Year in review 2011

Here’s once again my summary of the past year, both personally and news years. This I have done every year since 2004, so here goes.


Contents:

• My 2011
• New Year
• Sports  & Entertainment
• Deceased celebrities
• How did my guesses about 2011 go?
• My guesses for 2012
• New Year's Resolutions. New!

My 2011
Fun first half but a tough second

That's a good brief summary of how I had it. I started the year by having Cecily here (she came already a few days before New Years). Later I went back to the U.S. for my fourth and final semester at SBCC.

I took fun classes, and lived with nice people and did a lot of fun things this year, like buying a pingpong table.
I had work experience in an organization with old retired business executive. A lot of interesting people, and a couple of tools. But overall it was an interesting thing, where I wrote profiles about them and their clients.

In the paper, The Channel, I was managing editor, but in the spring the news editor quit, so I became the new News Editor. Hella cool actually, with an amazingly nice bunch of editors. Yes, I can say hella now.

I went at Disneyland! During Cecily's birthday weekend, we were a few who went to Anaheim, where we partied, went to Disneyland and I was also on Lauren's cheer competition.
I was with The Channels at the JACC contest in Sacramento, and there I won an award! An Honorable Mention in the category of News Writing. Really cool.

I was twice in Las Vegas, and twice in San Francisco. I had not been to SF before, and I really love the city. So very cool, and there is everything. The first time was during spring break with Gaby Cecilia, and then us plus Cecily stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.

Me in San Francisco

Second time in both cities was when my parents came to visit. During their visit, we were also on the wine tasting, which was really nice.

A world event also affected us in Santa Barbara. The night between Thursday and Friday, March 11 there was a huge earthquake in Japan, with a subsequent tsunami. They warned that it also was on the way to the U.S. west coast, and that is us. People were told to stay away from the coast and move up into the mountains. It was really scary for some time. Since I, Cecily, Paige and Lauren had decided to go up to visit Lauren’s home in NorCal the day after, we decided to go earlier. During the night we drove, and listned to the radio to stay in touch with the current situation. I remember how they talked about "at 8:05 am, the wave will hit the Golden Gate Bridge." In the end it was not so serious injuries in California. We came up to Colusa in northern California and had a nice weekend.

And I rode Shelen's horse =)

The semester ended with a ceremony, and my friends from JMG, Sara and Niklas, was visiting. Later I was down in San Diego, and it ended my adventure in the United States.

The two best years of my life was over.

Thus began my tough six months. It has been difficult because of three reasons.
I missed Santa Barbara like crazy. It's not just that I think it would have been fun to be there again, there has been a slight depression over not being there. I lived the perfect life, and all was well. I not only liked it there, it was my whole life.

Then, my mom was sick. This has affected the entire rest of the year, both mentally and practically with constant trips to the hospital. She is better now, but it takes a long time before everything is fine.

Then I've also lived a most uncertain time job wise. Though I have had work almost constantly since I got back to Sweden, but I have never known more than a few weeks into the future what happens. It has always been prolonged, but I have not been able to plan something in the distant future. I still don’t know more than that.
In addition, I have been around a lot of different positions. Halmstad, editing, sport, Hylte, Laholm, People & Families and the Web. Most fun was the last thing I did in December, namely that all on my own to make the newspaper's year-in-review issue, it was fun and it came out on New Year's Eve.


It has not all been bad since I left the United States. I was in Greece, first a few days' holiday in Rhodes, and then attending the wedding in Athens between Elin and Dinonisis. It was great fun.

Elin and Dionisis at the wedding

I have also met many of my friends and I had made trips to Gothenburg and Stockholm to visit friends.
In October I was also with my Dad, and Padde in Stockholm and watched hockey, I got to see New York Rangers play in Sweden. Although they lost to LA Kings, it was a wonderful experience.

Now I'm moving to an apartment in Halmstad. Only half a year, then we will see. Should also go and visit in the U.S., but otherwise, the future is a completely blank card.



The news year of 2011.
This year has been one of the most eventful ever. So an awful lot has happened, and very big things all together.
Most important has been the so-called Arab spring. Around the Arab world there have been protests and demonstrations to create democracy. In many cases, it has succeeded, and many dictators have had to resign. In Libya, there was civil war, and that led eventually to Gaddafi (who is, moreover, there are thousands of different spellings of) got overthrown and actually killed.
One of the world's dictators were killed then, and the same happened to Osama bin Laden. He was found in Pakistan by U.S. elite forces and was shot.

Also North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il died, but because of illness. His son Kim Jong-Un has now taken over, and it is still uncertain how it will be.

Demonstrations also occurred elsewhere in the world, including in Greece because of the economic crisis, aswell in the UK and the USA. The movement Occupy Wall Street started in New York but spread to other parts of the world. The message was tonarrowing the gaps between the richest 1% and the others, "we are the 99%".

Because of all demonstrations, themagazine Time magazine appointed demonstrator as Person of the Year.

In my personal year-in-review, I mentioned the earthquake in Japan. Approximately 20,000 people died in the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The nuclear power plant in Fukushima were also damaged.

The biggest event in our region was in Norway on 22 July. First a bomb exploded near the government quarter in Oslo, killing eighth. It was the self-proclaimed Knight Templar and right-wing extremist Anders Breivik Behring who did it. Then he went, dressed as a police officer, to the island Utøya where the Social Democrats' youth organization was meeting. He kiled 69 people, mostly young people. In total 77 people died.

In Russia, a plane crashed, carrying the hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. All players died, and among them were Swedish goalie Stefan Liv, with both Olympic and World Championship gold.

In Sweeden, there were very much about Saab. There was a lot of trips back and forth and ended with the company applied for bankrupcy in December.

Also much about the politician Håkan Juholt in Sweden. He took over the Social Democrats in March, and has since acted in one controversy after the other. He turns sail all the time on many issues, including whether huruvuda Sweden would participate in the military action in Libya. It also found that he had received the incorrect reimbursements from parliament for his and his partner's apartment. It was a whole lot of other things too, and the Social Democrats has plummeted in every opinion pool available. He has no confidence with anyone.

Locally, this year’s coolest story was Laholms mayor, which accounted for the biggest scandal, when he tried to buy sex in a massage place, which he was convicted on.

Sports
Sweden made it to the European Championships in Soccer after a spectacular game against Holland.

The women's team team took bronze in the World Cup.

HBK made his worst season ever. Just three wins on the year, and a crystal clear relegation waited.

Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Rangers were bad in the playoffs, but this fall they have been crap cruel and currently leads the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg.

Peter Forsberg could both make a comeback and add his skates to the shelf within a few weeks.

Entertainment
Eric Saade won Melodifestivalen with the song Popular and finished third in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Charlie Sheen was fired from the world's best paid TV job. After a lot of tours with alcohol, drugs and prostitutes, he was fired from Two and a Half Men. He soured to, went on tour stoned and was up to the mantra "Winning!"

Swede Tomas Transtromer received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

But the most widely read author in sweden was - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with his autobiography.

Laleh made a hit by song she touched on the television program So Much Better, which includes E-Type, Lena Philipsson, Tomas Ledin, Mikael Wihe, Eva dahlgren, and Timbuktu did covers of each other's songs.

There was a lot of good in this year's Swedish Idol. The best was the winner Amanda Fondell.

Some good songs in 2011:

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor
Katy Perry - E.T.
Bruno Mars - Grenade
Pitbul / neyo / Nayer / Afro Jack - Give me everything
Key of Awesome: ET, On the Floor, Grenade, Give me everything (parodies of the songs above)
Laleh – Alla vill till himmelen, Just Nu
Shirley's Angels - I thought it was forever
Sunrise Avenue - Hollywood Hills


Deceased celebrities
Per Oscarsson, Elizabeth Taylor, Lena Nyman, Steve Jobs, Joe Frazier, Amy Winehouse, Lasse Brandeby, Sven "Plex" Petterson, Sickan Carlsson, Sven Tumba.

This is how my guesses about 2011 went:

I get a job in the U.S.
I had an internship, but got no job. Something in the future, hopefully.
I will travel around a lot in California.
It can really say I did. San Francisco twice, same with Norcal and Sacramento, San Diego, Anaheim and much more.
Melody Club or Danny will win the Eurovision Song Contest
MC were bloody awful, but Danny was two, where the final point decided.
Mikael Damberg take over the Social Democrats
Haha, They wish ...
The election campaign kicks off for the U.S. presidential election in 2012, and Sarah Palin becomes the Republican candidate large.
The election campaign is the largest degree of running, but Palin is no Republican candidate.

Well, one and two half correct answers. May take and get better for next year.

My guesses for 2012

Mitt Romney becomes the Republican presidential candidate, but Obama wins the election.
New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup.
The Social Democrats meeting new difficulties, it becomes a crisis, but Juholt remains.
Sweden go far in the European Championships. However, it will be only five medals in the Olympics.
Nothing serious happens on December 21, when it is intended that the world should perish, but it becomes a whole lot of parties!


New! New Year's Resolutions.
It's not news that I have New Year's resolutions, I have had for many years. But now I write them on the blog, and as they become public, I have more pressure on me to meet them.
Promise 1: I'll go and visit in the U.S.
Promise 2: I will somehow work out at least three times a week, preferably more. Does every week, except when I am out of town or sick.
Promise 3: I'll update the blog more often

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you have a great 2012!