Jens Lekman is a Swedish musician who plays casual, but elaborate, pop music. This song, ‘Pocketful of Money’, is from his Oh You’re So Silent Jens album. There are a few songs that I really enjoy on the album, and a few that I think are terrible, but this particular song really stood out.

I love the smooth and simple sound of this track. It’s unfortunate that he decided to throw the Beat Happening sample in the chorus. It feels so out of place and unexpected that it nearly ruins the song for me. I got used to it after a couple of listens, but the first time it came on I thought someone behind me had started singing. This gave me quite a fright, as I was leaning back on my computer chair with my eyes closed in what was supposed to be an empty apartment. Nearly fell straight off my chair.

What happens when take Garfield comic strips, which aren’t really that funny, and completely remove Garfield from them? They turn into genius pieces of surrealism.

Garfield Minus Garfield, if you haven’t already come across it, is fantastic. I just love these.

The results are in for the Whispers short fiction contest. I, unfortunately, didn’t place, but I’m okay with that. The contest closed with 73 entries, the majority of which I thought were of quite high quality.

The winning entry is really good, and I somehow missed it when I was reading through. I read the entries before and after, but I must have skipped over it in my RSS reader. It’s worth a read.

Also, congratulations to Paul for being a Reader’s Choice runner-up. Out of that many entries, and that much talent, it’s definitely an honour to be mentioned.

I like these flash fiction writing prompts. They’re great little jump-starts for your creativity.

I’ve been spending my free time the last few days reading through the Whispers short fiction contest entries. The contest is closed now, and there are a lot of great stories posted.

Absolute Vanilla, or rather her chicken, posted a meme on her weblog and tagged the world. I figured I might as well give it a go.

Four jobs I’ve held:

1. Paper Boy - A rite of passage for many young kids. I still remember that glorious feeling when receiving the first cheque, as well as that sinking feeling after realizing soon after that paper boys are basically the sweatshop workers of the west. I quit as soon as they changed the deliver time from 5:00pm to 06:00am.
2. Concession Stand Worker - Through my high-school years, I worked at a concession stand at the hockey arena in town. The benefit of this was getting in to all the events and concerts for free. Unfortunately, I had also had to spend my teens smelling faintly of hot dogs and chocolate.
3. Technical Support Analyst
4. Java Developer - My current occupation. While not quite as delicious as the title sounds, I still really enjoy it.

Four movies I’ve watched over and over again:

1. The Indiana Jones Trilogy
2. The Goonies
3. Army of Darkness
4. Hackers - I loved this movie in my teens, despite being fully aware of how ridiculously the technology was portrayed.

Four places I’ve been:

1. London
2. Paris
3. Prague
4. Orlando

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Kamloops, BC
2. Williams Lake, BC
3. Victoria, BC
4. Puch, Austria

Four TV shows I watch:

1. Flight of the Conchords
2. Heroes
3. Spaced - Old, I know. I just found it, and it’s amazing.
4. Any cooking show hosted by Nigella Lawson - I fear I’m developing an unhealthy obsession.

Four radio shows I listen to:

1. The Mighty Boosh: The Radio Series
2. The Zone @ 91.3 - A local station in Victoria. It’s the only radio station I’ve ever come across that I enjoy. I don’t want to throttle the DJs, which is a first, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard them play Nickelback.
3. That’s pretty much it for radio…

Four things I look forward to:

1. Dinner
2. Waking up on the weekend and reading in bed
3. Seeing my friends
4. Summer

Four favourite foods:

1. Chicken Curry
2. Egg Benedict
3. Spicy Tuna Sashimi
4. Rice

Four places I’d rather be:
I’m quite happy where I am. If I’d rather be somewhere else right now, I’d probably already be there. Therefore, these are places I think I’d rather be in the near to far future.

1. Scotland
2. Japan
3. The pub
4. Egypt

Four people I e-mail regularly:
I rarely send personal e-mails these days. I either instant message, text message, or call people. So here are the last four people I e-mailed from my personal computer.

1. Jason Evans, to sent him my Reader’s Choice picks for the Whispers contest.
2. The billing department of Logjamming, to try and clear an online payment issue that’s been outstanding since last year.
3. My friend Chris, to brag about my Xbox 360 purchase.
4. My sister, to wish her a happy birthday.