Today I heard for the first time a term coined by Swedish author Micael Dahlén: unmustify. An active way to remove some of the things we think we have to do in life. There are so many things on our agenda that we think we have to do. Attend a gathering, meet someone, plan things … | Continue reading
One of the reasons I chose Bear for blogging about is the devotion the creator, Herman Martinus, has for the product. My product is my garden, as he puts it. For the same reason, I admire bloggers like Jason Kottke and Seth Godin. They started blogging many years ago and have con … | Continue reading
One of the reasons I chose Bear for blogging about is the devotion the creator, Herman Martinus, has for the product. My product is my garden, as he puts it. For the same reason, I admire bloggers like Jason Kottke and Seth Godin. They started blogging many years ago and have con … | Continue reading
One of today's clients had built his own house in the 70s. I asked if he was in the construction business. No, far from it, he told me. He explained that he had worked late nights and weekends for a year to finish it. A contractor had put up the walls and the roof, but he had don … | Continue reading
Today is one of those days when I feel empty of ideas for something to write about. It got me thinking about creativity and inspiration. Most things in life are structured like: We want to achieve something. We perform an action. We get a result. I am thirsty. I drink water. The … | Continue reading
Yesterday's rambling thoughts about the uncertainty of blogging in English have been expressed several times on this blog. It's easy to think to oneself: "What the hell, is it always going to be like this? It was the same shit five years ago". But is that really true? Five years … | Continue reading
I had planned to write a post about which text editor I use and why. Another idea was to write about why my next phone might be a Pixel instead of an iPhone. But it feels so incredibly boring to write about. I don't know what it is, but lately these things feel completely pointle … | Continue reading
Did you know that Sweden is one of the top 10 coffee-consuming countries in the world? We love coffee! Not just the coffee itself, but the whole experience. We love to fika. I myself started drinking this delicious beverage quite late, when I was about 18 years old. I was working … | Continue reading
— What is an artist, the apprentice asked the master. — One who keeps going. Swedish actor Thorsten Flinck sometimes tells this short story when asked what defines a true artist. One who keeps going... Keeps going regardless of successes or setbacks. Keeps going even when inspira … | Continue reading
I read Yordi's thoughtful post, Embracing the Pain, and got the urge for a new July Reply. Running has never been my thing, but that was not the essence of his post anyway. What caught my eye were these last lines: Life seems designed to throw challenges at you, again and again. … | Continue reading
Yesterday I was watching a Swedish documentary. In one of the scenes, the musician Errol (aka Eddie Meduza) says: If you think too much, you go crazy. Take life as it comes. True words — and all too easy to forget. We put so much emphasis on thinking in our modern society that th … | Continue reading
Today I did a couple of jobs in an area where I don't like to work. It's not that it's threatening, dirty, or that I have bad memories of it. It's just that I get a bad vibe, something that grates on me. Often, when I visit clients, regardless of the neighborhood, I get a sense o … | Continue reading
I recently watched the documentary Gisèle Freund, portrait intime d’une photographe visionnaire and one of the scenes featured photographs taken by Gisèle during the celebration of the French National Day in 1954. The images were captivating, perhaps the most fascinating ones fro … | Continue reading
At the gym today, the song "Silver" by Kent, one of my favorite Swedish bands, was playing. The lyrics are a flashback to when the singer was young. His parents tell him that no matter what happens, no matter how he feels, they will be there as long as they can. They share some w … | Continue reading
Today I heard a quote by the Swedish writer Lars Norén that stuck with me: The writer must first create the writer. Interesting thought. How do we go about accomplishing that? Maybe we should start by looking at how not do it, since it's easy to fall into that trap. Wading throug … | Continue reading
Have you ever checked to see what your blog posts looks like when being printed on paper? I visited some of my favorite blogs, spread across various blogging platforms. They all had one thing in common: None of them provided print-specific styles. This means that when someone wan … | Continue reading
I had dinner with a close friend yesterday. Afterward, I sent a photo I took of her. She wrote back that she thought it looked awful. I replied that I thought it was beautiful, which I honestly did. I wrote that maybe it's like hearing your voice; it always feels a little strange … | Continue reading
Pete Doherty's reflection on happiness in the documentary Pete Doherty: Stranger in My Own Skin struck a chord with me: Maybe happiness is not being able to know what’s gonna happen. Maybe if we knew the end of the story there wouldn’t be anymore story. Thought-provoking. As if h … | Continue reading
I recently did work in the Swedish archipelago. So beautiful! On days like that, it's hard to believe you're at work. This time, the sky opened up, and the rain poured down for a short while. The sky looked amazingly powerful as I stood on the shore and looked out over the ocean. … | Continue reading
I heard an interview with Rachel "Yoga Girl" Bråthén. She talked about how certain things in her past, like being vegan, became a kind of identity. It was all or nothing. "This is me. This is who I am. End of story!" It's easy to get too attached to that kind of self-image, wheth … | Continue reading
If you've been here before, you may have visited the Blog Inspiration page. It contains a lot of good and useful resources when it comes to blogging: writing, design, blog challenges, webrings, shortcuts... Now there's one more: Bear Blog. It's the blogging platform I use and lov … | Continue reading
“Not everything has to be for sale.” Pretty obvious, right? But it’s also very easy to forget, especially when it comes to our creative endeavors. It's so easy to fall into this trap. We create = we should get paid. But who are we creating for? Often, the answer is that we create … | Continue reading
This text starts with a blank page. There is a rough idea of what it will be about, but not much more than that. It usually works best this way, I think. As usual, my phone and computer are set to "do not disturb" when I'm writing. Even the basic idea itself often comes out of so … | Continue reading
I have about twenty blogs in my feed reader. I love seeing how others organize their writing — structure, word choice, and phrasing. It's like looking at a painting. I often think: I'll never be able to write like that. And it's true. I will never be able to write like another bl … | Continue reading
I heard someone describe an artist as "someone who never takes a break from being an artist”. I think that's an excellent description. As everyday bloggers, we may not call ourselves artists, but we can certainly call ourselves creators. Our inspiration for blogging varies, but t … | Continue reading
Today marks the end of the month-long Junited challenge. Here’s my complete list of Junited 2024 links. Thank you very much to all the participants! I feel like I've discovered more blogs and interesting content in this one month than I have in my entire life. The end of Junited … | Continue reading
I heard an interview about the Swedish artist Laleh. Her career story is both fascinating and inspiring. She appears in a movie and receives several offers for other roles, but firmly turns them down. Laleh has already made a decision: “I want to focus on music.” She gets a recor … | Continue reading
It was a very stressful day at work today. 12 hours straight. I feel exhausted, so writing will have to wait for another day. Also, there were some nice emails I wanted to answer and a few new posts on Why We Blog and Our Blogging Workflow, so there was no time to write. Besides, … | Continue reading
I heard an interview with Swedish artist Marie Bergman. She was talking about the time after she decided to leave the group Family Four and pursue a solo career. People were outraged! Family Four was supposed to be the "happy family". This was not acceptable! She even received th … | Continue reading
I've been blogging for about 20 years (except for a couple of years off). I love it! There are several reasons why I like blogging: Writing There's something wonderful about seeing sentences grow, letter by letter, on a blank page. It's progress and full awareness in one beautifu … | Continue reading
Yesterday, I launched the July Reply blog challenge. I like the idea and hoped there would be a lot of interest, but so far, it's been lukewarm. For the past few weeks, I have posted something new every day. Many of the texts that I've been proud of have barely gotten any attenti … | Continue reading
I was listening to a podcast where the author Ray Bradbury was mentioned. It was revealed that he had a note above his typewriter that said, “Don't think”. He explained that as a creative person, it's more about feeling and less about thinking. He added that the worst thing you d … | Continue reading
There's one week left of Junited, the June blogging challenge where bloggers share interesting posts from others. I called it a blog love letter. July Reply is a way to take those love letters to the next level. Instead of just passing “secret notes” to each other, let’s build re … | Continue reading
Before I resumed blogging just over a year ago, I did a lot of research and contemplation. I considered things such as: Blogging in Swedish or English? Which platform should I use? Blog anonymously or not? What should the blog be about? What should its name be? Ultimately, I got … | Continue reading
Inspired by Juha-Matti Santala's post, Short history of my blogging journey, I decided to write a text about my blogging journey, which has been a bit bumpy, to say the least. I started blogging about 20 years ago using Movable Type, which was pretty much the only tool available … | Continue reading
Yesterday, we celebrated Midsummer here in Sweden. Of all the holidays of the year, Midsummer is the one I like the most. It's a beautiful time of the year, and it's something different when it's mostly celebrated outdoors (compared to, for example, Christmas and New Year). In ou … | Continue reading
As soon as I greeted the client, I knew what was coming... This is not going to be pleasant, I thought. It turned out to be true. The person in question was not mean or angry, "just" very rude. Always knew best and interrupted as soon as I tried to answer. In short, an unpleasant … | Continue reading
Hi Robert! Just thought I'd check in. Felt a bit quiet in our common chat. Just get in touch if there’s anything or if you want to talk ☺️ I got this message from a friend today. We are some former colleagues who still keep in touch. We see each other from time to time and talk i … | Continue reading
On my way home from work, I realized that something must have happened. The closer I got to home, the later the arrival time showed on the map app. It turned out to be a serious traffic accident involving a truck. An hour later, after I had parked my car and started to walk home, … | Continue reading
BlogBoost is an Apple shortcut designed to motivate and inspire blogging. The shortcut is regularly updated with support for more text editors. Once installed, there are seven menu options to choose from: Ten Topics – choose a topic to blog about. It also adds your current locati … | Continue reading
Visited a new cafe. A very cozy place. The aroma made it impossible to resist getting something good to go with the coffee. The walls were decorated with plants and art. One of the pictures caught my eye. It said: Always be a little kinder than necessary. Wise words! And so simpl … | Continue reading
I've met a few people who want to start blogging, or blog more often, but have trouble coming up with things to write about. This inspired me to write about what inspires me (the meta world of blogging). I would also love to read about what inspires other bloggers. We already hav … | Continue reading
Most of my posts are inspired by everyday experiences. It could be something that happened at work or a conversation I overheard in a coffee shop. There are endless blog posts up for grabs if we pay attention to our surroundings. If you browse through my blog posts, you will prob … | Continue reading
I really enjoy my job! It's varied and flexible. I have the opportunity to visit different places and meet new people that I wouldn't have otherwise. Some days are a little longer, some shorter. In the end, it all balances out. However, the voice in the head tends to ignore the p … | Continue reading