Sunday, July 13, 2025
A notebook I got for present. I heard someone say that we need to understand our past in order to create our future. But is that really true? Do we have to “understand” our history? Isn’t it enough that we’ve learned from it — that we’ve used it to shape better conditions moving forward? How can we even claim to understand the choices we made back then, when we’re no longer the same person?
Sunday, July 13, 2025
AI-generated image, for fun and context. I’m using the lovely mnml theme for my blog and decided to try letting AI improve it from a readability perspective. I used Gemini for the task, since I have a free Pro trial. Here’s the prompt I started off with: Edit these styles with good readability in mind, giving it a pleasant relaxed feeling while also being beautiful. I kept the suggested color scheme as it was, but I did ask for a slightly darker background for dark mode.
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Elderly man in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I recently overheard a conversation where someone proudly shared a photo of their grandchildren. The lighthearted response was a joke about the grandchildren doing the same in reverse: “Look, this is my grandmother. Isn’t she cute? Guess what she said today?” At first, it made me smile — but the thought lingered and slowly turned into a rather sad reflection. In some cultures, this scenario wouldn’t be far-fetched at all.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Street painter outside The Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. I’ve put together a Micro.blog Color Palettes page to go along with the Micro.blog Styles collection. You don’t have to use Micro.blog to enjoy the palettes, of course. Just rename the variables to match your own theme (you might need to do that even if you’re on Micro.blog). I’m currently using the mnml theme with the Swedish Sunshine palette. Each palette comes with styles for both light and dark mode.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Sign outside a house I once visited. This day started out with a bit of a challenge… The first client I visited had a (false) preconception about why I was there. I tried to explain, but she wouldn’t have it. Luckily, I’ve learned the value of a firm no. So I told her — it’s either my way or no way at all. I wouldn’t say we got into an argument, but we came pretty close.
Friday, July 11, 2025
My car with a flat tire. I was recently listening to a thoughtful interview with the wonderful Finnish singer Arja Saijonmaa. The conversation touched on something we can all relate to — life’s inevitable setbacks. She said something that really stayed with me. That every difficulty, no matter how overwhelming it might feel in the moment, often turns out to have a hidden purpose when we look back. What seems like a dead end can, with time, reveal itself to be a necessary detour — something that led us somewhere we never would have gone otherwise.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Right now, I’m sitting at The International Bar. It’s just around the corner from where I live. Every now and then, I drop by for a beer or two. I like the atmosphere. The staff is super friendly, and I often bump into some regulars. Like one guy — an aspiring author from Germany. We usually chat a bit about reading, writing, and whatever’s going on in the world. Always a good vibe!
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
I just finished reading Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull. I loved it! So interesting and inspiring. One thing Ed said that really stuck with me (among many others) was when he talked about sharing your work with others. He said: Don’t wait for things to be perfect before you share them with others. Show early and show often. It’ll be pretty when we get there, but it won’t be pretty along the way — and that’s as it should be.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
Micro.blog has a neat built-in feature for creating a blogroll. It seems like quite a few people have missed this little gem — maybe because it’s kind of “hidden” under Design → Edit Recommendations. If you’re using Micro.blog, I highly recommend giving it a go. The recommendations can then be accessed by anyone through a Recommends [number of] blogs link on your profile (here’s mine). There’s also a Blogroll shortcode plug-in that lets you embed the list on any page you like.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
My nephew, Sigge There’s one challenge most bloggers face: discovering their unique voice. And honestly, the only real way to find it is to just keep blogging. With a bit of luck (and a lot of writing), we’ll get there eventually. But keeping that voice alive? That can be just as tricky. It’s easy to get distracted by the glow of upvote buttons and traffic stats. That’s one of the reasons I really like the no likes, no stats approach.
Monday, July 7, 2025
Sign at a café in Chiang Mai, Thailand I really appreciate the new features available on this fresh little blog home of mine. I like how easy it is to create photo albums and track books. And I love that I can publish blog posts straight from my favorite text editor (iA Writer). I also appreciate not having some of the usual features. For instance, there’s no built-in analytics by default.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
I’ve spent this Sunday styling my blog. Considering the Zen of CSS, I’d say that counts as a pretty impressive meditation session. As most bloggers know, it’s always a work in progress. A never-ending cycle of tweaking and playing around, but also a genuinely fun way to be creative while learning new things along the way. Recent changes Updated unique looks for the Books, Movies, Music, and Notes categories. Photos now appear without text on the main view.
Saturday, July 5, 2025
I just read the post Thank you for being you by Ruben Verweij. He writes that his blog has just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Happy blogbirthday! 🥳 I think many bloggers can relate to that kind of joy. I know I can. A blog isn’t just a digital platform. It’s more like an entity — a close friend, a family member, even our better half. A blog is a buddy.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
I heard on the Swedish news that our dear neighbors in Norway had a bit of a bummer the other day. About 40,000 Norwegians received an official message from Eurojackpot (a big lottery game across Europe) saying they were millionaires. Turns out, there was a sliiight miscalculation. The winnings had been calculated 10,000 times too high. Some people posted their million-dollar smiles on social media, only to be told later that they’d actually won just $11.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Yay, I got my ”IndieWeb is Punk” T-shirt today! 😎 This awesome creation is a perfect example of what the indie punk DIY spirit can lead to. It all started with Jamie Thingelstad publishing the blog post IndieWeb is Punk. I commented that the title would make an awesome t-shirt. Jim Mitchell picked up the idea, and within hours, it was a reality. Now, just a couple of weeks later, I’m wearing it here in Sweden.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
With this new home for my blog, I’m still on the limited Micro.one $1/month plan. It’s a surprisingly generous setup, with neat features like book tracking and photo collections. Coming from Bear Blog — a wonderful platform in its own minimalistic “bear necessities” kind of way — this feels like a whole new world. Honestly, it’s a bit overwhelming, and very easy to get carried away. That’s exactly what I think has happened to me lately.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Junited 2025 is over, which means it’s time for JulyReply 2025! If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you might remember I did this last year too. Can we get even more participants this time? Let’s make it happen! 🤩 The idea is simple — and no, it’s not a contest or anything too demanding. It’s all about encouraging bloggers to interact by replying to each other’s posts.
Monday, June 30, 2025
I’ve been blogging for about 20 years now — give or take a couple of breaks along the way — and I can honestly say it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever stuck with. Blogging has been a creative outlet, a tech playground, and, most importantly, a way to connect with people I might never have met otherwise. There are several reasons why I continue to love it, and each one has grown in meaning over time.
Monday, June 30, 2025
Photo challenge day 30: Solitude This is my final entry for the June 2025 Photo Challenge. And here they are — all my contributions from the month. It was my first time participating, and I absolutely loved it. Such a great idea! It’s been both fun and inspiring to come up with photo ideas every day, and a real joy to see what everyone else has shared too. 😍
Sunday, June 29, 2025
I recently listened to a documentary about the artist Charli XCX. It featured, among others, the Swedish songwriter, producer, and friend Noonie Bao, who’s been with her since the very beginning. Noonie shared how happy and moved she feels seeing Charli’s success. Having witnessed all the hard work and dedication firsthand, she talked about how Charli stood her ground when others doubted her, always trusting her own intuition. As Noonie wisely put it:
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Creating a rainbow logo or category styles takes me a long time. Too long, most people would probably say. As an amateur, I have to search for answers and do a lot of trial and error. But that’s not really why it takes so long. And it’s not about chasing perfection either. It’s because I find it relaxing. For me, it’s like meditation. A perfect mix of focus and calm.
Friday, June 27, 2025
I remember a house inspection I did a while back. Before I started looking around, I asked the owner if any of the bathrooms had been renovated recently. He said no. Then we got to the first one, and it looked almost brand new. When I mentioned that, he said: “Oh no, this must’ve been redone at least… let me think… five years ago.” Crazy! No matter how much money someone has, that kind of thing still blows my mind.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
In her latest post, Véronique writes that she’s been thinking about posting daily “card pulls” and journaling prompts. She then adds: …but idk if that would be too much for people who aren’t interested in that stuff… I emailed her and said that I totally think she should go for it if she feels like it. I’d appreciate it, which probably means some other readers would too. After writing that, I realized I’m very much the same way myself.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Since I’m in the one step at a time process of moving my blog, and today picked Ava’s post I like getting older for my Junited 2025 list, I figured it was the perfect time to move this 2024 post of mine over here. I was listening to an interview with the Swedish artist Peter Jöback. They were talking about aging, and he said: I feel like my life started after I turned 50.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Want to sprinkle some rainbow magic on your Micro.blog during Pride Month? Or why not keep the joy going all year round? Rainbows never go out of style! 🌈✨ Just hop over to ‘Design → Edit CSS’ and paste in the code below. I’m using the mnml theme, but it should play nicely with most standard ones. .site-title { background: linear-gradient(to right, #ef5350, #f48fb1, #7e57c2, #2196f3, #26c6da, #43a047, #eeff41, #f9a825, #ff5722); -webkit-background-clip: text; -webkit-text-fill-color: transparent; } Update: Here’s a way to add a colorful border to your avatar too.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
We often only see the finished product, not the messy journey behind it. That thought struck me while I was listening to an interview with the Swedish artist Per Gessle, best known for his work with the band Roxette. When asked about the key to success, he replied: “You have to dare, and you have to fail, and you have to make a fool of yourself, and you have to do terrible things to do good things.
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
We’ve all been there: the anticipation of something great, only to be met with disappointment. It’s easy to have high expectations in life. A much-anticipated sci-fi film, a dream trip promising fantastic experiences, a project we strongly believe in. Then reality doesn’t live up to those expectations. We become disappointed, and everything feels like a big failure. What if we lowered our expectations a bit? We can still look forward to things with joy and strive to realize our ideas, but our happiness and well-being don’t have to depend on the final result.
Monday, June 23, 2025
Lately, it’s struck me that I now prefer books, movies, and shows that feel real and take place more or less in modern times. I used to love animated films, fantasy, and stories with historical themes. But not so much anymore. Maybe it’s just a phase I’m going through. I don’t know. Still, I find it interesting. What shapes the different phases we go through in life? External circumstances? Inner insights?
Sunday, June 22, 2025
I listened to an interview (it’s in English by a Swedish journalist) with the American songwriter and producer Desmond Child. He mentioned that he had used one of his creations in three different productions with three different artists: If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man) – Bonnie Tyler You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi Kings & Queens – Ava Max Here’s a short audio clip with the intros back to back.
Saturday, June 21, 2025
A while back, Ava kindly invited me to take part in her wonderful initiative, the Bear blog question challenge. You can read my answers here. Now that I’m on a new platform, I thought it would be fun and interesting to do a Micro.blog version of the same challenge. Below are Ava’s original questions, but with Bear swapped out for Micro.blog (and the tags part removed, since MB doesn’t use tags).