I was born and raised in a little village called Rimforsa, forty kilometers south of Linkoping in Sweden . I grew up with two brothers, two parents, some pets and all usual Swedish family relation. Mom worked as daycare nanny and dad was a representative (salesman) for a sales company. I was brought up in a residential area with many children and plenty of friends nearby. I still remember the late nights when I did not want to come in for the evening because it was so fun being with all the other children. Sometimes we played “tag” and “hide and seek” until it was so dark that we would start hitting things since we could not see anything.
Like almost all kids in Sweden I played soccer since its almost the only thing to do in small isolated villages. The fact that my dad was a coach did not make it any easier to avoid. I stayed on the team until the coaches stopped thinking it was just a game. After that I spent most of my free time reading many books, playing in the forests, playing role-playing games and computer games. I had an incredibly vivid imagination as a child, sometimes a little bit to vivid. Fortunately I had friends who enjoyed my company even though I sometimes had some really crazy ideas.
With sea and forest nearby, wildlife and such activity’s were a given choice. I attended Mulleskolan, the boy scouts and finally TVM(A non-religious wildlife organization). I think these activities was one of the greatest influences on my personality during my childhood. Still today whenever I feel sad or unfocused I try to remember the calm of the forest and the incredibly black sky at night when you are sleeping outdoors. Sometimes it helps.
After a few years of forest activity’s it had made me a qualified ranger, spending days in the forest with backpack and Mora-knife. When my interest for Rimforsa’s activity’s slowly receded, I suddenly became a outsider that weren’t doing anything good except playing role-playing games with some other open minded individuals. At that time my father convinced me to start practice Karate. I did, and I really liked it. Karate is something everybody should try out, specially in that age (I was thirteen at the time) when you really need that extra self-confidence. Karate makes you learn how to find your focus.
At some point during Hogstadiet I got hooked on computers although most for playing games. I got hold of a Commodore-64 and started to program BASIC and made some really imaginative text based games (At least that was my opinion at the time). My Hogstadietid (almost equivalent of Junior high) showed that I weren’t really mathematically gifted so I decided to go to technical gymnasium (almost equivalent of senior high) just to prove the contrary.
It went all right at first although maybe not very well. I wasn’t really motivated I believe. I spent a lot of my school time in the schools computer club and at a local gym.
During my time in the gymnasium I joined the “Society of Creative Anachronism” which is a group of people with interest in History and re-living the past in the present. I became the first herald of the group of Liunga. During my time in the society I learned to fight with armor, sword and shield and how to survive a five dish banquette with excessive amounts of mead. SCA is great for vivid minded people. During this time I devoured an enormous amount of books on medieval literature, history and culture.
After a year in gymnasium I headed for USA to study and play some American football, and off course broaden my English skills. I was placed with the LeMay family In Floyd Knobs, Indiana. They were great and took me in like a son of their own. I learned a lot during this year especially taking care of myself without parental guidance. I learned a lot about the American culture and got to meet some really interesting people. I believe that the only difference from us Europeans is that their short intensive history have shaped an amazing, vibrant cross-cultural society. The only thing I really regret about my stay is that I wasn’t inquisitive enough and tried to learn more.
After my time in the states I went trough some difficult adapting time. I thought all my friends had changed, but I did not realize it was I who had changed. I missed a lot of school during this time so I decided to give it up and try better next year. Now when I look back at it it was ridiculous to throw away a year and I can not understand what I was doing.
Luckily enough I decided to apply to a I special school aimed at computer education. The Östrabo gymnasium was located in Uddevalla and yet again I had to live by myself. I think the change of “climate” was very fortunate. It is always very interesting and exciting to go to a new place where you do not know anyone. I meet some of my best friends at the gymnasium. I ended my gymnasium time in Uddevalla with a computer specialization of the technical gymnasium program. In Uddevalla I got the opportunity to play American football again, this time with the Uddevall Ravens, and it was really fun although it took to much time. At Östrabo gymnasium I discovered that I have great interest in biology. I even took the extra classes after school on Fridays, and attended lectures at the local museum on the evolution of the Man. I think the concept of Life “in it self” is really peculiar. It works in mysterious ways. 
After gymnasium I had two days of vacation and moving then headed into the Swedish army. This was something that would turn out to be really something. I was placed as a chief of a mechanized-infantry platoon but after some time in basic training changed to chief of a traffic-control platoon. I got some great friends and had a blast of cool experiences. After my service I ended of as a second lieutenant. My most appreciated experience was to be responsible of a platoon and realizing what leadership really means. Act as you want you personnel to act.
During my military service my parents divorced. This came as a chock. It is an experience I do not wish anybody. I could not really cope with it and tried to avoid thinking about it by spending all my free time at the military quarters. When I think back I feel ashamed of being such an coward and not being there for my younger brothers. My dad was the first to move out and I decided to go and live with him. I hope I was the support I wanted to be. While he was being really down the company he worked at went bankrupt and he lost his job. I do not think I’ve heard of anybody having to face so many problems at the same time. I really feel for him. I once really believed that true love lasts. Now I just hope. And I hope very much.
After a while my mom and my smaller brothers moved out and moved in together with an old physic teacher of mine in a new house. I have not asked her, but I think she was seeing him while she was together with my father. I hold no grudge against anyone. They are grownup people with their own minds. The physics teacher turned out to be really nice, when you got to know him. My mom now works as a clerical officer at a local school. The eldest of my smaller brothers si working as a salesman when he is not somewhere in the world riding his snowboard. The younger of my brother still attends gymnasium, when he is not watching TV or skating. My dad got a job as a salesman at a big hardware store in Linköping.
The worst thing about the divorce is that I miss having a true home, a safe haven. A point of origin.
After I finished my military service I was about to enroll for officer school. Luckily I changed my mind after a phone call from one of my friends from Östrabo, where he managed to convince me to apply to the collage he was attending. A few weeks later I was living in a small closet in my old friends and his girlfriend apartment.
I entered the computer engineering program at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. The collage time was the best time I have ever experienced. So much freedom, so much interesting to read and so much fun to do. I was astounded by how interesting computers are and decided that I was going to be real serious about my studies. This was not so easy with so much other activities. I worked in the student bar and loved to attend parties.
During the education I was elected treasurer of the student union. This meant dealing with suppliers, customers, budgets and reporting to our auditors. My period resulted in a closure with a turnover of around $550K. I very interesting in the beginning, but at the end it was really hard and stressful. I managed to work so hard that I managed to catch a gland fever and spent a month in hospital. So a word of advice… Think twice before accepting any nonprofit undertakings. All you will get is a little gratitude, a little more experience and a whole lot of work. Not that I regret it, I just would not do it again.
I completed my education with a bachelor degree in computer science with specialization in system integration at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology. I did my grad project “Adaptive Data Compression” at Volvo IT in Göteborg.
After my graduation I got work at a local ISP called Intron Service AB where I mostly work with the development of a really big web farm, planning of the network and handling security issues.
At Intron I meet some really creative associates with really interesting ideas. After some discussions they wanted me in on their scheme for world domination and made me part owner in MotionWorx. MotionWorx worked with all sort of electronic media such as web, 3d and application programming. A company for people who loves the stuff we work with 
Unfortunately we where hit by the IT-crash as everyone else and we got out just in time. It was a very good experience though.
At Intron I mostly worked as a consultant/developer/technician at and learned new things almost daily. The job of a consultant is often very stressful but is also very interesting and rewarding. You get to meet many clients, get involved in many projects and you have to maintain your worth. The good things about being a consultant is that you learn to work independently and to focus on getting a project to come around booth economically and in result.
During the last year at Intron my private life evolved in a nice way. As the earlier year was kind of tough that made me take a closer look at my life, evaluate and take on a different approach to myself. As I had grown rather fat and unwary of my appearance, my self-confidence was rock bottom. The good move on my part was to ditch my entire closet, went to a clothing shop, gave them my credit card and asked them to give me an entire new wardrobe. That in combination with a gym card changed my life. Booth physically and mentally. My friends think I’ve changed to the better and have become a much more comfortable person. It could also have been my thirties crisis During that year I met my wife, Ullis.
After leaving Intron I got hired by Faktab Finans, later renamed to Payex Finance AB and worked there for almost four years with in the IS&IT dept. When I was hired I had been working as a consultant around their network environment for some time, so I was a known face. My first project was to replace the enterprise network architecture. My second project was to implement a service surveillance platform and to create the appropriate documentation and work flows around the system. My biggest and longest project was to be an IT Project Manager for the implemenation of Enterprise Payment Card Industry Data Security Starndard (PCIDSS) . This project covered all parts of organizational changes, infrastructure, policies and development. During my last year I was asked to step in as IT/IS manager when family circumstanses made me move from the Island I love and leave friends and my work. I miss the dearly.
I became a dad in August 2006. That starts a new era in my life. Me and my Wife are now proud parents of two lovely children Leo and Elias and have moved to my wifes hometown Sandviken, where I have got job as IT project manager at Sandviken Systems Development. I work with Business intelligence which is very intresting and enables me to get good usage of my finance background. We live in quite nice house in the middle of Sandviken, but that has its worklad just like all houses. I am not that of handyman so I do not do as much as I should.
When I’m not working normally or extra I like to spend time with my family, work out in the gym, run, surf on the web, read books, play golf, go hunting watch movies’ or play computer games.
I do not know what the future brings. I just walk forward with small steps.
// J