Kallhall Boys

9th of June 1994  it was graduation day from high school. I had attended Jakobsbergs gymnasium (as had Andreas, Mattias and Fredrik G) but Javed went to Upplands Bro gymnasium (with Peter G, "Spettan", mentioned in the Youtube video  Back to childood areas ). These schools have about 20 km distance from each other. Me and Javed were kind of industrious (at least in theory) and had plans to earn money. At the very same day as this graduation we had a scheduled meetup at a sales company. It was a one-day education in the art of forceful, ugly peddling. At first, at the graduation, we followed suit and played regular young men (with fully functional parents). Javed's mom might have attended at his school though, I cannot recall from our talks. Mattias' parents kindly bestowed me with a boquet of flower from Mattias' hefty lot. I happened to leech on his reception outside the high school, and they snapped a photo. I joined Mattias on his decorated trailer bu...

In 2002 Javed came back to Sweden with the intention to stay here for some time. He managed to get an apartment (about a hundered meters from where I lived) and, of course, went to Ikea to buy furniture. He also assembled a couple of computers from parts, one to himself and one to Andreas. Javed connected a webcam to his computer to be able to stay in touch with people in the US. He eventually returned to the US and left everything without much concern. I found some pictures on the computer taken with the webcam. So here we see a familiar bedding. Also a cup of tea and XBOX controls. The bag, I believe, is Jordnötsringar ("peanut rings"). A favourite snack of ours at the time that might be just a Swedish thing: The thrustworthy company. And here Javed himself. He is sitting in a desk chair. When he left I took care of this chair and it has been with me ever since. I am sitting in it right now, typing these words. I have tried to track the desk chair thr...

Behavioral Patterns Unraveled In 2015 I discovered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality categorizing theory based on works on human archetypes by Carl Jung. It is constructed more from clinical observation than traditional scientific studies, so it has its critics. The five-factor model (Big 5) however, seems to be much more rigid and scientific and the similarities are quite clear. For me, it's beyond doubt that MBTI can give valuable insights to how different personalities functions and expresses themselves in the social world. I did several online tests, like 15 or so, most with the same result (about 70% INFP and 30% INTP). On one of the most popular sites, 16personalities.com , however, the explanations and the choice of words describing those profiles amazed me. Now, I'm aware of the tendency to embrace positive descriptions about oneself - and that positive descriptions can apply to almost anyone - but I have been an introspective brooder all my life...

In 1994 Javed went up north to do the military service, which at this point was mandatory for all men. He got placed in the largest garrison in Sweden, near the town Boden. This garrison is mainly housing regiments of the Swedish Army. I was taking care of his apartment (and his computer...) most of the time during this period, sometimes accompanied with another childhood friend, Robert. I cannot remember that Amy (Javed's mother) was there at any point during the eight-month duration of the military service.  Javed would either send me letters and postcards (like the one starting this post which is a scan of one of the cards) or just leave them in the apartment for me to stumble upon later. I kept them, and I've scanned them. Now I want to share some of them, illuminating his eighteen-year-old spirit and his life shortly before moving to the US. Rough translation below each page (when necessary). I may fault in translation here and there, but I might also be corre...