Benny was the new face in the crowd. He will start a digitizing project this week, working (at least in the beginning) from his home in Ljungsbro. Benny and me went to the D-archive to fetch a first batch of 23 audio interview cassettes. We then walked to the pizzeria for a nice lunch. Later, Tobias came by, 'after work', and the three of us did some planning of the project. Tobias had bought a USB cassette tape player and will help Benny (his brother in law) to get on foot with digitizing sound tracks. We also paid a visit to Ingrid in the library and inspected the old archives (now almost empty) that may become a future center for digitizing audio-visual materials and pictures. I but wonder where we are one year from now? Thrilling!!!

I had a look at the new 40 cm Billy book case that might fill out a few empty spaces in the book library. I found a folding chair (made from wood) that would be excellent to have for extra seats when we are many people round the breakfast table.

With some 'pushing' by Tobias I finally got to the project of starting up Benny on his job of digitizing audio cassettes. We have booked Monday as an introduction day for Benny, meeting the AFU staff, and with Tobias joining us in the afternoon. Almost daily I receive parcels of books & magazines bought on eBay for AFU. Checking up on eBay items is virtually the only project I have eye energy left for doing, in the evenings. One evening I spent, however, checking the IKEA web site, since fiancé & me are planning to go there tomorrow. I will reconnoiter for a 'big buy' from IKEA of shelves, furniture and office supplies to be sent to AFU by lorry - a project that seems finally feasible now when the big heaps of snow slowly melt away in front of our entrances. 

I have also completed our reply to a questionnaire sent by the National Archives, seeking information about digitizing projects among archive institutions. The Swedish government is formulating a national strategy for digitizing, electronic access and digital preservation and the National Archives collects info from the various local archives.

I had definite plans for what to do during the day but - as usual - I came away with completely other things done, not on my list! With united forces we refurnished the work area at the AFU center, to make better spaces for the ladies, Susanne (left) and Elisabeth (right).

In the afternoon I re-designed the Swedish clippings database somewhat by dividing it into two separate 'bases', one for dailies and another for weeklies and special publications. I also deleted hundreds of references that were . more or less - just question marks! Not useful data, so deleted. 

Well, the house was in fine shape and we had a nice coffee break with some leftover cookies from the bygone summer. After that I worked a few hours at the professional work - but on line from home.

In the evening me and fiancé went to Flygeln, the new concert hall in the industrial landscape where we and about one hundred other people listened to Ebba Forsberg & her five men orchestra, playing Leonard Cohen songs in Swedish translation. A very strong performance by everyone on the scene, but why so few in audience? Where were the other 500 who could also have enjoyed this show so immensely as we did?

Clas Svahn reports, with picture, on his UFO-Sweden blog here, that he has just fetched 13 kilos of Brazilian UFO magazines donated by A.G. Gevaerd, Brazil's most well known UFO activist. I remember we discussed this several years ago with Mr. Gevaerd. Clas finally finished the deal! Great addition to AFU's shelf of South American magazines.

Tobias Lindgren, manager of UFO-Sweden's report centre, came with his relatives (father, sister and brother-in-law) to discuss Phase 3-engagement for the brother-in-law with AFU. If the Public Employment Service in our neighboring town of Linköping will allow it, we would like Benny, the brother-in-law, to work for us on digitizing audio tape cassettes. It will possibly be a combination of work at home and coming to AFU for exchange of work materials and taking part of the 'social environment'. Another possibility is daily commuting Linköping - Norrköping and arranging a workplace for Benny at one of our facilities.

I also managed to recruit Tobias as a temporary, retrospective auditor for AFU for the passed five year period, when we have not had the time for many administrative procedures due to moving about with our collections from facility to facility. We do have another person in line for becoming our future auditor, but I have hesitated to put five years of book-keeping under that man's eyes. Tobias has now a permanent job with the digital maps department of the LFV (the Swedish Board of Civil Aviation) and is looking for a flat close both to his work & AFU here in Norrköping. He will be elected as a member of the AFU board at our next board meeting, the first in five years (except for daily contacts on the internet and by phone), which we will be able to hold when the auditing is finished.

At the archives, during the day, we also discussed a future change of work assignments. I will plan that and make it a reality after the upcoming professional work-period for about a fortnight (when there will be very little time for AFU). Going home, I brought two heavy report files for 1977 in my bag, to continue my report archiving project. In the process of carrying that heavy load on my bike I had to jump across the HUGE heaps of snow, bike in hand, and hurt my back. I now have symptoms similar to sciatica.

After work I took the bike to the grocery store to fetch another second-hand eBay book authored by forteanist William Corliss, plus a heavy (10 kilo) package of UFO books from France, credited today on Recent donations. I also put up two other credit notes to fine collections from the UK & Russia - see Recent donations (click on Recent donations 2009, there).  

But then again this allows for compensation hours and days later on at AFU. Anyway, two days lost into oblivion on feeding new parameters into a computer system that is ever so thirsty for details. Woke up Sunday morning with the obvious solution to a problem at work, I am impressed with how the brain can sort out things during sleep!!

Two evenings spent in front of the television, cutting out news articles on local buildings for my local historical collection on the community of Norrköping. You cannot put all your eggs in just one basket, can you? If there is one word that I like then its 'crop rotation' (växelbruk in Swedish). When tired, the easy work of managing your clipping collection relaxes and redirects your inner system.

Plodded the snow down to my work in town and did some further problem solving. The walk through the white snow got me an headache coming from my overexposed eye, so I had to leave work one hour before my original intentions for the day. Friday-Saturday-Sunday I will be completely engulfed by my professional work, the project will probably make a big hole in time for AFU.

In the morning, me & my fiancé went to the bank office to plan for the future and look after our future monetary situation. I signed for an endowment policy to help us keep our necks over the water after my planned pensioning 1,5 years from now. I am quite determined! 

An Irish researcher had booked for a visit at AFU tomorrow but emailed he had to postpone the trip from Stockholm until his next trip to Sweden in the spring. He's welcome anytime!

'Bikewalked' (my new word for the combination of biking (when possible) and walking) to the archives for a few hours of logistic work moving papers and stacks of papers here and there. Then home to start - for real - the process of becoming a pensioner. Wrote emails to six institutions/companies where I have saved-up money for my older days, trying to put questions on how to get my money back when I now need them, in a couple of years. I am very determined now to make it all work. Fiancé and me will go to the bank on Wednesday for more planning. 

A brief report on current on-going AFU work: There are now 44 Swedish UFO groups represented on the National Archival Database, thanks to our co-worker Susanne, who has spent this week on NAD, and will continue. Elisabeth has taken over Susanne's previous job of checking the report archives against our database, and Håkan L is completing the report files before Elisabeth's check-up. Anci continues to re-archive the Danish report archive from SUFOI while Ingrid has gotten to the letter "P" while cataloguing the Perry Petrakis book collection. Sven Olov is still filing American magazines from the huge Bill Caulfield collection and checking the material against our existing (previous) collections, while Sandra continues to enter Swedish clippings in our database. Christer works from Malmö on translating materials from the 1946 ghost rocket wave. At least two other people (Clas and Karl-Arne) are doing scanning work of pictures and news clippings from their respective homes. Håkan B has a busy time writing the updated version of UFO-Sweden's history (before the 40th anniversary this coming spring) and he has a lot of new organizational archives on his desk to take care of. Myself (Anders) I am trying to figure out how we should develop AFU with new shelves, new workplaces, computers and a scanner. So much that needs planning! If I counted correctly we are presently no less than 12 people working every week, and some of us every day, to develop AFU. Cveta and Malin have ended their short terms at AFU, and we are awaiting possible new work trainees.

Took the bike to the post office (grocery store) to bring home another 9 kilo parcel of archival materials from France - see Recent donations for 2010 - a new page I opened today. I also brought home two British ufo-related books I had never heard of before, bought for AFU on eBay. Despite the opened new 2010 page there are still a couple of donations from 2009 to credit, so check that up, too.

Walked (snows everyday, impossible to bike) to AFU after work, made some copies and then went over to inspect a possible new facility that we may hire to keep UFO-Sweden's stock of unsold magazines. UFO-Sweden has been ordered out of the club cottage and magazine store they now rent at Enköping. One alternative is to place the mag store in 'AFU custody'. Made measurements of the locality and will try some mathematics before I go to bed, to see if we can fit in 150 cartoons of magazines in a possible IKEA shelf system on 16 square meters without sending the UFO-Sweden guys on extreme slimming cures. Hmmm, I wonder...

Spent 1.5 hours walking to the post box at the petrol station in the southern outskirts of Norrköping. Not very efficient use of time, but what to do when more and more of this western society is built around his Majesty The Holy Car, and you don't want to be a part of that world? As I passed through the snow-covered biking lane close to a school I was (again) flabbergasted by the young lazy 'motorist' generation who cannot park a car 200 meters away to walk to the gym for an hour of training? Instead they trespass on the biking lane and destroy it by skidding up snow with their 4-wheel SUVs. Completely crazy! Just think if a gang of bicyclists would invade the motorway in protest???

Spent four afternoon hours at AFU sorting and carrying the remainder of yesterday's incoming 'goods' closer to where they will be archived, and cataloguing a batch of new magazines. AFU is more and more becoming a 'logistic' operation. Everything would be so much simpler if we had it all under one roof, instead of under four roofs.

Did a write-up to credit a few of the other collections that came with Clas & his gang of followers. See more under the entries of gifts from Mikael Westersund, Carl-Anton Mattsson and Erland Sandqvist on Recent donations. Also a note to credit a gift subscription for an interesting magazine - we should do more of such credits for other mags we receive for free like UFO Newsclipping Service and Fortean Times!

At AFU we welcome Elisabeth Booth (married to an Australian if you wonder about the un-Swedish surname) who started working for us today. My self-imposed quarantine (see below) forbids me from going to AFU HQ until perhaps Saturday morning when Clas and a gang of UFO-Sweden people will pass by for new archival deliveries.

A winter walk to the post office (in the grocery store) brought home a copy of Raechel's Eyes by Helen Littrell & Jean Bilodeaux. I have read some intriguing articles on the case in the MUFON UFO Journal (why don't we get that - despite repeated contacts with MUFON HQ? - is there an administration at that org?) so.. am a little curious. The previous owner from eBay seems to have tired at page 34-35. I doubt that my lone right eye will have the energy to read the whole book, despite my interest in abduction accounts. More interested in abductions than in 1950s contactee sagas, I must admit. Both are equally mysterious. In the 1950s it was mostly contactee men, in modern abductions it's mostly women. Why? 

This could have been a 'lost' day. I should have been at work, but my fiancé experienced - once again - the nasty winter vomiting decease. Feeling nauseated myself, in the morning, I was afraid I had caught it too, it's very contagious, but the day went by and I still feel like I am alive (- something you doubt very much when you are inside & experiencing the world of the WVD, that nasty little virus..).

More positively, AFU is now represented on the Swedish National Archives Database (NAD) with a first few of our several hundred archives from UFO groups, organizations and ufologists. (Just type the word 'UFO' in the search field and press "Sök"). In the coming months we will see to that ALL of our archives will be registered there! This is only just the archives indexes, of course! Like most archives we see no possibility (and cannot prioritize) digital scanning of all that we have, and receive - it would be a most bewildering task!

Anyway, today's investment was a small 2 kilo fire extinguisher for our work facility. I plan to buy another two or three extinguishers and also a number of fire blankets to keep for increased safety at our different facitilites.

Håkan spent the day in the AFU library putting more order into our huge collection of books, and creating more space for new titles. You can see new pictures and a report on his Swedish blog today.

Sweden experiences weeks of extreme cold (more than -40 Centigrade in north Sweden), and daily snowfalls, so I have had to postpone both a trip to our post box and checking up on what is happening at AFU. It just isn't possible to use the bike, you have to rely on walking or buses/trams.

From Clas Svahn's Swedish blog it is apparent that he is probably the most active AFU coworker these days. He has spent several full days scanning photographic material for the AFU/UFO-Sweden picture library.