Some who know me believe that I catch every bit of luck possible. I ended up with a great job, in a different country, and have the opportunity to live one of the nicest parts of the city (SoFo or South of Folkungagatan for those who know the boroughs of Stockholm). .
I work within arguably the best research group on the planet for what we specialize in. I have almost limitless resources, infrastructure, and access to some of the best personnel I have ever had the pleasure of speaking with.
It's a great problem to have, but how does one balance these opportunities?
Since I've been here, I've been heavily biased toward working as much as possible, but today it really hit me that I haven't taken any time to enjoy my surroundings. Therefore, today my plan was to wake up and take photos of the city and write a new blog entry. Unfortunately, it was raining:
so I ducked in to a trendy shopping area (Gallerian) near T-centralen because I needed a new watchband ($140 for a titanium band!).
Inside, I found it interesting that revenue-generating floorspace was being sacrificed for an excellent photo exhibition:
After seeing this, I started thinking about what I pass by every day that I haven't given any attention to. Soon after, I realized that I always seemingly run through various subway stations without much regard for their aesthetics.
It then became very obvious that I should provide a few photos of the phenomenally-designed Universitetet subway station that I pass through every day on my way to the university:
The station has both southbound and northbound platforms; each about 100 meters long:
The entire UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights (with each individual tile representing a single character) is presented along the walls lining the station. It's quite sad, when one considers the amount of work this took to accomplish and how no one, including me, seemingly pays attention.
In addition, the center of the platforms are covered with diagrams that depict such world phenomena as depletion of the ozone layer (the first two images) and an interesting map which seemingly depicts the migration of people from Sweden (final image):
UPDATE: As one astute colleague noted below, the first two photos really depict the effects of global warming AND depletion of the ozone layer. He also noted that the final picture illustrates the travels of the students of Carlous Linnaeus.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of scientific nomenclature. Carolus imbued his students with his own thoroughness in an atmosphere of enthusiasm, trained them to close and accurate observation, and then sent them to various parts of the globe. Some of the notable students and expeditions include Pehr Kalm's visit to North America 1748–1751; Daniel Solander, traveling first with James Cook's expedition to the Pacific in 1768, then in 1771 to Iceland, the Faroes and Orkney; Fredric Hasselquist, who visited Palestine and parts of Asia Minor; and Carl Peter Thunberg, journeying to Japan, South Africa, Java, and Sri Lanka.
I guess the convoluted moral of the post is to maintain a good balance between work and play. Once in a while it's important to stop and smell the roses. Oh, and to my esteemed colleague, all I can say is "fan ta dig!"
