commercial, non-commercial, minimised expenses, Christmas etc

After finishing up the Cosmos stuff for now - envelope waiting to be mailed back to them now - I also happened to come across another "do you have some minutes and feel like sharing your opinion with us?" thing. This 2nd was about how I look upon "commercial use" and "non-commercial use" - it's hosted by Creative Commons (the questionnaire can be found through this page) and is part of their current study of how people understand the term "non-commercial use".

I also did some random reading of material published by people who have by some reasons lived a life focused upon minimising their expenses and energy usage during a longer time. Quite interesting to see how these people "gave up" a lot, just focused upon the essential things, consumed a lot less and how this had a more or less dominant impact of their daily life. Some of them really had to change the way they lived in order to cope with this philosophy while others didn't have to do much...We are all different, it just becomes more visible sometimes.

Talking about different people and happenings, I am strongly considering to skip Christmas this year, simply since I don't feel like "celebrating" it. Once upon a time when I was growing up I guess that Christmas had some kind of meaning for me, now I feel like it has somehow disappeared. Perhaps it is this that they start selling Christmas stuff already in September (?!?!), that they play Christmas music in October and so on - especially since Christmas do not have a religious meaning for me. I am really the black sheep of my family when it comes to religion!

Sleep is essential, thinking about skipping Christmas is not => moi is off to bed.

Cosmos, the scientific study

Every now and then you get an envelope with some papers having the phrase "you have been chosen to be part of a scientific study regarding...". Sometimes interesting stuff, sometimes not.

Today I got my new VISA card (replacing the one the ATM claimed to have kept, even though I held it in my hand) and one of these envelopes. So now I am to be part of Cosmos (Swedish link), a study regarding cellphones (and other wireless devices too as it seems) and possible connections between them and different health problems such as cancer, regular headache, problems with sleeping etc.

I usually get quite annoyed by these studies. The people handling them usually send loads of papers and harass you in order to get your replies now-now-now, even if you tell them that you don't wish to be part of their study. Since you do have that option, to say "no thanks, I am not interested in participating".

But every now and then I still feel like I can give a contribution, participating in this Cosmos study is one of them. It concerns relevant technology and the effects from using it. I rather support this type of research than some other research I've been offered to contribute to by answering hundreds of questions!

Life, life...