Welcome to another issue of Life in the Swedish Army, the (now bi-)weekly dump of entries from my diary, being written as I go through national service in the armed forces of Sweden. See my wu in this node if this is the first of the LitSA rants you've seen. It contains some background info which will be expanded later when I get to writing a proper LitSA metanode.

It's getting rather cold around here, though thankfully not so quickly that I can't adapt - I am used to the Swedish weather, after all. Fortunately, we're doing mainly indoor activities nowadays, studying the telecomms systems and such. Other than that, these two weeks have really been uneventful; apart from the fact that me and my roomies have brought computers into our barrack room - or rather: computer parts. we assembled the 'puters on-site, initially ending up with 1.5 working PC's and after a little bit more tweaking, two working PC's one of which was missing a chassis. Oh well. I bought a cheapo ATX miditower during the weekend. Problem solved.

You'll find that I've written very little these two weeks; in fact, there's just three entries for two weeks. If anyone expected more, I'm sorry - I just don't feel like writing every day, especially when nothing much has happened.

September 18, 2002 - 08:53
It's getting cold here in Enköping. Despite the sun, beaming down brightly from a cloudless sky all day long, the decreasing temperatures are forcing us to start dressing quite a bit more warmly. Oh well, I'm not complaining.

Notes: The Model 90 (or M90) uniform system which most (if not all) soldiers in the Swedish Army make use of, is ingeniously designed. In the lightest configuration possible (without the field jacket), you don't feel overdressed in any normal amount of sunshine (by Swedish standards). Actually, even with the field jacket on, it's not that bad even at temperatures exceeding 25 degrees C (a hot summer day). It DOES get really bad in full combat gear (which includes a vest made from a kevlar-like material). Where the M90 really excels, however, is when it gets cold out. There is almost no limit to how warm and cozy you can get this uniform!

September 18, 2002 - 09:53
We've had telecommunication systems training all week, and today is no exception, apart from a bit of medical training after lunch. Boooring! By the way, I'm handicapped this week - both of my big toes are suffering from some kind of bacterial infestation (it has a prettier name but I don't know it in english) which I'm receiving treatment for. During the course of this treatment, I can't wear my M90 boots, so I'm walking around in sandals, which looks kind of funny. I might get to go home tomorrow ...

Notes: Nope, that was a false hope. I was stuck for the rest of the week.

September 19, 2002 - 19:12
Feels like I will be needing a new notebook soon. This one is running out of pages and is looking rather shabby after spending three months in my pants pocket. Nicely enough, I think I've got a spare notebook somewhere, so I can switch to that. Speaking of notebooks, we've had more telecomms systems training today (like every day, for the next three weeks or so) and will go have a little lesson in medicine in a short while.

Finishing this entry, here's a list of stuff I've accomplished lately:
  • Got a mate interested in anime and manga.
  • Broke the hinges on a locker door.
  • Lost one of my toenails.
  • Have become an l33t telesystems hax0r.
  • Have NOT managed to order a pizza for three days despite ambitions to do so.
MEMO to self: Eat a pizza tonight!

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