Tag: life

Sunshine Blogger Award from A Jeanne in the Kitchen

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Jeanne, from the website Jeanne in the Kitchen. Thank you for the nomination, Jeanne! It was a nice surprise.

The picture says Sunshine Blogger Award, and, in the background, there are a lot of sun flowers.
Sunshine Blogger Award

Check out her blog for lots of great posts which feature recipes, food experiences, travel and awesome nature photography.

As I understand, these are the rules for participating in the Sunshine Award

  • Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
  • Thank the person who nominated you.
  • Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
  • Answer your nominators’ questions.
  • Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
  • Ask your nominees 11 questions.
  • Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Eleven Questions for Me

Below are my answers to Jeanne’s eleven questions.

Question 1 : What’s a hobby you picked up as an adult that you wish you’d started earlier?

Learning French. It is not easy to learn a second language, and it is not easier when you are older. I started learning French when I was almost 60 and a few years later, I am still working on it. I should say English is also a second language for me (Swedish is my native language). However, it is a lot easier to become fluent when you are embedded among native speakers.

Question 2 : If you could invite three fictional characters to dinner, who gets a seat?

I think that would be Asterix, Obelix, and their little dog Idéfix, or as he is called in English Dogmatix. For those who don’t know, they are characters from one of the most successful French Bande Dessinée in history. The comic takes place during the Roman occupation of Gaul, what was then France. When I was a kid, I loved this comic strip and had pretty much all the albums.

Question 3 : What’s the most ridiculous thing you believed as a kid that you maybe… held onto a little too long?

When I was a kid, I and other kids in the neighborhood believed that there lived a witch in the forest next to our neighborhood. The witch was dangerous and ate children. We used to throw stones and scream into the forest to scare the witch. Another ridiculous thing was that I believed that planet Earth was 6,000 years old and that evolution was a hoax. I held that belief until I was almost 20.

Question 4 : What’s a movie or show you can quote without trying?

Interstellar and Annihilation. For example, the quote from interstellar “When you become a parent, one thing becomes abundantly clear. And that’s that you want to make sure your children feel safe”. “Once you’re a parent, you’re the ghost of your children’s future”.

Question 5 : Describe a habit you’re proud of building over the past year?

This year I am taking exercise more seriously and I am going to the gym several times per week.

Question 6 : What’s a small daily ritual that genuinely makes your life better?

I drink coffee and I floss every day, and I think those two daily rituals make my life better.

Question 7 : Share a memory that still makes you laugh, even years later.

We used to tell our kids “Why did the ….” jokes like “Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field!” One day our 3 year old son had a “Why did the ….” Joke” too, so I listened. He said, “why did the elephant go to the store?” and I said “no why”, and he said, “to buy a moped”. The joke didn’t really work but it was so unexpected and silly that I started laughing and he thought that he had made a really great joke. It’s a funny memory.

Question 8 : If you could have a blog post, go viral, which one would you want it to be?

It is hard to pick but maybe one of my super facts: “Two events may be simultaneous for some but not for others” because it is mind blowing, or “Quasar TON 618” because it is fascinating, or “Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us” because so many still doubt this despite the fact that we’ve known this to be true for several decades. It is a challenging fact to many. I think most reasonable people would agree if only they knew something about the evidence.

Question 9 : Is there a meal you can cook from memory without a recipe. You can just walk into the kitchen and create something.

Pancakes, waffles, ham and cheese sandwiches, grilling hot dogs and put ketchup and mustard on them. OK I guess that is not very challenging. However, I can brew IPAs without following a recipe as long as I have the ingredients and I know which hops are used for flavoring and which are used for aroma.

Question 10 : Tell us about something you’re looking forward to in the next few months.

At the end of May, we will visit our grandson Jack again. He is our first grandson, and he lives with his parents (my son and his wife) in Baltimore. We have decided that we are going to go fishing.

My son Jacob is holding a fishing rod, and Jack is sitting in a baby carrier hanging on Jacob’s front.
My son fishing with his son Jack.

Question 11 : You’re invited to my house for dinner. What should I cook?

What ever you like, but Swedish meatballs would work.

Here are my questions for my nominees:

For my nominees I am going to do the same as Jeanne, answer the same questions from above, but you can also pick an alternative from the questions below. So, basically you can pick one of two alternatives for each question.

Question 1 : What’s your favorite movie(s)?

Question 2 : What is something you’ve done or experienced that is unusual?

Question 3 : What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

Question 4 : What’s something you’re really passionate about?

Question 5 : If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Question 6 : What’s your favorite way to spend a weekend or a day off?

Question 7 : What’s something you wish more people understood about you?

Question 8 : What’s your go-to comfort food or favorite meal?

Question 9 : If you could have dinner with any three people (dead or alive), who would they be?

Question 10 : What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Question 11 : What kind of music are you into?

Ten New Victims

Below are my nominees. Naturally, whether you participate or not is entirely up to you. I do not have any particular expectations, and I fully understand if you are not up to it.

Anneli from wordsfromanneli

Di from pensitivity101

Pete Springer from petespringerauthor

John Howell from johnwhowell.com

Luisa Zambrotta from words music and stories

JoAnna from Anything is Possible

Lynette d’Arty-Cross from lynettedartycross

Beth from  I didn’t have my glasses on

Cindy Georgakas from Unique Times with Cindy

The Mindful Migraine

I have been nominated once before, and these were my answers back then.

Sunshine Blogger Award

Amnesia in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Statistical Mechanics

I read today that Elon Musk said that “memory loss is a thing of the past”. It was an advert for a drug. True or not, in the past I’ve had severe memory loss. At the age of 22 I had Amnesia as a result of a ski accident in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria in Germany. But I remember it as if it was yesterday. So, in my case you can say that “memory loss is a thing of the past”.

Image showing a disintegrating brain
I had what is called post traumatic amnesia, which fortunately is temporary. Shutterstock ID: 1685660680 by MattL_Images

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a beautiful Bavarian town, and it is one of the most famous German ski resorts. Zugspitze Germany’s highest mountain is nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen providing for an impressive scenery. I was there with a large group of Swedish friends, and we stayed at a youth hostel. As is typical for a youth hostel men and women were separated. What was a bit unusual were all the loudspeakers.

Photo of Zugspitze
Zugspitze Germany’s highest mountain. Photo by op23 on Pexels.com

Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig.

At 10:00PM on our first evening at the youth hostel the loudspeakers came on and someone started shouting “Achtung! Achtung. Sei jetzt ruhig. Alle Gäste müssen gehen und sich die Zähne putzen. Musik ist verboten. Die Lichter beginnen zu dimmen.” We had to be quiet and go brush our teeth. The lights started dimming and women and men had to go to their quarters. The loudspeaker came on every now and then barking orders at us in German and all windows and doors were locked electronically. Being from Sweden we followed orders, but we were laughing about it. Suddenly new voices started shouting in the loudspeaker. It was younger sounding voices. It was still in German but this time we were told to rebel against the hotel management, we were told to refuse to go to bed, and they started singing fighting songs in German. Then, suddenly the loudspeakers went quiet. The hotel management was back. We all had to go to bed. Well, it was budget lodging after all.

The town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Photo by op23 on Pexels.com

The Ski Accident

What happened the next day I do not remember myself, but this is what I have been told. I decided to go down an icy double black diamond slope despite the sign saying that the conditions were dangerous. I fell badly, hit my head (I had no helmet), and I got a severe shoulder displacement. My arm was hanging on my back. I went looking for my skis and tried to put them back on, but some Germans came down to stop me. They were screaming at me and calling me crazy. An ambulance was called, and they sent snowmobiles to pick me up. However, the snowmobiles were unable to get there so they got a pist-machine to get me instead. I had no pain, but I was confused, and I discovered my severe shoulder displacement about 10 times before I got to the hospital. I was equally shocked every time I noticed the condition of my arm. I had no short-term memory, and I had forgotten my friends and most other things.

Me standing in the ski slope in Breckenridge leaning on a sign that says “Caution”
This is me in the ski slope when I was young. This is not Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it is Breckenridge, Colorado, but I don’t have any photos of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

My memories come back

The next 2-3 days after the accident are essentially gone. However, I remember my friends coming into my room asking me questions such as “what’s my name?”, “do you remember where we are?”. I kind of liked all the attention I got but I understood that something was not right. No one knew whether I would ever get my memory back and going though immigration and customs might be an issue when you are, well out of it. The leader and organizer of the trip was very upset. However, my memories came back very quickly within just a few hours on the second or third day of amnesia. I have to admit I was happier when I couldn’t remember anything. I can add that my left arm was in a cast.

Photo of a brain, a lightbulb, on purple background
My memories and my brain came back to normal. Photo by KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

A shocking discovery of what’s under my bed

Under my bed I found a thick book on Statistical Mechanics. At first, I did not know what it was, but then I unfortunately remembered. I had a final exam in Statistical Mechanics after our vacation. Statistical mechanics is a mathematical framework that applies statistical methods and probability theory to large assemblies of microscopic entities. More specifically, you do statistical calculations over large sets of atoms and molecules to figure out the macro condition of the corresponding gas or material. For example, temperature corresponds to the average kinetic energy of atoms, entropy is the natural logarithm of the number of real microstates corresponding to the gas’s macrostate, often loosely referred to as the disorder of the system.

Picture showing molecules of various sizes moving fast
In 1905 Albert Einstein proved the existence of molecules and atoms using statistics and an observed phenomenon called Brownian motion. Shutterstock ID: 2334052703

Statistical Mechanics includes classical Statistical Mechanics as well as its Quantum Mechanical counterpart, which is a lot more abstract and complicated. The class I was taking covered both. Some important scientists in the field are James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein, and Satyendra Nath Bose. If you love statistics and complicated mathematics, then Statistical Mechanics might be for you but more likely it will just kill your enthusiasm.

Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.
The epic opening of the first paragraph in David L. Goodstein’s States of Matter, a textbook on Statistical Mechanics.

My Exam

Once I was back in Sweden, I went to see my professor, and I explained the situation to him: “hello professor, I had a ski accident, hit my head, and I lost my memory. My amnesia made me forget statistical mechanics.”. He could also see that my left arm was in a cast. I said, “could I take the exam a little later?” He asked me “are you right-handed or left-handed?” I said, “I am right-handed”. The professor answered, “well then you take the exam on time like everybody else”. It wasn’t what I wanted to hear but I took it and I passed but not with flying colors.

Have you had Amnesia?

If you were a teacher, would you accept amnesia as an excuse for postponing an exam?