Last year when I went to the U.S., I had the unexpected fortune of encountering a customs officer who actually treated me like a living object. I even told her so.

“This is my first time being treated like a person, you know. Going through these customs control thingies.”, says I.
“Oh… I’m sorry?”, says she, with a guilty grin.

Most of my trips to the states, I’ve over-thought this situation quite a bit. I’ve reasoned erroneously that these guys probably have a lot of tired and annoyed people going through, so I should at least make an effort and smile. That smile has put me inside rooms with mexicans and other dirty peoples (note the sarcasm, by the way) for 3-4 hours at a time. That smile, to me a way to say, “I know you’re just doing your job, but I don’t hate on you for it,” was to them a sign of suspicion.

So a few years ago I had enough. I knew I was going to be treated like excrement glaced with vomit, so I gave them exact, precise honesty. Frowning, grunting out replies, staring at them fully expecting the treatment I was surely going to be having, and I had it every time but that one time last year. And amusingly, I’ve not been questioned extensively or brought to any rooms with mexicans since.

Then came ESTA. Going to a country which is a part of the Schenger agreement (I think that’s the one) lets you, without a visa, enter the country for up to 90 days. Except someone in the states decided this was awfully unsafe, so they put up ESTA, a web site with seemingly no meaning whatsoever* , where you are asked questions you will be asked again, later.

(* except to deny you entry BEFORE you fly all the way over there, which I guess is a good thing — I’ve heard of people being sent all the way back home)

Regardless, what are these questions then, you might ask? Anyone who’s gone to the states has no doubt (whilst giggling quietly to themselves) answered these absolutely ridiculous questions.

I mean… good thing I said No to all of those, right! Phew. Just look at (B), for example. If I was — and to any U.S. officials swinging by to see why the ESTA content are being published on my blog, I might assert that I am not — planning on “engaging in criminal or immoral activities”, I’m sure I’d be tempted for at least a second to answer Yes, honest as I am.

The big dump of excrement in my eye though is that this ridiculous form underwent a change as of March this year.

It now charges you $14 per application.

So not only am I forced to waste my time on the above bullshit, but I’m charged to do so.

You are using a “Team Provisioning Profile” and it expired. You went to renew and download it, and noted “Managed by Xcode” and the “Renew” button was grayed out.

The solution: delete the profile from Organizer in Xcode, then at the top click “Refresh” (right by “Automatic Device Provisioning”). Organizer will fetch a new provisioning profile with a new expiration date.

Intuitive indeed.

The ads in Gmail sort of figure out what you “want” and show you ads related to that. If you have an email discussion talking about wanting to get a new BMW, Gmail will show you BMW retailer ads.

So when I the other day got ads about “Chinese women wanting a man”, it got me thinking. For one, I have no interests in Chinese women, whether they want a man or not, and I haven’t been talking about Chinese women anywhere either. Except for the fact I write and receive emails in Japanese.

Then earlier today I got an ad which reassured me that, “there are plenty of reasons why you can’t get an erection”. I’m fine with the emails, really, but when this kind of shit appears as a “legitimate” ad, it’s annoying on a new level.

I wonder if Google ever realized that the better their “targeted ads” become, the more hated they will be, because as they start to “hit home”, that’ll trigger some very sensitive buttons with people.

I mean, if I was having erection issues, do you think I’d be thrilled and excited and grateful that Google blares it in my face? I’m sure I could google it on my own, thanks.

I’m so happy I live in this country, where it’s possible to go to uni at the age of 30. In Japan, people start pressuring you about it at the age of, oh, 5. Months.

I digress. At uni, I’m now taking two courses — engineering methodology and linear algebra. The former is a pain, the latter is fun. The former mainly comprises of the following:

Be put into a group with 7 other people, plan and execute a fairly big project (1-2 months of 16 hours/week worth of “work”), and then present the results. And write a bunch of reports about how it all went.

Said project turned out to be assembling and programming a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot. I was “fairly” lucky with my team mates, except that the majority want to “take the short cut” and sort of just pretend not to exist so they don’t have to do anything.

I don’t blame them, really. We were a pretty disorganized bunch from the get go, and it was really hard to get everyone things to do. There were only so many sub-components of the robot you could make before you ran out, and building the robot required at most two people — more, and there’re too many hands fidgeting.

I also don’t blame them for starting to talk shit about me behind my back. It happened after we had been sitting in a “seminar” which was obligatory, talking about a chapter in the engineering methodology book we had been required to read. First though, to get some perspective, this is the deal:

I’m working 50% plus attending school. That means I have 4 less hours each (week)day to studying or relaxing. This is considered normal in most countries, but in Sweden, being a uni student is considered the equivalent of working approximately 125%. In effect, I’m now occupied 175% with work and/or school. That’s 70 hour weeks.

So there we are in the seminar, and people haven’t done what they were supposed to. The assignment clearly said “read the book and then pick out stuff from parts 2-4 and bring to the seminar”, and people interpreted “parts 2-4″, conveniently, as “chapters 2-4″ (which were all in part 1). So we take 15 mins where people read up “real quick” on the other parts, and then discuss… and…

… it’s just retarded. Absolute, raw, unfiltered retardation. People were saying things like,

A. “Okay guys, so! The next item on the list goes: ensuring group unity. Anyone have anything to say?”
B. “Oh yeah, we totally need to have group unity. It’s like, super important. Without group unity we won’t be as effective and such.”
A. “That’s awesome, B. How do we ensure group unity?”
B. “You know, we have to stick together and shit. Back each other up.”
A. “Perfect.” (writes this whole thing down on lap top)

And it spirals downward from there. I’m sitting there watching these people with this empty, glazed over expression in my eyes, and at some point I just involuntarily start grunting agreement in an extremely sarcastic voice. I’m serious when I say I felt like someone was controlling me, because even though I knew how bad it was, I couldn’t stop myself.

Meanwhile someone pulls out their math book, walks over to me, and starts asking me questions about some problem. In the middle of the seminar. I look at the book for a brief moment, then turn back to the room and pretend nothing’s happened. So totally not me.

Then eventually I just stand up and say, “Well since you guys are doing math, I’m gonna head home and work.” and leave.

And that’s where it sort of started. People laughing for no reason when I say or do something. It bothered me initially, but then I stopped caring. I also stopped caring about courtesy in the group, coming at appointed times and leaving when we’re done, doing everything I can for the project, but nothing for the people in it. They’d stop talking when I came into the room, or even say things like “The group is already falling apart, *laugh laugh chuckle chuckle*” when I did. I always felt like confronting them when that happened, but instead I just grinned back and said something like “Yeah, me and (random name of person who’s also not there at the moment) have decided to dump you guys from the project.” And I realized it was because I actually don’t mind that they use me as “the bad guy” to talk about whenever I’m not around.

I’m comfortably fine being an asshole, and I know I’m being one. And I know it’s partly my fault. It feels good. It’s so unlike me, it’s as if it’s not me at all.

It’s partly my fault. When I started my classes I was determined at a completely separate level from the others in my group — all of them. I was dead set on doing everything in my power to get everything done as fast and efficiently as possible. I just came into it with this zero tolerance for “unnecessity” that made me lash out or do things I normally never would. The others ranged from “want to get grade” to “want to do something good with the time”, which I’d say is the healthy, normal state (or the latter, at least).

And I just don’t take bullshit the way I used to. At some point in the last couple of years, my patience has just… diminished.

Not great, perhaps. But there are other, good things too in this.

Throughout all of this, I realized something dark and dirty about myself. Throughout my life, I’ve loathed being hated. The mere thought of someone out there hating me, or even slightly disliking me, has always haunted me and affected my actions. Now, seeing these people around me being petty as they are (and they are; even if it is partly my fault), I’m struck by the realization that I absolutely couldn’t care less if they hate, or dislike, me, and if I don’t care about people I’ve been around 16 hours a week for the last two months, why on earth should I care what a stranger on the street thinks about me?

I should rather care about what those I care about think, or those I respect think, or not care about what anyone thinks and just do what I think is right. Not thinking about what other people think is a mindblowing concept, to me.

Late bloomer, what can I say.

Anyway, the iPhone does not love linux. I knew this though. And this isn’t so much me complaining that the iPhone doesn’t love linux, as it is me marvelling at the grotesqueness of it all.

Look at what I am forced to do, in order to install “apps” from the Apple store onto my iPhone — and no, this is not about jailbreaking the phone, although you might think it is considering all the steps:

1. I have to get Windows or Mac OS. Yep. I read about iTunes in Wine (Windows emulation in linux) and heard it was “garbage”. I do this. I put Windows back on my lap top. For my iPhone. Because it is my master.

2. I have to install iTunes. I do this. Whilst asking myself “why must I…?” I do this. Obediently.

3. I have to confirm my Apple Account, FROM INTERNET EXPLORER. Hang on a minute here.
- I get an email to my gmail address,
- with a confirmation link,
- and clicking it in Firefox
- gives me the Apple “download iTunes for free!!!11111oneneone” page …
- and then when I open iTunes
- I get the “you have not validated your account — please check your email and follow the confirmation link” …
- so finally after many laps of chasing my own ass,
- I try the confirmation link in IE
- and voilá. Beau-fucking-tit-ful. Welcome to Apple Computing. We come in peace from the 1990′s. We mean you no harm.

Thus, finally, I can get on with installing apps on my iPhone. Great hardware, by the way, pity about its maker.

*) Only a select few understand that one and it has nothing to do with Harry Potter.

This ought to be the shortest blog post I’ve done in years.