time low in this country, it is also well respected by it’s consumers and never abused.

Confused? Me too. I waited for 20 minutes in that line only to scurry around the beer and wine isles like a crack addict scurrying for 10 cents.

Same same, but different. Naa mean?

Amazon.com. Not for export.

As a parting gift from my previous employer, I was given a gift voucher for the biggest and possibly the longest online retailer on the internet. I thought, awesome, I get to buy up on Swedish dictionaries, bachelor cookbooks and Canon equipment (which are all currently sitting in my shopping cart).

After tackling the shitful GUI and architecture, I managed to get my way to the check out, only to realise that the shipping cost to Sweden was more than the cost of the items. US$100 in fact.

This completely voids the purpose of having a gift certificate, and I started to cull my wish list.

Then I got thinking. I now have access to a US office, thanks to my lovely new job…

So out of interest and for arguments sake, I punched in the New York address, low and behold, shipping was brought down to a cool $13, and, I was eligible for the “Free Super Saver” which means some items get shipped for free. To top it off, they would arrive in 1-3 business days with normal shipping, instead of 18-32 via international courier.

I think if Amazon really want to make a global impact, and continue to run at a profit (it took the company 8 years of red lining to finally turn itself around), they have to cater for offshore customers by looking long and hard at its export sector.

For those who eBay a lot, or use the postal service, you can surely testify that US$100 to ship 4 books across the pond is a load of bullshit.

Amazon, we’re waiting!

Well I’ve waited patiently for the weather to be forgiving enough to go ride, and today was the day. Since I didn’t have a bike pump, I spent the first few hours of my walk through Stockholm looking for a bike shop or sporting equivalent but with no avail. I mentioned this to my work mate and it all became very clear… you see Stockholm loves bikes, and Stockholm loves you.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the Cykelpump (warning: link is in Swedish). A free initiative by the Stockholm council which allows anybody with a bike to roll up and inflate their tyres. What’s the best part about it? They’re Presta fits. Which suits me perfectly!

What a cool city. The only downside is, that when there’s no snow, there’s mud… and myself and the bike were covered a little. Time to get some new bike gear.

More photos to come, I have no battery left on my cameras and no Aus to Euro converters. I expect one to arrive Monday. Till then, Adjö!

No doubt it tastes geeky.

If you’ve got time to waste and are up for a laugh, then look no further than cursebird.com (thanks to madcaow).

As the picture suggests, it’s a realtime feed of people swearing on Twitter.

Today is particularly interesting, as I was watching the feed being flooded with a lot of disgruntled Amercians are now waking up cursing the existence Thanksgiving and the tragedy of Mumbai.

In any case, it’s a laugh.

Watch and learn.

Thanks to Fiona for this one.

Twitter is really becoming the only way to engage in real time current events. With all the insanity taking place in Mumbai, you get a real feel for the desperation, anguish and intensity of residents, family and loved ones via Twitter.

Spot it.

Also check the poor souls caught up in Bangkok’s nightmare. Twitter x Bangkok

The time has come to get to the bottom of this. I’ve always kind of ignored the infamous colour profile problem in Photoshop, but seeing as that my photos will be the best way of describing what life is like in Sweden, I finally fired up Google and found what I was looking for (only after realising that spelling ‘color’ is the only way to search these days).

The Mysterious ‘Save For Web’ color shift.

Ever wonder why your colours shift dramatically when exporting without an embedded colour profile? Firefox and Safari are two of the few browsers that do read the embedded profiles, however IE does not, and this means your photos, web graphics and ultimately masterpiece designs are shifted across all clients.

Get on this tutorial on how to configure Photoshop and get your photos tight and right.

Hello everyone.

I’ve finally made it. WordPress saved a draft of me talking about Helsinki before my internet time expired, so I’m going to back track a little to let you all what’s been going.

After sleeping for most of the flight from Tokyo (inbetween watching Die Hard and Tropic Thunder, and buying 5 euro G&T’s), I managed to pull up ok. Finland was a pretty nice place. The people & staff were super friendly and the beer was malty and warm. There was snow all over the runway and I was surprised at how smooth the landing was. It was the first time I saw a plane get hosed down after it landed to get rid of the ice.

I was held up in Helsinki with another 3 hour delay. I got word from my work crew that there was a snow storm smashing Arlanda Airport to smithereens, and no flights were able to land. Helsinki is just under an hour away, so of course, we had to sit and wait. Again.

My bags have been lost in the change from Helsinki to Stockholm because of the snow. So again, I’m here in a new city, with no idea, and no clothes to change into. This happened once before when I first moved to Melbourne for a new job.

I was supposed to land at 4pm this afternoon, but I finally got into the apartment at 2:30am. My new flatmates have been patiently waiting up for me, thanks dudes!

This apartment is dope. It’s a mad 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom type deal, hardwood floors, insulation (no socks, jeans and a shirt at the moment, even though it’s snowing outside), stupidly fast internet and in a great location. I’ll put some pics up tomorrow!

Time to pass out! Love to all.

This is my last post from Tokyo. I haven’t slept in almost 2 days or something. I’m very tired. Had a blast in Tokyo. Please visit my Flickr stream for latest updates of madness.

I’ll update this from Stockholm when my brain is reconfigured! Ja ne!!