Tuesday, 13 March 2012
All that bullying
20:21 | Posted by
Elin |
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Bullying is getting more and more coverage in media. And it's getting clearer each time that the teachers and school boards have absolutely no idea how to handle the issue.
But that's old news.
It's treated in media as if this is something new. As if bullying hasn't been going on forever. They angle it so that it seems as if it's a bigger issue today than 10 years ago, as if the amount of bullied children has increased.
I rather doubt it.
They always talk about how something has to be done. But that's all they do - talk. It's been a lot of talk and little business for such a long time that I don't have any faith left. Not that I had much faith to begin with. They all know that bullying exists. But as soon as it comes to their attention that they have it there, at their school, they stand completely perplexed without any idea whatsoever on how to handle it. So instead, they pretend like there is no problem. Cause if you pretend it's not there it goes away, right?
If it only were that easy...
If it were as easy as telling people to shut the fuck up and get off you, then we wouldn't have this problem to begin with, now would we? Well, we do so something is obviously off, right? Well, not necessarily, to me it's all a pretty natural thing of trying to be the best and compete. There's always someone who wants to improve their self-esteem and does so by getting on to people that seem week. It's all very logical really.
Doesn't mean I like it.
Does it mean I've moved on then? I guess so. I don't get upset thinking about the past anymore, or my school days. I don't get sad and depressed because of that anymore, so I guess I've moved on. Have I forgiven them? No. Why? Cause if I forgave them it would seem to me as if I made it alright what they did. And it's not. It's not alright. I don't get sad anymore, but I do get angry. Angry with myself for not standing up to them and letting them do what they did. Angry with my school for not being able to do anything. Angry with them cause they were too stupid to understand what they were doing was hurtful. But what they did is not alright. It's not alright to rob another human being (or any being for that matter) of its will to live. It's not alright to make anyone feel insignifcant and unwanted and unloved. It's not alright.
I just wish the bullies knew what they were doing.
Some people dimiss this as something children do because they do not understand what they're saying/doing. This is a lie and a myth. There is as much bullying at jobs as there is at schools.
Do I have a solution?
No. If I did, I'd be famous.
What it did to me?
This post explains a great deal. Also it made me into the atheistic, nihilistic, cynical misanthrope that I am today. Before all this I remember I used to like people. I was shy, sure. But I was excited about meeting new people, making new friends. I actually used to like people... Now I'm the exact opposite. That's what it did to me. That's what it will do to millions of other children. And there seems to be no way of stopping it.
But that's old news.
It's treated in media as if this is something new. As if bullying hasn't been going on forever. They angle it so that it seems as if it's a bigger issue today than 10 years ago, as if the amount of bullied children has increased.
I rather doubt it.
They always talk about how something has to be done. But that's all they do - talk. It's been a lot of talk and little business for such a long time that I don't have any faith left. Not that I had much faith to begin with. They all know that bullying exists. But as soon as it comes to their attention that they have it there, at their school, they stand completely perplexed without any idea whatsoever on how to handle it. So instead, they pretend like there is no problem. Cause if you pretend it's not there it goes away, right?
If it only were that easy...
If it were as easy as telling people to shut the fuck up and get off you, then we wouldn't have this problem to begin with, now would we? Well, we do so something is obviously off, right? Well, not necessarily, to me it's all a pretty natural thing of trying to be the best and compete. There's always someone who wants to improve their self-esteem and does so by getting on to people that seem week. It's all very logical really.
Doesn't mean I like it.
Does it mean I've moved on then? I guess so. I don't get upset thinking about the past anymore, or my school days. I don't get sad and depressed because of that anymore, so I guess I've moved on. Have I forgiven them? No. Why? Cause if I forgave them it would seem to me as if I made it alright what they did. And it's not. It's not alright. I don't get sad anymore, but I do get angry. Angry with myself for not standing up to them and letting them do what they did. Angry with my school for not being able to do anything. Angry with them cause they were too stupid to understand what they were doing was hurtful. But what they did is not alright. It's not alright to rob another human being (or any being for that matter) of its will to live. It's not alright to make anyone feel insignifcant and unwanted and unloved. It's not alright.
I just wish the bullies knew what they were doing.
Some people dimiss this as something children do because they do not understand what they're saying/doing. This is a lie and a myth. There is as much bullying at jobs as there is at schools.
Do I have a solution?
No. If I did, I'd be famous.
What it did to me?
This post explains a great deal. Also it made me into the atheistic, nihilistic, cynical misanthrope that I am today. Before all this I remember I used to like people. I was shy, sure. But I was excited about meeting new people, making new friends. I actually used to like people... Now I'm the exact opposite. That's what it did to me. That's what it will do to millions of other children. And there seems to be no way of stopping it.
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Monday, 12 March 2012
School, Mugglis, Tokyo friends
21:14 | Posted by
Elin |
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It's certainly has been a while. It's over a week since I last blogged, but not much has happened. My last week was anything but pleasant. So if you can bear with my complaining for a bit (not for the entire post), let me take you back a bit...
Wednesday was my first day of lectures last week. I had had a mail conversation with my teacher and thought I had managed very well to do my presentation. I got to our first class that was Written composition and he asked me and another girl if we were ready for our presentations that same afternoon. We said we were and he asked me specifically if I had managed to find an article (in front of the whole class) I said I had and he asked what it was. I explained and he said it didn't work, it was the wrong kind of article. I think what he had meant was more like a small dissertation and said that I should specifically google PDF-files. He also said that he had talked to my mentor (behind my back) and that my mentor had told him that it was practically impossible not to find anything about Les Misérables. So I explained to him that I had found things about Les Mis, but not anything that related to my subject. And that was when he told me that it didn't have to be exactly the same as my essay, just related. So either I was too stupid to realise what he wanted, or he didn't explain well enough what he wanted. I honestly don't know which one. Then we continued on to the assignment of the class, which was watching a video with an interview with an author (I'm getting seriously sick of Tzvetan Todorov now...) and then we were going to write a small resumé of what the interview had been about. Piece of cake. I finished after a few minutes and while I waited for the others I googled for Les Misérables PDFs. Then I realised that the book I had borrowed for exactly this purpose, but that I didn't think applied, was in my bag. I looked through it and thought that maybe I could use the chapters 3 and 4. Those two chapters would give me a total of 14 pages to talk about for my presentation and 14 was a number he had mentioned before. So I asked him if those chapters worked. He took a look at it and said that it would work fine. After that I decided to skip the afternoon class (since I now wasn't going to do my presentation) and go home and start preparing for the next one.
Then I procrastinated it.
Thursday was the first litterature class I went to for two weeks. She asked if I had been ill and I said that I had just overslept both times, that I had woken 30 minutes before the class would start. She accepted it and went on as if nothing had happened. That class we discussed Un Amour de Swann by Proust, which we have finally finished reading. The story is really stupid, but it may just be because I really dislike romance novels (even when the author tries to apply psychology).
I procrastinated the presentation again.
Friday I was supposed to do the presentation, but instead I packed my bag and cleaned up a bit. And procrastinated again...
----------------------------------------
Now the fun part begins!
Saturday was an important day. I got up at 4am to take a shower, have breakfast and pack the last of my things into my bag (still managed to forget toothpaste) then I walked down to the train station. The train left the station on time; 06.06am. I slept for most part on the train. I managed to write the introduction of my presentation on the train, which made me feel a little better. At 11.50am (on time!) the train arrived at Stockholm central station. There I waited a bit until the girl I had talked to on a community (kinshaw) met up with me (she had taken the train from the north) and together we fixed travelling cards for the Stockholm underground. Then we met up with one of her friends (Maharajah) who had came from somewhere in the middle. We went up to her hotel room and freshened up a bit before we continued on to our hostel and dropped off our bags in their baggage room. Then kinshaw and I continued to grab a bite at Max before continuing on to the meeting. This is what I came to Stockholm for; a meeting with loads of people from the Swedish Harry Potter community that I hang out on all the time (my profile is to the right). Before the meeting we waited around for §irius and then we finally arrived at the meeting point in the middle of Stockholm central station. Around 2.15pm we took the tube out to a huge green area called Gärdet. There we played some games. I'm not a big fan of games and I'm really not very good at it. First game was House against House and in the end Gryffindor won (just like the books O_o). During all these games I met ikka, Ajnos Mörtsgreb, Optic, Lingonbean and a few more - mostly Ravenclaw girls. After the games it was time to go grab a bite and Li told us that there was no chance not one single restaurant in town would agree to have us all in one place (we were about 100 there) so she told us to go with a group of friends to eat somewhere and then we'd all meet up again at Plattan. On the way to eat somewhere kinshaw and I met Margaret, whom we then spent most of the evening with :) After dinner, we met up with the group at Plattan and together walked to a place called Medelhavsmuséet (roughly translated as Mediterranean museum). There we were going to have the Potter party! So we arrived a bit early and had to wait for a while. Then the mass of people in front of the doors created a long queue as soon as the doors opened. In the queue I talked a bit with Ajnos Mörtsgreb who was standing up drawing a beautiful picture (I alwasy get jealous of people who can draw). We got in and left our outerwear and bags in what pretty much was a locker room. In the party room there was a kind of buffet table. Starting with drinks in four different colours; blue, red, yellow and green (the House colours), then came small packages of jelly beans (probably supposed to symbolise Bertie Bott's All Flavour Beans) and as usual I managed to get hold of the bag with all the disgusting flavours. Luckily there were other kinds of sweets too and some crisps. The party started out with a Harry Potter quiz. I knew all the questions instinctively (nerd level going up, up!) except for one cause I haven't read Quidditch Through the Ages carefully enough ;) In the end Maharajah won the quiz with avifors in close second :P Then there was the magician. He was like any other magician doing tricks with ropes, chains and relapsing chairs - except that he called himself Professor Moonlight and was dressed as a wizard out of the world of Harry Potter. Also he was extremely funny. "Any questions?" "Can you move from one place to another" (Obviously hinting at apparition) "If I can move from one place to another? Of course! How do you think I got here?" After he had finished his performance the band of the evening; The Swedish Shortsnouts, got up on stage. They consist of three Hufflepuff members ;) My favourite songs were these:
Then on Sunday we (kinshaw and I) got up around 10am cause we needed to check out before 11am. After checking out we went to one of the cafés at the central station and had some brunch. §irius was supposed to come pick her up around 11.30am but she overslept and when kinshaw finally got hold of her she was told to take the bus. I came with her to find her bus and everything. By the time that was done and she was on the bus the time was around 12.20 and I was going to meet up with Ebu and Yuuki that I met in Tokyo in 10 minutes so I went to our meeting point. Then I spent a nice afternoon talking with them at a café about stuff that had happened since Tokyo (almost 2 years ago!!! O_o) and going through loads of nostalgia from Tokyo etc :P It was a fun time. They had to leave about 3pm and by that time I decided that I could grab a bite and also bought some travelling snacks for the train ride home. The train left on time 4.14pm.
I was going to do some stuff on my presentation on the train ride but I only wrote a few sentences and came up with a few ideas on how to present the PowerPoint before I gave up. For the rest of the train ride I read The Treasured One by David & Leigh Eddings and finished it 1 hour before the original arrival time. We arrived more than 10 minutes before original arrival time at 9.42pm (9.54pm being original). That's a first!
------------------------------
Back to the boring part...
Today I finished my darn presentation - again. Tomorrow morning I'm doing it and then, hopefully, I can relax again!
Also Love has moved to Gothenburg for two months and I now have the entire flat all to myslef... What to do?
Wednesday was my first day of lectures last week. I had had a mail conversation with my teacher and thought I had managed very well to do my presentation. I got to our first class that was Written composition and he asked me and another girl if we were ready for our presentations that same afternoon. We said we were and he asked me specifically if I had managed to find an article (in front of the whole class) I said I had and he asked what it was. I explained and he said it didn't work, it was the wrong kind of article. I think what he had meant was more like a small dissertation and said that I should specifically google PDF-files. He also said that he had talked to my mentor (behind my back) and that my mentor had told him that it was practically impossible not to find anything about Les Misérables. So I explained to him that I had found things about Les Mis, but not anything that related to my subject. And that was when he told me that it didn't have to be exactly the same as my essay, just related. So either I was too stupid to realise what he wanted, or he didn't explain well enough what he wanted. I honestly don't know which one. Then we continued on to the assignment of the class, which was watching a video with an interview with an author (I'm getting seriously sick of Tzvetan Todorov now...) and then we were going to write a small resumé of what the interview had been about. Piece of cake. I finished after a few minutes and while I waited for the others I googled for Les Misérables PDFs. Then I realised that the book I had borrowed for exactly this purpose, but that I didn't think applied, was in my bag. I looked through it and thought that maybe I could use the chapters 3 and 4. Those two chapters would give me a total of 14 pages to talk about for my presentation and 14 was a number he had mentioned before. So I asked him if those chapters worked. He took a look at it and said that it would work fine. After that I decided to skip the afternoon class (since I now wasn't going to do my presentation) and go home and start preparing for the next one.
Then I procrastinated it.
Thursday was the first litterature class I went to for two weeks. She asked if I had been ill and I said that I had just overslept both times, that I had woken 30 minutes before the class would start. She accepted it and went on as if nothing had happened. That class we discussed Un Amour de Swann by Proust, which we have finally finished reading. The story is really stupid, but it may just be because I really dislike romance novels (even when the author tries to apply psychology).
I procrastinated the presentation again.
Friday I was supposed to do the presentation, but instead I packed my bag and cleaned up a bit. And procrastinated again...
----------------------------------------
Now the fun part begins!
Saturday was an important day. I got up at 4am to take a shower, have breakfast and pack the last of my things into my bag (still managed to forget toothpaste) then I walked down to the train station. The train left the station on time; 06.06am. I slept for most part on the train. I managed to write the introduction of my presentation on the train, which made me feel a little better. At 11.50am (on time!) the train arrived at Stockholm central station. There I waited a bit until the girl I had talked to on a community (kinshaw) met up with me (she had taken the train from the north) and together we fixed travelling cards for the Stockholm underground. Then we met up with one of her friends (Maharajah) who had came from somewhere in the middle. We went up to her hotel room and freshened up a bit before we continued on to our hostel and dropped off our bags in their baggage room. Then kinshaw and I continued to grab a bite at Max before continuing on to the meeting. This is what I came to Stockholm for; a meeting with loads of people from the Swedish Harry Potter community that I hang out on all the time (my profile is to the right). Before the meeting we waited around for §irius and then we finally arrived at the meeting point in the middle of Stockholm central station. Around 2.15pm we took the tube out to a huge green area called Gärdet. There we played some games. I'm not a big fan of games and I'm really not very good at it. First game was House against House and in the end Gryffindor won (just like the books O_o). During all these games I met ikka, Ajnos Mörtsgreb, Optic, Lingonbean and a few more - mostly Ravenclaw girls. After the games it was time to go grab a bite and Li told us that there was no chance not one single restaurant in town would agree to have us all in one place (we were about 100 there) so she told us to go with a group of friends to eat somewhere and then we'd all meet up again at Plattan. On the way to eat somewhere kinshaw and I met Margaret, whom we then spent most of the evening with :) After dinner, we met up with the group at Plattan and together walked to a place called Medelhavsmuséet (roughly translated as Mediterranean museum). There we were going to have the Potter party! So we arrived a bit early and had to wait for a while. Then the mass of people in front of the doors created a long queue as soon as the doors opened. In the queue I talked a bit with Ajnos Mörtsgreb who was standing up drawing a beautiful picture (I alwasy get jealous of people who can draw). We got in and left our outerwear and bags in what pretty much was a locker room. In the party room there was a kind of buffet table. Starting with drinks in four different colours; blue, red, yellow and green (the House colours), then came small packages of jelly beans (probably supposed to symbolise Bertie Bott's All Flavour Beans) and as usual I managed to get hold of the bag with all the disgusting flavours. Luckily there were other kinds of sweets too and some crisps. The party started out with a Harry Potter quiz. I knew all the questions instinctively (nerd level going up, up!) except for one cause I haven't read Quidditch Through the Ages carefully enough ;) In the end Maharajah won the quiz with avifors in close second :P Then there was the magician. He was like any other magician doing tricks with ropes, chains and relapsing chairs - except that he called himself Professor Moonlight and was dressed as a wizard out of the world of Harry Potter. Also he was extremely funny. "Any questions?" "Can you move from one place to another" (Obviously hinting at apparition) "If I can move from one place to another? Of course! How do you think I got here?" After he had finished his performance the band of the evening; The Swedish Shortsnouts, got up on stage. They consist of three Hufflepuff members ;) My favourite songs were these:
Thinking back now I feel that it was great. But going back to Maharajah's hotel room after the party I felt a little worse. Mostly because the feeling of not fitting in follows me around everytime I meet new people. I also felt old, simply because in the Ravenclaw group I was the oldest one with a margin of 3-4 years... And also when I'm online I talk to no one in general - I talk to everyone. But when I got there the clicks were pretty much already formed, which kind of got my mood going down. But I don't regret going and I will go to more meetings like this. Next one I'm planning on going to is the the one in Gothenburg in April :D
Pictures from the meeting (I only took four...):
Then on Sunday we (kinshaw and I) got up around 10am cause we needed to check out before 11am. After checking out we went to one of the cafés at the central station and had some brunch. §irius was supposed to come pick her up around 11.30am but she overslept and when kinshaw finally got hold of her she was told to take the bus. I came with her to find her bus and everything. By the time that was done and she was on the bus the time was around 12.20 and I was going to meet up with Ebu and Yuuki that I met in Tokyo in 10 minutes so I went to our meeting point. Then I spent a nice afternoon talking with them at a café about stuff that had happened since Tokyo (almost 2 years ago!!! O_o) and going through loads of nostalgia from Tokyo etc :P It was a fun time. They had to leave about 3pm and by that time I decided that I could grab a bite and also bought some travelling snacks for the train ride home. The train left on time 4.14pm.
I was going to do some stuff on my presentation on the train ride but I only wrote a few sentences and came up with a few ideas on how to present the PowerPoint before I gave up. For the rest of the train ride I read The Treasured One by David & Leigh Eddings and finished it 1 hour before the original arrival time. We arrived more than 10 minutes before original arrival time at 9.42pm (9.54pm being original). That's a first!
------------------------------
Back to the boring part...
Today I finished my darn presentation - again. Tomorrow morning I'm doing it and then, hopefully, I can relax again!
Also Love has moved to Gothenburg for two months and I now have the entire flat all to myslef... What to do?
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Study break?
20:20 | Posted by
Elin |
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So at least I can tell you that I finished the PowerPoint for the presentation. I used an article that I found that's almost, maybe, applicable to my subject... And actually my teacher responded to the mail! :O But what he said was that he thought I should go ask my dissertation mentor for help instead of him. So basically he said that he couldn't help me. Why should I ask my mentor for help in a course he has no part-taking in? But if this stupid teacher isn't satisfied with what I've managed to do with this little help from him, then I guess that is what I'll have to do.
Lately I've been thinking that maybe I should try and take a year off school by next summer. Considering going back to Tokyo, but also seeing more of Japan and Asia. If I can I want to go to Okinawa (Naha), Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Aoyama in Japan, Seoul, Shangai and/or Beijjing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei and Singapore. Obviously I would very much like to go with a friend, but if that's not possible then I will definately go alone again. It went very well last time so who's to say it wouldn't go well again? I'm itching to travel again and I've always wanted to see the world. Starting with Southeast Asia seems like a good idea :) I also have the possibility of meeting friends in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taipei :D It would be so great! Learning some basic Mandarin and Korean by then would be a good idea... And maybe start controlling my expenditures...
The bottom-line here is that I more and more feel like I'm getting tired of studying. I've never taken time off studying, so after almost 17 years in school (autumn 1996 - spring 2013) wouldn't you say it was about time?
------------
Just got to add this... Nightwish released their new single "The Crow, the Owl and the Dove" quite recently and the coupling track "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" is just so insanely beautiful... This is why I love Nightwish with and without Tarja; I love Tuomas and his musical genius!
Lately I've been thinking that maybe I should try and take a year off school by next summer. Considering going back to Tokyo, but also seeing more of Japan and Asia. If I can I want to go to Okinawa (Naha), Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Aoyama in Japan, Seoul, Shangai and/or Beijjing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei and Singapore. Obviously I would very much like to go with a friend, but if that's not possible then I will definately go alone again. It went very well last time so who's to say it wouldn't go well again? I'm itching to travel again and I've always wanted to see the world. Starting with Southeast Asia seems like a good idea :) I also have the possibility of meeting friends in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Taipei :D It would be so great! Learning some basic Mandarin and Korean by then would be a good idea... And maybe start controlling my expenditures...
The bottom-line here is that I more and more feel like I'm getting tired of studying. I've never taken time off studying, so after almost 17 years in school (autumn 1996 - spring 2013) wouldn't you say it was about time?
------------
Just got to add this... Nightwish released their new single "The Crow, the Owl and the Dove" quite recently and the coupling track "The Heart Asks Pleasure First" is just so insanely beautiful... This is why I love Nightwish with and without Tarja; I love Tuomas and his musical genius!
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Life is hard and it's all because of that guy...
23:51 | Posted by
Elin |
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I had a nice little breakdown before. And here's the reason why: This term I'm writing my exam paper to obtain my Bachelor degree in French. We got to choose the subject of the essay ourselves and my mentor thought my subject (a comparison between the plot in the book and the plot in the musical of Les Misérables, what's different?) was very good. I started reading the book and all was well. I like my mentor. He's a good teacher. Then we have the teacher in the oral and writing classes. The one I've complained about before. He tells us that for our oral exam we have to make a PowerPoint on an article in French that's related to the subject we've chosen for our essays. He shows us some search engines on the Internet that may help us find those articles. So I went home and looked through French Google. Nothing useful. Went through the search engines he showed us. Found some books, but none relating to my subject. This Wednesday I'm having the test round for the oral exam and I have nothing! Today I went through French Google for the fourth time and found nothing. Not one small useful article. I gave up completely and my brain started giving me scenarios. Me not passing the oral exam. Me not obtaining my degree. Me not being able to enter the Translators' Program. All because of this tiny stupid detail. I e-mailed my teacher telling him the story and asking for some help. But I can tell you that I've got no confidence that he'll even answer that e-mail. I've told him once before that I couldn't find anything and he didn't answer then. I have no idea what to do and it's freaking me out. I could obviously talk about something completely different that's still related to Les Misérables. But all we do this term is supposed to be related to the essay! He told us this our very first day! I'm completely irresolute. I'm beginning to hate this teacher for making it so hard. Why is he making this so hard?!
I've been desperately crying my eyes today. I've taken an hour walk to try and clear my head and figure out what to do. I took a day off studying yesterday to reboot my brain. I have no solution.
If we're making evaluation of the course at the end of this semester, I'll completely diss him. It may be childish of me, but I can't stand the thought that he may make life difficult for somebody else as well. We were supposed to have another teacher. That's what bothers me the most. We were supposed to have another teacher, who used to be responsible for this course. But only for this semester he's a guest lecturer at a french university in Paris. Why did it have to be this semester?! He's been in on very small things in the other two courses and I really really liked him. This situation sucks.
Another problem for me with this is that if I don't like the teacher, or feel like I get nothing from going to class, or that I don't fit in with the people, I get extremely non-motivated to show up to class at all. Writing this I haven't been to class for two weeks. Why should I bother going to every single class if attendance is not compulsory and the only thing that counts is if you pass the exams?
Yes, I skip class a lot. But if I don't study I still don't know what to do with my "free time" anymore. So that should tell you something about me staying up to date with the classes anyway.
I've been desperately crying my eyes today. I've taken an hour walk to try and clear my head and figure out what to do. I took a day off studying yesterday to reboot my brain. I have no solution.
If we're making evaluation of the course at the end of this semester, I'll completely diss him. It may be childish of me, but I can't stand the thought that he may make life difficult for somebody else as well. We were supposed to have another teacher. That's what bothers me the most. We were supposed to have another teacher, who used to be responsible for this course. But only for this semester he's a guest lecturer at a french university in Paris. Why did it have to be this semester?! He's been in on very small things in the other two courses and I really really liked him. This situation sucks.
Another problem for me with this is that if I don't like the teacher, or feel like I get nothing from going to class, or that I don't fit in with the people, I get extremely non-motivated to show up to class at all. Writing this I haven't been to class for two weeks. Why should I bother going to every single class if attendance is not compulsory and the only thing that counts is if you pass the exams?
Yes, I skip class a lot. But if I don't study I still don't know what to do with my "free time" anymore. So that should tell you something about me staying up to date with the classes anyway.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Nerdiness of February
18:58 | Posted by
Elin |
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Medieval II Total War. The Sims 2. George Carlin. Call of Cthulhu. Magic: The Gathering. Harry Potter. Mad Men. Star Trek. Puss in Boots. How to Train Your Dragon. Japanese. Writing. Les Misérables. Pirates of the Caribbean. Neil Gaiman. David Eddings.
In no special order.
Medieval II Total War. I've been playing it every day for the last five days. I restarted as France and it's going really well. I manipulate everything with diplomats and assassins with high skills, and I see everything using spies.
The Sims 2. Well, since I started playing Medieval I haven't really played any The Sims. But! I created a new family, a Japanese one, in a new neighbourhood, but decided that it was too boring to restart completely in a new neighbourhood and had them move to the other neighbourhood where I have my Teague family. They get along very well and I'm planning on making my new Japanese family into an equally large family as the Teagues.
George Carlin. It's not that long ago since I first showed his comedy to a friend. And this time I showed him Losing Things. Then we watched the very old performance of Words we Use, and re-watching his reality check. Then some video from 2005 about being old. This man was a genius!
Call of Cthulhu. Two RPG meetings. The last one ending with the whole group minus one dying. Great ending to a great night :D My favourite RPG this far.
Magic: The Gathering. I'm not overly interested in this yet, but I'm considering learning it properly. Since I'm discovering that more and more people around me actually play this and I understand nothing when they talk about it... Gotta fix that!
Harry Potter. Well, you didn't actually think that there would be a month when I wasn't obsessed with Potter? My Valentine's is proof of that ;) And these two images that I shared on Facebook:
Mad Men. I can't see a package of Lucky Strike without immediately relating it to this series. Is that obsessed enough? And I've been blogging about it a few times. Finished the fourth season last week and can't wait for the 5th season to come around!
Star Trek. After Mad Men it was time for Star Trek: The Original Series. It's from 1966 and it's not that great. Anymore. That anymore is very important! Cause to me of today's generation it's slow and boring and the special effects are hilariously bad. The plot of each episode is always interesting, but the realisation of it is sooooooo slow -.-' I'll continue watching it though. If I'm gonna complain about something I wanna know what it is I'm complaining about, and beat the fans at their own game ;) A possible setback from this experience may be that instead of disliking it I come to like it. But meh, then I'll just be even more geeky. Wouldn't be that bad.
Puss in Boots. Went to see this movie at the cinema in 3D and it was great! I'm a big fan of the first three Shrek movies and this was nearly just as awesome! I love the addition of Humpty Dumpty and Jack & Jill. The Magic Beans that grew up to the giant's castle in the sky. All of the Shrek movies and this one is like a fast forward through every fairtale there is! :D
How to Train Your Dragon. Watched it for the first time after a friend recommended it about a hundred times. It was great. All there is to say. Simply amazing.
Japanese. Went through first grade kanji yesterday and I'm planning on doing more rehearsing of kanji. This webpage is very useful! I should add that I study kanji because it's fun...
Writing.There hasn't been a lot of it this month, but meeting up with Kajsa always sparks my imagination and wish to write and that's obviously what happened after the book sale :) So I have been writing some and I know what will happen further on in the story. I'm still planning a lot even if it doesn't get down on paper.
Les Misérables. Partly studying. Partly nerdiness. I'm going to write my exam paper this term and what I chose for subject is; Les Misérables. I'm reading the 2000 pages novel right now - in French of course and I like it a lot! I feel like I met the characters briefly in the musical and now I get to know them better :)
Pirates of the Caribbean. When do we not quote any of these movies? I had a really boring day two days ago and went on a YouTube trip watching clips with Captain Jack. Tonight we'll watch one of the movies while having dinner :D 1 or 3, which one should we watch?
Neil Gaiman. I haven't started reading the book I bought at the book sale yet. But the fact that I bought it is enough. I'm still stuck in Good Omens (in my head) and I keep going back to Smoke & Mirrors and Fragile Things reading a short story there and another one there. Simply because he's that good.
David Eddings. I started reading The Treasured One, but it was hard to get into. Mostly because I was still stuck in Good Omens in my head and kept comparing them (not a good idea), but now I'm more into the new book and the humour typical for Eddings has shown up again. Now I'm back. Everytime I'm reading Eddings I feel like I'm 13 years old again, cause that's how old I was when I discovered Belgarath :)
In no special order.
Medieval II Total War. I've been playing it every day for the last five days. I restarted as France and it's going really well. I manipulate everything with diplomats and assassins with high skills, and I see everything using spies.
The Sims 2. Well, since I started playing Medieval I haven't really played any The Sims. But! I created a new family, a Japanese one, in a new neighbourhood, but decided that it was too boring to restart completely in a new neighbourhood and had them move to the other neighbourhood where I have my Teague family. They get along very well and I'm planning on making my new Japanese family into an equally large family as the Teagues.
George Carlin. It's not that long ago since I first showed his comedy to a friend. And this time I showed him Losing Things. Then we watched the very old performance of Words we Use, and re-watching his reality check. Then some video from 2005 about being old. This man was a genius!
Call of Cthulhu. Two RPG meetings. The last one ending with the whole group minus one dying. Great ending to a great night :D My favourite RPG this far.
Magic: The Gathering. I'm not overly interested in this yet, but I'm considering learning it properly. Since I'm discovering that more and more people around me actually play this and I understand nothing when they talk about it... Gotta fix that!
Harry Potter. Well, you didn't actually think that there would be a month when I wasn't obsessed with Potter? My Valentine's is proof of that ;) And these two images that I shared on Facebook:
Star Trek. After Mad Men it was time for Star Trek: The Original Series. It's from 1966 and it's not that great. Anymore. That anymore is very important! Cause to me of today's generation it's slow and boring and the special effects are hilariously bad. The plot of each episode is always interesting, but the realisation of it is sooooooo slow -.-' I'll continue watching it though. If I'm gonna complain about something I wanna know what it is I'm complaining about, and beat the fans at their own game ;) A possible setback from this experience may be that instead of disliking it I come to like it. But meh, then I'll just be even more geeky. Wouldn't be that bad.
Puss in Boots. Went to see this movie at the cinema in 3D and it was great! I'm a big fan of the first three Shrek movies and this was nearly just as awesome! I love the addition of Humpty Dumpty and Jack & Jill. The Magic Beans that grew up to the giant's castle in the sky. All of the Shrek movies and this one is like a fast forward through every fairtale there is! :D
How to Train Your Dragon. Watched it for the first time after a friend recommended it about a hundred times. It was great. All there is to say. Simply amazing.
Japanese. Went through first grade kanji yesterday and I'm planning on doing more rehearsing of kanji. This webpage is very useful! I should add that I study kanji because it's fun...
Writing.There hasn't been a lot of it this month, but meeting up with Kajsa always sparks my imagination and wish to write and that's obviously what happened after the book sale :) So I have been writing some and I know what will happen further on in the story. I'm still planning a lot even if it doesn't get down on paper.
Les Misérables. Partly studying. Partly nerdiness. I'm going to write my exam paper this term and what I chose for subject is; Les Misérables. I'm reading the 2000 pages novel right now - in French of course and I like it a lot! I feel like I met the characters briefly in the musical and now I get to know them better :)
Pirates of the Caribbean. When do we not quote any of these movies? I had a really boring day two days ago and went on a YouTube trip watching clips with Captain Jack. Tonight we'll watch one of the movies while having dinner :D 1 or 3, which one should we watch?
Neil Gaiman. I haven't started reading the book I bought at the book sale yet. But the fact that I bought it is enough. I'm still stuck in Good Omens (in my head) and I keep going back to Smoke & Mirrors and Fragile Things reading a short story there and another one there. Simply because he's that good.
David Eddings. I started reading The Treasured One, but it was hard to get into. Mostly because I was still stuck in Good Omens in my head and kept comparing them (not a good idea), but now I'm more into the new book and the humour typical for Eddings has shown up again. Now I'm back. Everytime I'm reading Eddings I feel like I'm 13 years old again, cause that's how old I was when I discovered Belgarath :)
Monday, 27 February 2012
Love, boys, sex and yes, some depressing school too
19:05 | Posted by
Elin |
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I can't wait until my exams are over in a month so that I can concentrate on writing my essay and don't have to go to class anymore. At the same time I worry about the exams since that one teacher still seems unable to give information. What is the oral exam supposed to be about and supposed to include? I'm still not absolutely sure? What are we going to do for the written composition exam? All we know is that it's going to be on computer and that any kind of aid is allowed. Thinking about my exams and realising that I don't know anything whatsoever yet, makes me worried. There's just a month left! In a week it's going to be the time I usually start rehearsing for the exams!
Let's leave the worries for a bit.
Over three months ago I broke up with my boyfriend, and after the usual week of getting over it (that's all I usually need) I went into a state of emotional numbness. I couldn't feel anything. I wasn't bored, wasn't happy, wasn't sad, wasn't...anything. No matter the fact that it at first felt kind of nice to not feel anything I soon got tired of going on mechanics. A wise person (from that Swedish community) told me that she had felt that before too and made the metaphor that my system was just rebooting after such a long period of emotions. I figured she was right.
She was. For a few weeks I've been back to normal and it's nice to actually be again. The only thing I'm certain I don't want to meddle with again for some time is love. I'm exhausted still. I'm off relationships. I'm off boyfriends. I'm off feelings. I'm off falling in love. I just don't want to. I want to stay single. I want to be free. Cause the way it is now just the thought of relationships and compromises makes me feel trapped.
But still I'm considering temporary things. Having a boy in ones life makes sex possible. That's one of the unfortunate setbacks of being single - no boys. So what if I could have one without the other - i.e. boy but no relationship? I feel like playing around. What's so dramatic about that? Sex is so overly dramatised. What makes sex so dramatic that we can't openly talk about it or even use that word openly? Why is it that as soon as the one we talk to starts talking about sex he/she lowers his/her voice? Why is that we have a huge heap of metaphors for having sex? Why is sex so obscure? I honestly don't get why we have to shut up about the sex but can talk freely of kisses.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Mad Men and book sale
18:33 | Posted by
Elin |
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Alright, so today a big (is it only in Sweden or elsewhere as well?) tradition kicked off; the annual book sale. It starts in February each year and continues for... I don't really know, about a month? To be quite fair I usually don't pay a lot of attention to the whole thing, simply because it can get as crazy as Christmas shopping... And the regular big book shops (the big corporations, like the Swedish version of WH Smith) don't really have the kind of books I read. I read fantasy, horror and sometimes, but very rarely, science fiction. Those genres are still pretty obscure here and the regular shops only hold about one shelf of English language fantasy and one shelf of Swedish language fantasy. It's kind of ridiculous... But in the three largest cities in Sweden (Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö) we have book stores called the Science Fiction Book Store, which is heaven for me and all other geeks of various size and interest. They stock manga, anime, Asian pop culture (not music), RPG, board games, science fiction books, fantasy books and horror books. They too participate in the book sale. So today me and my friend Kajsa went there to take a look. Actually none of us could really afford to heavily spoil ourselves with new books, but we managed to walk out of there with three books each.
Looking at their web page yesterday I had my eyes set on one book specifically; Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Since 2010 when I read Smoke & Mirrors, Fragile Things, Coraline and Stardust I've really been a huge fan of his way of writing. And now after recently finishing Good Omens, I feel like this is the next one I'll deal with before getting started with American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Graveyard Book.
After getting my hands on that one I found, by chance, By Blood We Live. It's a compilation book with vampire stories by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Tanith Lee and Anne Rice among others. Some of them will undoubtedly be the urban fantasy vampire, but I have hope that some of them will be the classic Victorian vampire that I like.
Then I had decided that I was done with getting books. But Kajsa wanted to go check out the New Arrivals book section too and I went with her. The first book my eyes fell on in that book case was Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper. The cover immediately spoke to me and as I read the back cover I realised that I would probably like reading this one. So I just had to buy that one too... So I got out of the shop €28 poorer, but three books richer ;)
Now for something completely different...
Yesterday I finished watching the latest season of Mad Men. So now I've caught up. I like it a lot, although I'm really not sure why xD It's not the type of TV-show I usually watch.
Anyway I've really fallen for Peggy, I think she's great. Maybe not in the first season, but the three after that and especially in the fourth season she's awesome!
Then there's Don. The main character. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I hate him, sometimes I pity him, sometimes I think he's an idiot, sometimes I feel compassion, sometimes I think he's an ass... But the fact that he's a character with many layers that stirs so many feelings makes me want to continue watching.
And Sally. I've always liked Sally. Even in the first two seasons when she wasn't such a big character. Now I like her even more.
I used to not care for Joan, but the more I've seen of the series the more I've grown to like her. I really missed her when she quit Sterling Cooper cause she got married and I was really happy when she came back to work again. I like her a lot in the fourth season.
Then there are the characters I don't like.
For example Betty. I thought she was a little weird in the first season, but as the season's have been going on she's getting more and more neurotic and more and more obstinate. She's acting more and more like a spoiled child.
Then we have Roger Sterling. Another adult that keeps acting like a child and can't get his temper under control. I dislike the fact that he doesn't seem able to think ahead. He divorces his wife and marries a woman young enough to be his daughter and it seems to be a spur of the moment thing. He can't get over Joan and it doesn't seem like he's making any attempts to do so either. He's too confident and then he gets mad when things don't go his way. Like a petulant child.
Then there's Pete Campbell, whom I'm not really certain if I like or not. Sometimes I think he's great. Sometimes I think he's just a boasting kid trying desperately to get on the top of his game. Trying desperately to be one of the big boys although it seems like he's just starting out. He just seems too desperate to make a fantastic career sometimes.
Thus far the fourth season is the one I like the most. But the fourth season wouldn't be great without the other three ones to let the characters and the story evolve. The next season (coming on March 25th) will be very interesting... :)
Looking at their web page yesterday I had my eyes set on one book specifically; Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Since 2010 when I read Smoke & Mirrors, Fragile Things, Coraline and Stardust I've really been a huge fan of his way of writing. And now after recently finishing Good Omens, I feel like this is the next one I'll deal with before getting started with American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Graveyard Book.
After getting my hands on that one I found, by chance, By Blood We Live. It's a compilation book with vampire stories by Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Tanith Lee and Anne Rice among others. Some of them will undoubtedly be the urban fantasy vampire, but I have hope that some of them will be the classic Victorian vampire that I like.
Then I had decided that I was done with getting books. But Kajsa wanted to go check out the New Arrivals book section too and I went with her. The first book my eyes fell on in that book case was Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper. The cover immediately spoke to me and as I read the back cover I realised that I would probably like reading this one. So I just had to buy that one too... So I got out of the shop €28 poorer, but three books richer ;)
Now for something completely different...
Yesterday I finished watching the latest season of Mad Men. So now I've caught up. I like it a lot, although I'm really not sure why xD It's not the type of TV-show I usually watch.
Anyway I've really fallen for Peggy, I think she's great. Maybe not in the first season, but the three after that and especially in the fourth season she's awesome!
Then there's Don. The main character. Sometimes I like him, sometimes I hate him, sometimes I pity him, sometimes I think he's an idiot, sometimes I feel compassion, sometimes I think he's an ass... But the fact that he's a character with many layers that stirs so many feelings makes me want to continue watching.
And Sally. I've always liked Sally. Even in the first two seasons when she wasn't such a big character. Now I like her even more.
I used to not care for Joan, but the more I've seen of the series the more I've grown to like her. I really missed her when she quit Sterling Cooper cause she got married and I was really happy when she came back to work again. I like her a lot in the fourth season.
Then there are the characters I don't like.
For example Betty. I thought she was a little weird in the first season, but as the season's have been going on she's getting more and more neurotic and more and more obstinate. She's acting more and more like a spoiled child.
Then we have Roger Sterling. Another adult that keeps acting like a child and can't get his temper under control. I dislike the fact that he doesn't seem able to think ahead. He divorces his wife and marries a woman young enough to be his daughter and it seems to be a spur of the moment thing. He can't get over Joan and it doesn't seem like he's making any attempts to do so either. He's too confident and then he gets mad when things don't go his way. Like a petulant child.
Then there's Pete Campbell, whom I'm not really certain if I like or not. Sometimes I think he's great. Sometimes I think he's just a boasting kid trying desperately to get on the top of his game. Trying desperately to be one of the big boys although it seems like he's just starting out. He just seems too desperate to make a fantastic career sometimes.
Thus far the fourth season is the one I like the most. But the fourth season wouldn't be great without the other three ones to let the characters and the story evolve. The next season (coming on March 25th) will be very interesting... :)
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Dåligt beteende
19:48 | Posted by
Elin |
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Jag är så fruktansvärt arg.
Vet inte ens om jag borde blogga om det här, men jag måste få det ur mig på något sätt som gör respons möjlig och jag orkar inte berätta det för flera personer flera gånger.
Jag fick för ett par, tre dagar sedan veta att en av mina favoritlärare under gymnasietiden sagt upp sig efter att skolledningen krävt att han pensionerade sig till sommaren. Anledningen var att han och en lärare till blivit utsatta för förtal av en tredjeklass på skolan. Ett gäng 17-åringar hade alltså orsakat hans avgång från en skola där han arbetat i 25 år. Hela min klass älskade honom och alla jag pratat med på skolan, om skolan, har alltid nämnt honom som en av de bästa. Även de som faktiskt inte hade honom som lärare i något ämne.
Incidenten som orsakade detta förtal hände tydligen på en projektarbetsresa. Klassen ifråga hade tidigare åkt till Jordanien, Ghana, Mexiko eller Japan för två veckor, men det hade tydligen blivit strul med ekonomi och kontakter och dessa resmål blev inte längre av. Efter ett tag anordnades en resa till Ryssland istället. Efter bara några få dagar där urartar det. Lärarna får under ett flertal gånger berätta för eleverna att reseschemat är till för att följas och att man ska dyka upp på aktiviteter såvida man inte är sjuk eller har något relaterat till sitt projektarbete att göra. Eleverna är ute och festar hela nätterna och är högljudda inomhus så andra gäster och personalen på vandrarhemmet klagar. Det hela slutar med en incident ute på stan och samma kväll skriver eleven som orsakat incidenten hem till skolan i hemlighet bakom lärarnas ryggar. Hon vill genast bli hemskickad och beskriver situationen som att eleverna är otrygga i ett främmande land. I brevet anklagar hon bl a lärarna för att ha använt hennes dåliga familjesituation öppet i bråk och att en annan elev ska ha fått en knuff. De ska tydligen också ha blivit lämnade ensamma mitt i Moskva. Lärarna hade ingen som helst aning om detta brev förrän efter hemkomsten ca två veckor senare.
Läraren i fråga har på Facebook delat med sig av det hemliga brevet (som de fick tag på efter hemkomsten) och brevet som de själva skrev för att försvara sig. Efter att ha läst båda kommenterade jag detta på det hemliga brevet:
Vet inte ens om jag borde blogga om det här, men jag måste få det ur mig på något sätt som gör respons möjlig och jag orkar inte berätta det för flera personer flera gånger.
Jag fick för ett par, tre dagar sedan veta att en av mina favoritlärare under gymnasietiden sagt upp sig efter att skolledningen krävt att han pensionerade sig till sommaren. Anledningen var att han och en lärare till blivit utsatta för förtal av en tredjeklass på skolan. Ett gäng 17-åringar hade alltså orsakat hans avgång från en skola där han arbetat i 25 år. Hela min klass älskade honom och alla jag pratat med på skolan, om skolan, har alltid nämnt honom som en av de bästa. Även de som faktiskt inte hade honom som lärare i något ämne.
Incidenten som orsakade detta förtal hände tydligen på en projektarbetsresa. Klassen ifråga hade tidigare åkt till Jordanien, Ghana, Mexiko eller Japan för två veckor, men det hade tydligen blivit strul med ekonomi och kontakter och dessa resmål blev inte längre av. Efter ett tag anordnades en resa till Ryssland istället. Efter bara några få dagar där urartar det. Lärarna får under ett flertal gånger berätta för eleverna att reseschemat är till för att följas och att man ska dyka upp på aktiviteter såvida man inte är sjuk eller har något relaterat till sitt projektarbete att göra. Eleverna är ute och festar hela nätterna och är högljudda inomhus så andra gäster och personalen på vandrarhemmet klagar. Det hela slutar med en incident ute på stan och samma kväll skriver eleven som orsakat incidenten hem till skolan i hemlighet bakom lärarnas ryggar. Hon vill genast bli hemskickad och beskriver situationen som att eleverna är otrygga i ett främmande land. I brevet anklagar hon bl a lärarna för att ha använt hennes dåliga familjesituation öppet i bråk och att en annan elev ska ha fått en knuff. De ska tydligen också ha blivit lämnade ensamma mitt i Moskva. Lärarna hade ingen som helst aning om detta brev förrän efter hemkomsten ca två veckor senare.
Läraren i fråga har på Facebook delat med sig av det hemliga brevet (som de fick tag på efter hemkomsten) och brevet som de själva skrev för att försvara sig. Efter att ha läst båda kommenterade jag detta på det hemliga brevet:
Det låter teatraliskt och överdrivet. Som att något litet har hänt och sedan har eleven förstorat upp det till enorma proportioner för att utmåla sig själv som offret och svartmåla de två som enligt henne agerat fel. Meningen att brevet skulle ges till diverse institutioner och till media avslöjade hennes omogna mentalitet. Detta är skrivet av en missförstådd tonåring, inte av en mogen ung kvinna.
Liknande resor har gjorts med båda lärarna flera gånger tidigare och detta var första gången några sådana här problem uppkommit. Andra som har rest med dem säger att allting har gått bra och att en projektarbetsresa handlar om just studier. Tiden under resan är likvärdig med tiden i skolan. De har också handlat en hel del om att klara sig själv i ett främmande land, som ett steg i att lära sig bli vuxen. Jag åkte på en sådan här resa och det var något av det bästa jag upplevt. Alla i klassen tyckte samma sak. Alla bevis talar för att eleverna gjort fel. Hur kunde skolledningen låta eleverna komma undan med det här?
På svarsbrevet kommenterade jag detta:
Helt otroligt. Jag finner inga ord. Hur kan de vara så otacksamma? Eleverna har sysslat med kollektiv mobbning och kommit undan med det. Det är otroligt hemskt och fult av dem att agera på det där sättet.
Skolledningen granskade i slutändan inte ärendet ordentligt och lät eleverna komma undan med det genom att kräva att lärarna gick i pension. Detta oansvariga beteende av eleverna ledde till att minst en otroligt omtyckt lärare sa upp sig. Skolan förlorade en fantastisk tillgång. Det slappa beteende av skolledningen kan man inte heller undgå att lägga märke till.
Jag är så fruktansvärt arg över att det ens kunde förekomma. Hur kunde skolledningen välja en 17-årings ord över en lärare med 25-års anställningshistoria när ord stod mot ord? En lärare som dessutom har en lång historia av att vara omtyckt. Det har blivit hanterat så fruktansvärt dåligt, och jag är arg.
Liknande resor har gjorts med båda lärarna flera gånger tidigare och detta var första gången några sådana här problem uppkommit. Andra som har rest med dem säger att allting har gått bra och att en projektarbetsresa handlar om just studier. Tiden under resan är likvärdig med tiden i skolan. De har också handlat en hel del om att klara sig själv i ett främmande land, som ett steg i att lära sig bli vuxen. Jag åkte på en sådan här resa och det var något av det bästa jag upplevt. Alla i klassen tyckte samma sak. Alla bevis talar för att eleverna gjort fel. Hur kunde skolledningen låta eleverna komma undan med det här?
Ordet korruption dyker upp i mitt huvud när jag skriver det här.
Vi fd elever fortsätter ge vår favoritlärare stöd på Facebook.
(Jag har utelämnat alla namn av en anledning. Jag vet inte om jag får lov att publicera breven ifråga så det låter jag bli.)
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Dropping out again
21:54 | Posted by
Elin |
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I dislike misty rain. Especially when it melts the snow.
Remember the mystery of my Spanish course? The new teacher has comepletely messed up the schedule of our old teacher and completely changed the assignments she made for us. Suddenly the small Spanish course weighed a ton due to his meddling and I decided to quit that course and focus on the French. I sent a mail to the administrator today asking for the drop out to be registered as of today. My original thought was to balance the two until I have my exams in French in the end of March/beginning of April, after that I only have my essay to write and plenty of time to get better at Spanish. But no, it got too messed up and I'm out. I may continue to study Spanish, though... Just because it's fun... Yeah, I'm such a nerd ;)
Any other news?
Well, I saw How to Train Your Dragon for the first time today. It was an amazing movie and I truly recommend it to everyone. Toothless' personality reminds me of Dixi :P
Remember the mystery of my Spanish course? The new teacher has comepletely messed up the schedule of our old teacher and completely changed the assignments she made for us. Suddenly the small Spanish course weighed a ton due to his meddling and I decided to quit that course and focus on the French. I sent a mail to the administrator today asking for the drop out to be registered as of today. My original thought was to balance the two until I have my exams in French in the end of March/beginning of April, after that I only have my essay to write and plenty of time to get better at Spanish. But no, it got too messed up and I'm out. I may continue to study Spanish, though... Just because it's fun... Yeah, I'm such a nerd ;)
Any other news?
Well, I saw How to Train Your Dragon for the first time today. It was an amazing movie and I truly recommend it to everyone. Toothless' personality reminds me of Dixi :P
Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Valentine's Day 2012
19:11 | Posted by
Elin |
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For this year's Valentine's we had something unusual planned. I had actually planned to go to school but decided not to and slept for some more hours, though I'd need them later on that day.
Around 3pm our friend, Gisela, came over. The three of us; me, Love and Gisela, had planned a drunken evening with a Harry Potter marathon. Around 4.30pm we started out with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and every time they said "Hogwarts" in the film we had to drink. We had a little break after the first one, then we started up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This time we had to drink at every "Hogwarts" and every "wand". After the second one we decided that it was time for dinner and made macaronis and bacon :) By now the time was about 10.30pm so it was a very, very late dinner :P
While eating dinner we started up Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkban and added "Sirius/Sirius Black/Black" to the list of words to drink to.
At the end of the third film the time was about 1am and we decided we didn't have the energy to do one more. after some talking we went to bed.
Waking up today I wasn't hungover and the only signs of last night's drinking game is the mess in the kitchen and the bottles on the table.
Monday, 13 February 2012
The weekend: Books, movies, music and comedy
20:57 | Posted by
Elin |
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I love crisp winter mornings.
Felt a need to express that, and now, let's bring back the weekend.
Friday.
Got up early to go to school. I usually don't have school on Fridays, but today was an exception. We had some kind of oral test about Corneille and Le Cid. Our teacher asked us questions and we had to answer as if she knew nothing and we were explaining something completely new to her. It was kind of fun. We're going to to the same thing with Racine and Phèdre. But there will be a difference. I liked reading Le Cid, but I'm not a big fan of Phèdre.
Anyway, in the evening I took the bus from Lund to my hometown of Svedala to stay with my parents for the weekend. It had been about a month since I last saw them and it felt nice being back there. Especially the food. Having moved out and having to make my own food that isn't that great yet, it's a nice treat to go home and get to eat a real homemade meal. Friday was really luxurious with an entré in the shape of half an avocado each with Skagen mixture on top and the mixture topped with shrimps. This is pretty much the only entré we ever have on occasions that are not festive. But it's delicious. Main course was hare with potatoes, sauce and cranberry jelly. Afterwards there was the, now traditional, large bag of sweets and the film on TV was Män som Hatar Kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). It was the first time I ever saw that film and it was really good! Usually I don't really like Swedish films, they have a tendency to be somewhat placid and boring (much like the people, really), but this one was... wow.
Saturday.
Got up around 10am. Most of the day was spent reading Good Omens (which I finished as expected) and I just didn't feel like starting to read Phèdre. My parents love Ticket to Ride (ever since I gave them the Europe edition two Christmases ago) and we play it every time I am there. We played two rounds and both of them went as expected. I came in second last and last respectively. I never win at playing games, but usually it's a lot of fun anyway. In the evening we ate a delicious meat stew and then it was time for the second part of the Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest and cheese doodles :) I hadn't watched the Swedish selections in two years, I don't really care anymore. The organisers seem to concentrate more on the quantity of genres than the quality of the music and thus it has become really bad. I'll know who wins anyway from the magazine posters. I watch the semi-finals and the final of course; the main event: Eurovision Song Contest. That's always a lot of fun. Anyway in this selection there was only one song that I thought was good. A song called Soldiers by the cutest boy ever called Ulrik Munther. After the selection for ESC we watched Tomorrow Never Dies, which we've all seen about a hundred times, but what to do when my mum said she didn't like Sherlock (blasphemy!), which was the only other watchable thing on TV that evening.
Sunday.
Once again got up around 10am and I spent most of the time lazily hanging around the sofa and watching TV (Sonny with a Chance dubbed to Swedish (horrendous), Kitchen Nightmares and Bring it On: All or Nothing among others), while trying to find the energy to start reading The Treasured Ones by David & Leigh Eddings. In the late afternoon we went to the church where my sister's orchestral ensemble were going to have a concert. She had gotten her first solo song and I had to record her performance of course:
The concert was quite nice actually. It was the first time I heard the soundtrack to the Zelda video games in an orchestral version :P And they played some of the score from the Sweeney Tood movie, as well as some of the score of the Shrek movies.
I had to rush to the train station and missed the last two songs of the concert. Reason was that I had to get to Lund because we had tickets to see a Swedish comedian by the name of Magnus Betnér. It was awesome!!! Here's a sample of his awesomeness:
Felt a need to express that, and now, let's bring back the weekend.
Friday.
Got up early to go to school. I usually don't have school on Fridays, but today was an exception. We had some kind of oral test about Corneille and Le Cid. Our teacher asked us questions and we had to answer as if she knew nothing and we were explaining something completely new to her. It was kind of fun. We're going to to the same thing with Racine and Phèdre. But there will be a difference. I liked reading Le Cid, but I'm not a big fan of Phèdre.
Anyway, in the evening I took the bus from Lund to my hometown of Svedala to stay with my parents for the weekend. It had been about a month since I last saw them and it felt nice being back there. Especially the food. Having moved out and having to make my own food that isn't that great yet, it's a nice treat to go home and get to eat a real homemade meal. Friday was really luxurious with an entré in the shape of half an avocado each with Skagen mixture on top and the mixture topped with shrimps. This is pretty much the only entré we ever have on occasions that are not festive. But it's delicious. Main course was hare with potatoes, sauce and cranberry jelly. Afterwards there was the, now traditional, large bag of sweets and the film on TV was Män som Hatar Kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). It was the first time I ever saw that film and it was really good! Usually I don't really like Swedish films, they have a tendency to be somewhat placid and boring (much like the people, really), but this one was... wow.
Saturday.
Got up around 10am. Most of the day was spent reading Good Omens (which I finished as expected) and I just didn't feel like starting to read Phèdre. My parents love Ticket to Ride (ever since I gave them the Europe edition two Christmases ago) and we play it every time I am there. We played two rounds and both of them went as expected. I came in second last and last respectively. I never win at playing games, but usually it's a lot of fun anyway. In the evening we ate a delicious meat stew and then it was time for the second part of the Swedish selections for the Eurovision Song Contest and cheese doodles :) I hadn't watched the Swedish selections in two years, I don't really care anymore. The organisers seem to concentrate more on the quantity of genres than the quality of the music and thus it has become really bad. I'll know who wins anyway from the magazine posters. I watch the semi-finals and the final of course; the main event: Eurovision Song Contest. That's always a lot of fun. Anyway in this selection there was only one song that I thought was good. A song called Soldiers by the cutest boy ever called Ulrik Munther. After the selection for ESC we watched Tomorrow Never Dies, which we've all seen about a hundred times, but what to do when my mum said she didn't like Sherlock (blasphemy!), which was the only other watchable thing on TV that evening.
Sunday.
Once again got up around 10am and I spent most of the time lazily hanging around the sofa and watching TV (Sonny with a Chance dubbed to Swedish (horrendous), Kitchen Nightmares and Bring it On: All or Nothing among others), while trying to find the energy to start reading The Treasured Ones by David & Leigh Eddings. In the late afternoon we went to the church where my sister's orchestral ensemble were going to have a concert. She had gotten her first solo song and I had to record her performance of course:
I had to rush to the train station and missed the last two songs of the concert. Reason was that I had to get to Lund because we had tickets to see a Swedish comedian by the name of Magnus Betnér. It was awesome!!! Here's a sample of his awesomeness:
I love how he made fun of the year 2011. Complained that there was so much news last year, that this year 2012, that's completely normal news-wise, seems boring. He managed to make fun of the old news of the rebellion in Libya and Egypt, the death of Usama bin-Ladin and the Fukushima disaster, as well as some new news. And there were new versions of the old themes of his; religion, parenthood and sex. Simply fantastic!
So that was my weekend. Kind of interesting actually. The coming weekend has the potential of being almost equally interesting! :) Now I'm gonna read the book by Eddings and write some before it's sleepy time! Tomorrow is a big day; Valentine's. I'm gonna have a somewhat different and interesting Valentine's and I probably won't be able to tell you anything until Wednesday, so until then:
Toodles!
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Some of this, some of that...
20:11 | Posted by
Elin |
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About school
I think I'm having a temporary melt-down. That one teacher keeps expecting us to know things and for us to have already done things he expect us to do, without giving us any information at all! How are we supposed to know what we are going to do if you don't tell us that we're supposed to do something?! Je m'en fous! Vachement...
I have some good news at least; I've decided a subject for my Bachelor degree essay! I'll write about Les Misérables! 20-25 pages shouldn't be that hard if it's about something I like, n'est-ce pas? ;)
More recently we have the mystery of my Spanish course. On Wednesday last week we got a mail saying that our classes were cancelled until further notice. On Friday we got a mail saying that they had found a replacement for our teacher and that classes would resume today. After a quick look at our timetable it's obvious that all classes are for him now. I didn't feel like going to class today although I knew I should. I stay up to date with the schedule handed out to us and I do all the exercises... Should be enough, right? Anyway I feel like I'm just sitting there staring at the clock, waiting for time to pass when I'm actually in class. However it still bothers me that our first teacher disappeared just like that. What the heck happened? O_o
About politics
The Prime Minister of Sweden has gotten yet another brilliant idea (notice the sarcasm). He suggests that we should raise the age of retirement to 75 instead of 65 as it is now. This is an emergency solution since it seems like the government doesn't have enough money to pay all the retired people if they keep retiring at 65. However it poses another problem as well. This will post-pone the coming generation switch in society. This means that my generation will continue to go unemployed while the older generation will keep on working 'til they drop dead. Lovely idea, isn't it? *sarcasm* Instead of solving the increasing unemployment problem amongst young people he's going to force old people to work more. He's going to let us starve to death and the old people work to death. What the heck has he got instead of a brain?! The Swedish politicians are driving me mad with their stupidity! We need that generation switch now!
Then we have ACTA. I blogged about that before. Last week there were demonstrations against this proposal throughout the country. This is a picture from the demonstration in Stockholm:
I couldn't participate myself. I was busy otherwise. This link contains info about ACTA demonstrations throughout the world. If the officials don't get the picture after all this work then I'm seriously scared for the future. I found this on Tumblr. As long as there's people fighting there's hope, right?
About the nerdy stuff
Mostly it's The Sims 2 right now. My second generation of Sims are growing up into elders, and it's a little wistful to see them grow old since they are the first generation I've had since they were babies. However this means that the third generation are growing up into adults. Meaning more babies! Yay! And more houses! Yay!
I've been watching a little less Mad Men lately, but I'm almost done with the 3rd season now. While I'm watching Mad Men I'm looking forward to a bunch of stuff like the 2nd season of Game of Thrones will begin on April 1st. Then we have the 3rd seasons of Sherlock and Downton Abbey ^_^ And ofc the 5th seaosn of Mad Men. I will try to catch up on the entire 4th season before March 25th when the 5th season airs! When I'm done with Mad Men I'm also going to start my sci-fi marathon; the Star Trek franchise, the Star Wars movies, the Star Gate franchise and Battlestar Galactica. I should add Dr. Who to that list as well... And I should catch up on Fringe, and I should watch that single season of Invasion. Why am I doing this? Well, it bothers me when people argue about stuff they obviously have no clue about, so I'm going to fix that. I'm also going to see if the entire sci-fi genre seems less ridiculous if I sit down and have a real good, deep and thorough look at it.
I'm still working on "Good Omens", but I'm planning on finishing it this weekend and get going with the final series by David Eddings :)
Oh and I also found that they're making a new Total War game based on the world of Westeros from "Game of Thrones". I'm actually really excited about that! :D
----
And now, I'm gonna get started with the writing again. I really feel like finishing off that book and send it away to some publishing company :)
I think I'm having a temporary melt-down. That one teacher keeps expecting us to know things and for us to have already done things he expect us to do, without giving us any information at all! How are we supposed to know what we are going to do if you don't tell us that we're supposed to do something?! Je m'en fous! Vachement...
I have some good news at least; I've decided a subject for my Bachelor degree essay! I'll write about Les Misérables! 20-25 pages shouldn't be that hard if it's about something I like, n'est-ce pas? ;)
More recently we have the mystery of my Spanish course. On Wednesday last week we got a mail saying that our classes were cancelled until further notice. On Friday we got a mail saying that they had found a replacement for our teacher and that classes would resume today. After a quick look at our timetable it's obvious that all classes are for him now. I didn't feel like going to class today although I knew I should. I stay up to date with the schedule handed out to us and I do all the exercises... Should be enough, right? Anyway I feel like I'm just sitting there staring at the clock, waiting for time to pass when I'm actually in class. However it still bothers me that our first teacher disappeared just like that. What the heck happened? O_o
About politics
The Prime Minister of Sweden has gotten yet another brilliant idea (notice the sarcasm). He suggests that we should raise the age of retirement to 75 instead of 65 as it is now. This is an emergency solution since it seems like the government doesn't have enough money to pay all the retired people if they keep retiring at 65. However it poses another problem as well. This will post-pone the coming generation switch in society. This means that my generation will continue to go unemployed while the older generation will keep on working 'til they drop dead. Lovely idea, isn't it? *sarcasm* Instead of solving the increasing unemployment problem amongst young people he's going to force old people to work more. He's going to let us starve to death and the old people work to death. What the heck has he got instead of a brain?! The Swedish politicians are driving me mad with their stupidity! We need that generation switch now!
Then we have ACTA. I blogged about that before. Last week there were demonstrations against this proposal throughout the country. This is a picture from the demonstration in Stockholm:
About the nerdy stuff
Mostly it's The Sims 2 right now. My second generation of Sims are growing up into elders, and it's a little wistful to see them grow old since they are the first generation I've had since they were babies. However this means that the third generation are growing up into adults. Meaning more babies! Yay! And more houses! Yay!
I've been watching a little less Mad Men lately, but I'm almost done with the 3rd season now. While I'm watching Mad Men I'm looking forward to a bunch of stuff like the 2nd season of Game of Thrones will begin on April 1st. Then we have the 3rd seasons of Sherlock and Downton Abbey ^_^ And ofc the 5th seaosn of Mad Men. I will try to catch up on the entire 4th season before March 25th when the 5th season airs! When I'm done with Mad Men I'm also going to start my sci-fi marathon; the Star Trek franchise, the Star Wars movies, the Star Gate franchise and Battlestar Galactica. I should add Dr. Who to that list as well... And I should catch up on Fringe, and I should watch that single season of Invasion. Why am I doing this? Well, it bothers me when people argue about stuff they obviously have no clue about, so I'm going to fix that. I'm also going to see if the entire sci-fi genre seems less ridiculous if I sit down and have a real good, deep and thorough look at it.
I'm still working on "Good Omens", but I'm planning on finishing it this weekend and get going with the final series by David Eddings :)
Oh and I also found that they're making a new Total War game based on the world of Westeros from "Game of Thrones". I'm actually really excited about that! :D
----
And now, I'm gonna get started with the writing again. I really feel like finishing off that book and send it away to some publishing company :)
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Why it's not scary
21:46 | Posted by
Elin |
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This Saturday we were role-playing for the first time in ages, it was also Call of Cthulhu for the first time in ages. After finishing playing and returning back home the discussion turned to horror and the fact that I don't scare easily. To me most of western horror is laughable. I may think it cosy if they're lucky. But western horror has the trait that it's almost always beatable. You can almost always beat the evil and there's almost always a place where you're safe. Thus far that argument goes for CoC as well. The evil is only inside that house, outside of it I'm safe, and the feeling of being safe shouldn't be there when playing a horror RPG. But it is. The demon in CoC is, thus far, beatable, vanquishable and it won't come after you hunting you 'til you crack. Another problem that western horror has that when they don't know how to make it more scary they turn it gross instead. Like this scene from the Poughkeepsie Tapes (I haven't seen it, just this scene turns me off), the same goes for the four latest Saw movies. Western horror movie makers need to learn that gross does not equal scary!
When it comes to horror I'm toughened, I'm jaded. Why? I started reading horror stories (those short stories printed in packs in books) when I was somewhere around 9-11 years old. I started watching 15-rated horror movies at the age of 11, some of them alone. Jumpers don't scare me anymore. I may jump, then I laugh. Nowadays I watch western horror movies more because of a keen interest in what's supposed to be scary rather than actually wanting to be frightened. I was put in front of a computer and set to play Amnesia. I was excited, thrilled, to finally start playing it. I expected adrenaline and a heart beating fast. I expected being chased around by zombies in a dark house unable to defend myself. I was left disappointed. After having played for 71 minutes I had had no rush of adrenaline, no fast-beating heart. I had not yet been chased around and the only things that were supposed to scare me was the guy breathing asthmatically and biting his nails, occasionally he would whimper when a light was burned out. The dark rooms and the occasional trembling was supposed to create a scary environment, I suppose. But not being able to see properly combined with his everlasting nailbiting was more annoying that scary. When the game told me how to run I thought that it would get scary soon enough, I would be chased soon enough. But even after that nothing happened. I guess I should play it more to fully realise why people seem to be so scared of it... Cause this far I really don't get it. Like the guy in this video... I don't get it...
It also applies to other things. I love to read Stephen King. I haven't read that many yet, but Pet Sematary is my favourite thus far. It gives me those cosy spine-chills that makes me appreciate the warmth of my cover or blanket. The same goes for Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. They're simply cosy and enjoyable.
But there are ways to make me scared still. I've talked about how easy, predictable and safe that western horror is. Asian horror is the complete opposite! You can't ever get rid of it once it sets its eyes on you. It will always be there, watching you, hunting you, wanting you... You're never free from it. Even when you can't see it, even when you can't hear it, you can feel it. It's nagging at your brain. It's making you scared of ordinary things like taking a shower. It's more psychological than physical. There's no jumpers, only the monsters sneaking up on you, grabbing hold of you when you least expect it. You can't beat it easily, and even if you think you did there's no telling if it actually worked. It can follow you anywhere, there are no safe places. This is what's scary!
When it comes to horror I'm toughened, I'm jaded. Why? I started reading horror stories (those short stories printed in packs in books) when I was somewhere around 9-11 years old. I started watching 15-rated horror movies at the age of 11, some of them alone. Jumpers don't scare me anymore. I may jump, then I laugh. Nowadays I watch western horror movies more because of a keen interest in what's supposed to be scary rather than actually wanting to be frightened. I was put in front of a computer and set to play Amnesia. I was excited, thrilled, to finally start playing it. I expected adrenaline and a heart beating fast. I expected being chased around by zombies in a dark house unable to defend myself. I was left disappointed. After having played for 71 minutes I had had no rush of adrenaline, no fast-beating heart. I had not yet been chased around and the only things that were supposed to scare me was the guy breathing asthmatically and biting his nails, occasionally he would whimper when a light was burned out. The dark rooms and the occasional trembling was supposed to create a scary environment, I suppose. But not being able to see properly combined with his everlasting nailbiting was more annoying that scary. When the game told me how to run I thought that it would get scary soon enough, I would be chased soon enough. But even after that nothing happened. I guess I should play it more to fully realise why people seem to be so scared of it... Cause this far I really don't get it. Like the guy in this video... I don't get it...
It also applies to other things. I love to read Stephen King. I haven't read that many yet, but Pet Sematary is my favourite thus far. It gives me those cosy spine-chills that makes me appreciate the warmth of my cover or blanket. The same goes for Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. They're simply cosy and enjoyable.
But there are ways to make me scared still. I've talked about how easy, predictable and safe that western horror is. Asian horror is the complete opposite! You can't ever get rid of it once it sets its eyes on you. It will always be there, watching you, hunting you, wanting you... You're never free from it. Even when you can't see it, even when you can't hear it, you can feel it. It's nagging at your brain. It's making you scared of ordinary things like taking a shower. It's more psychological than physical. There's no jumpers, only the monsters sneaking up on you, grabbing hold of you when you least expect it. You can't beat it easily, and even if you think you did there's no telling if it actually worked. It can follow you anywhere, there are no safe places. This is what's scary!
I still watch things like this although I know it'll scare me into sleeplessness. I try to not watch it when it's dark outside. But I love the sensation. You know getting all tense and scared, adrenaline pumping, heart beating insanely fast. Then it's over, the video or the film has ended. The tension lets go, the heart slows down, you relax and that single sensation of relaxation makes being scared so worth it. You know how some people look for adventure to feel their adrenaline pumping, people that are kind of addicted to adrenaline? Yeah, this is what I shoot up on.
That it's hard to scare me has nothing to do with my imagination. My imagination is alive and well. Very lively actually. I can scare myself sleepless at nights just by starting to think of the wrong things. Usually "the wrong things" are associated with Asian horror. I can't see very well without contacts or glasses and I wear neither, of course, when I go to sleep. That white shadow over there is the ghost boy from the Grudge staring at me. That darker shadow in the corner of the ceiling that seems to be growing is the hair from the ghost girl in the Grudge. She's coming, she'll kill me, she's growing out of her hair, coming out of that corner. Soon she'll crawl over me in my bed. If I turn around she'll be there staring at me. From the space between my bed and the wall there's a shadow hand rising, a shadow hand wanting to grab me and take me away. That scratching sound from the hallway is someone crawling across the floor, trying to grab the handle on the door... They'll get to me!
Those are the kind of thoughts that can haunt me at night. I know how to counter it of course, once they have begun, but I don't know how to stop them from coming.
There are of course games that are supposed to be creepy but in my eyes seem more interesting and exciting than scary.
Limbo is one of them.
Limbo is one of them.
Friday, 3 February 2012
A music questionnaire
21:47 | Posted by
Elin |
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So I found this one post a day for a month-thing at a friend's blog and thought I'd do it. But of course you know by now that I do all the questions in one go ;)
Your favourite song
The most difficult question. It's a tie between "Last Man on Earth" (can't find on YouTube) and "Ghouls Gone Wild". Both by Alice Cooper.
Your least favourite song
"Det Löser Sig" by Timbuktu.
A song that makes you happy
"Rottara Rottara" by Buono!.
A song that makes you sad
"Hello" by Evanescene
A song that reminds you of someone
"Lost in Life" by Sirenia. We used to practice this song on guitar :)
A song that reminds you of somewhere
"How do you like this Japan?" by Morning Musume. Reminds me of Tokyo ;)
A song that reminds you of a certain event
"Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams Was played on the truck at my graduation :D
A song that you know all the words to
Well, I like to learn all the words to songs. I know all the words of the songs posted above. Which means I can post any song I like ;) "Hey Stoopid" by Alice Cooper.
A song that you can dance to
I can't really dance at all. But a song that makes me want to move then... "Keepin' Halloween Alive" by Alice Cooper.
A song that makes you fall asleep
In a good way. I use to listen to this before going to sleep. It gives me pleasant dreams ;) "Music of the Night" sung by Ramin Karimloo.
A song from your favorite band
I've already given you three xD But let's go with the most known one then ;) "Poison" by Alice Cooper.
A song from a band you hate
"Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
Gah, my ears! Don't make me do this again. This version is waaaaaay better ;)
A song that is a guilty pleasure
A song that no one would expect you to love
"Disturbia" by Rihanna
A song that describes you
"How Does it Feel" by Avril Lavigne
A song that you used to love but now hate
"Just Friends" by Jonas Brothers I was going to say "Australia" first cause the lyrics are just soo... But then I realized that I had never liked "Australia" while Ia ctually did use to like this song...
A song that you hear often on the radio
Last time I listened regularly to the radio was back in 2004/05. Does that count? Anyway this is what was on the radio all the time back then: "Welcome to My Life" by Simple Plan.
A song that you wish you heard on the radio
I could say anything Japanese as an answer, but I'm going to be somewhat realistic and go with "Storytime" by Nightwish. I'm guessing they still don't play symphonic metal on the regular radio channels?
A song from your favourite album
Yet another tough question. My favourite album? ARE YOU INSANE?! But I'm gonna say the album I listened to all the time back in 2006-2008. And the song is "It Snows in Hell" by Lordi.
A song that you listen to when you’re angry
"Runaway" by Avril Lavigne
A song that you listen to when you’re happy
"Smily" by Otsuka Ai (Just don't watch the video if you're gonna listen. The video is freaky -.-')
A song that you listen to when you’re sad
"Fuckin' Perfect" by P!nk
A song that you want to play at your wedding
"Heaven" by Bryan Adams
A song that you want to play at your funeral
"Wild World" by Mr. Big Seems perfect... actually :O
A song that makes you laugh
"America" by Stephen Lynch Listen to the lyrics and you'll laugh too ;)
A song that you can play on an instrument
"Acoustic medley" by In Flames I can do one of the guitars ;)
A song that you wish you could play
"Boku wa Shitteru" by Miyavi
A song that makes you feel guilty
I can't really think of a song like that...
A song from your childhood
Now this is a fun one. I could take any song from Aqua, Spice Girls or any of those billions of boybands in the late 90's to the early 2000's... But it should be a song that I listened to a lot... I listened to this song a lot and I loved the video and this song also made me love her for a couple of years... Couldn't believe that now :P
Oh dear me the fashion... ;P
Your favourite song at this time last year
This was.... interesting :P
Your favourite song
The most difficult question. It's a tie between "Last Man on Earth" (can't find on YouTube) and "Ghouls Gone Wild". Both by Alice Cooper.
Your least favourite song
"Det Löser Sig" by Timbuktu.
A song that makes you happy
"Rottara Rottara" by Buono!.
"Hello" by Evanescene
A song that reminds you of someone
"Lost in Life" by Sirenia. We used to practice this song on guitar :)
A song that reminds you of somewhere
"How do you like this Japan?" by Morning Musume. Reminds me of Tokyo ;)
A song that reminds you of a certain event
"Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams Was played on the truck at my graduation :D
Well, I like to learn all the words to songs. I know all the words of the songs posted above. Which means I can post any song I like ;) "Hey Stoopid" by Alice Cooper.
A song that you can dance to
I can't really dance at all. But a song that makes me want to move then... "Keepin' Halloween Alive" by Alice Cooper.
A song that makes you fall asleep
In a good way. I use to listen to this before going to sleep. It gives me pleasant dreams ;) "Music of the Night" sung by Ramin Karimloo.
A song from your favorite band
I've already given you three xD But let's go with the most known one then ;) "Poison" by Alice Cooper.
"Poker Face" by Lady Gaga
Gah, my ears! Don't make me do this again. This version is waaaaaay better ;)
A song that is a guilty pleasure
"Disturbia" by Rihanna
A song that describes you
"How Does it Feel" by Avril Lavigne
A song that you used to love but now hate
"Just Friends" by Jonas Brothers I was going to say "Australia" first cause the lyrics are just soo... But then I realized that I had never liked "Australia" while Ia ctually did use to like this song...
A song that you hear often on the radio
Last time I listened regularly to the radio was back in 2004/05. Does that count? Anyway this is what was on the radio all the time back then: "Welcome to My Life" by Simple Plan.
A song that you wish you heard on the radio
I could say anything Japanese as an answer, but I'm going to be somewhat realistic and go with "Storytime" by Nightwish. I'm guessing they still don't play symphonic metal on the regular radio channels?
Yet another tough question. My favourite album? ARE YOU INSANE?! But I'm gonna say the album I listened to all the time back in 2006-2008. And the song is "It Snows in Hell" by Lordi.
"Runaway" by Avril Lavigne
A song that you listen to when you’re happy
"Smily" by Otsuka Ai (Just don't watch the video if you're gonna listen. The video is freaky -.-')
A song that you listen to when you’re sad
"Fuckin' Perfect" by P!nk
A song that you want to play at your wedding
"Heaven" by Bryan Adams
A song that you want to play at your funeral
"Wild World" by Mr. Big Seems perfect... actually :O
A song that makes you laugh
"America" by Stephen Lynch Listen to the lyrics and you'll laugh too ;)
A song that you can play on an instrument
"Acoustic medley" by In Flames I can do one of the guitars ;)
A song that you wish you could play
"Boku wa Shitteru" by Miyavi
A song that makes you feel guilty
I can't really think of a song like that...
A song from your childhood
Now this is a fun one. I could take any song from Aqua, Spice Girls or any of those billions of boybands in the late 90's to the early 2000's... But it should be a song that I listened to a lot... I listened to this song a lot and I loved the video and this song also made me love her for a couple of years... Couldn't believe that now :P
Your favourite song at this time last year
This was.... interesting :P
Thursday, 2 February 2012
And the Best Children's Book of the past 10 years will be...?
21:39 | Posted by
Elin |
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So Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is up for a battle of which book was the Best Children's Book of the past decade. The other competitors are:
- "Mr. Stink" by David Williams
- "Alex Rider Skeleton Key" by Anthony Horowitz
- "Candy Floss" by Jacqueline Wilson
- "Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend" by Francesca Simon
- "A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Austere Academy" by Lemony Snicket
- "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
- "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo
- "Silver Fin" by Charlie Higson
- "Theodore Boone" by John Grisham
Call me old but the only books I've heard of in that list is (ofc) Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events and Alex Rider, and out of the three of them, I think, Harry Potter would easily win. It's also for the fans to vote at this website (gotta sign up first though).
But seriously, if the fans can vote, what other result would you get except HP as a victor? I haven't heard anything about those other books having such devoted fans ;)
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Nerdiness of January
22:37 | Posted by
Elin |
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Sherlock. Pirates. Harry Potter. Good Omens. The Vampyre. The Sims 2. Medieval II Total War. Morning Musume. The First Law. Skulduggery Pleasant. Durarara!. Japanese. Korean. Chinese. Pokémon. Writing. Mad Men.
In no special order, these are the subjects I've been nerding the last month.
Sherlock. The second season was friggin beautiful! Why oh why does have to be so long until the next season? And why is every season just consisting of three episodes?! I loved, loved, loved the new version of The Hound of the Baskervilles and how I cried at pretty much all of the last episode. I love watching Benedict Cumberbatch, and that Martin Freeman won a BAFTA is just *love*. So I started following this Tumblr on my Google Reader...
Pirates. As in Pirates of the Caribbean. We started watching the first film one evening and now we're back at reciting the entire movie together at random times. Today we started at "I've heard of one. It's supposed to be very fast nigh uncatchable; The Black Pearl." But usually the favourite is "You'll get another one!"
Harry Potter. This one really never ends. I'm hanging out on this Swedish community where we talk about so much more than Harry Potter, but having HP as the main thing that gathers us together. I also signed up for myHogwarts :) And I'm really looking forward to it! I also started following this Tumblr on my Reader.
Good Omens. The book I'm currently reading, written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors. I've never quite liked Pratchett, only thing he's written that I've found funny is The Wee Free Men. But this far I'm liking it a lot! It was my Christmas present from Kajsa and she did right in getting me the edition with the demon Crowley on the cover, because I do like him the best ;)
The Vampyre. The first book of the year. It's a vampire book, but it was nice reading a vampire novel with the classical gothic vampire that is evil, sucks blood, kills humans and LIKES it. None of that urban fantasy crap where vampires are plain sexual beings that put a little adventure into having sex. No this is the classical gothic vampire story and I love this book. It starts off kind of slow and for a while there one thinks it will keep going the same road as Dracula, but it takes a turn - for the better - and turns the main character into a vampire.
The Sims 2. I've spent hours building an apartment house and a huge mall in my neighbourhood. Now I'm back to playing on that one family.
Medieval II Total War. It's been a while since I played this, but I started it up again after I figured out how to play it in windowed mode. I love playing as the Holy Roman Empire and having the armies shout "Ja, mein Kaiser!" at me, but this time I started as France and having the armies yell "Mon Roi!" isn't that bad either ;)
Morning Musume. The 9th and 10th generations joined last year. I've grown accustomed to the 9th generation by now but I don't really have any opinion on the 10th yet. Just had my first ever serious discussion on the subject. I'm also extremely disappointed by MoMusu's new single, the debut single for 10th, which is soooo bad compared to what 9th has done since their debut. But this Tumblr keeps my interest up.
The First Law. The fantasy triology by Joe Abercrombie. I started reading this series last year, but I recently bought the following two books and can't wait to continuing the story! I love Glokta!!!
Skulduggery Pleasant. A youth fantasy series that I started reading in 2010. I bought the two following books at the same time as I bought the continuation of The First Law, I really like reading youth novels again. It's lighter reading and usually a lot more easy humour than with adult fantasy. Stephanie is just *love*.
Durarara!. Not that long before I went to Tokyo this became an anime series that I really came to like before going. In Tokyo however I forgot to watch the anime and started reading the manga online instead and I really liked it. I bough the first volume of the manga in Japanese while buying the books mentioned above ;)
Japanese. I've started going through my notes from Japanese class at university and in Tokyo, and I've started looking at the Joujou Kanji again... I'm also trying to find new Japanese artists that I can come to like witht he help of generasia and JPopSuki. That's how I found miwa before :)
Korean. I'm getting really good at reading Korean now. Now I just gotta learn the words and the grammar ;) I'm also looking at Korean artists. As of now I only have the discography of Cherry Filter and a few songs by Girls' Generation.
Chinese. Or rather Taiwanese. I want to find the time to go through Love's Chinese textbooks but I would need more than 24-hour days... I've found a Taiwanese band that I like called Cherry Boom.
Pokémon. I recently picked up SoulSilver again. It's really a lot of fun but I was in a somewhat tight spot picking up the game where I left it, with two Pokémon at daycare and no money xD I managed to fight enough trainers to get one of them out of daycare at least. Right now I'm in Goldenrod playing Voltorb Flip, fighting to gain 2100 coins so I can exchange it for a Dratini ^^
Writing. Yup, I've found a way to get out of the hole I nicely put myself in ;) So now I've been taking notes, making a few changes in the story and looking up stuff that needs to be checked with historical sources :)
Mad Men. Right. I started watching the series in January. I'm now almost halfway through season 3 and this far I love it! Peggy is by far my favourite character.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
This is what university is like...
22:29 | Posted by
Elin |
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So school is kind of interesting right now. I'm really not a fan of my writing and talking classes, simply because of the teacher. He calls his teaching method "fuzzy", meaning he has no straight lines and he wants us to figure things out by ourselves instead of telling us straight to our faces what we're supposed to do. So we have no information. This is, unfortunately, also the man who's responsible for the entire course and he is supposed to give us information on the essay we are supposed to write this semester to get our Bachelor degrees in French. Last week he asked us if we had contacted our essay mentors yet. Without even having told us to do so! We know nothing, not how many pages the essay is supposed to have, nor when it's due, nor who the mentors are supposed to be. He has no idea about anything. He told us that he's the mentor for the ones who are continuing with the linguistics profile on their essays, but for us who will be continuing with the literature profile he says he has no idea who our mentor is. Awesome. Then he tells us to find out. You may have done this a hundred times before but none of us have! You're supposed to tell us how it's done! Are you a teacher or not?! Also, during his lessons he gives no clues as to when he'll change the subject, suddenly it's just changed. Suddenly he asks everyone a question out of the blue and we're supposed to answer. He talks about the course then suddenly he talks about an author he likes very much, then suddenly he talks about an assignment and these three seems to be completely unrelated... It's not just me either. All 6 of us on the course feel the same way. He's too blurry. It makes it hard to follow him during classes. Because of that I chose to call in sick today and not go to school. I just didn't feel like I had enough energy to sit and concentrate on his talking for two two-hour classes. Because of that I missed what they did today and he said that he couldn't send me the exercise they got today due next week. Well, if he asks next week if I've got it I'll just give him the "No"-answer and try not to get angry when I see his surprised expression.
On the contrary I think I may have started to like our literature teacher O_o This term we're reading "Le Cid" by Corneille, "Phèdre" by Racine, "Un Amour de Swann" by Proust and "Lettres à tous ceux qui aiment l'école" by Ferry. There's something about the teacher that this semester seems more sympathetic, I don't really know what it is. I'm liking "Le Cid" and I'm looking forward to reading "Phèdre" and "Lettres...". The Proust one will probably be this semester's hardship, like Balzac and Mauriac was the semester before that, and Simone de Beauvoir was the semester before that. This semester the exam will be a home exam, which will hopefully mean that I can pass it more easily than I have with her regular exams. I passed the resit on my resit by the way ;)
I'm also taking a part-time course in Spanish and this far it's not that hard. I have lost some of it during the year I didn't use it, but it was the basics of the basics and it's all being reused and relearned this semester ;) We're reading two books this year (I don't even know if I want to call them that, they're more like booklets). They're called "Guantanameras" and "Doce rosas para Rosa" by Dolores Soler-Espiauba. The language in them are simple enough and although I understand far from everything I still understand what's happening. I'm reading "Guantanameras" right now and it's going well.
Spanish isn't really a language I like that much, but it's a language that might prove useful later since it's the second largest language in the world (#1 is Mandarin Chinese and #3 is English). I'm starting to like French a lot. I liked it before but I like it even more now. That may be because the French finally has started coming easy to me. Sure I still make mistakes with prepositions and gender, but the first one is difficult in all languages (including Swedish) and the second one isn't really talked about in Swedish (I thought for a long time that Swedish didn't have any genders).
I can't really believe that it's my last semester of French. It feels unreal somehow. I'm so excited to go back to studying Japanese this autumn! :D I'll be reviewing my Japanese textbooks the entire summer to make sure I have everything ready for when I start. Both the university textbooks and the textbooks I had at the language school in Tokyo, which may mean I might be a little ahead at the beginning of that semester ;)
Meanwhile I'm having the same old problem; I don't feel like I belong. Sure I talk to everyone in my French class (we're six people it would be weird otherwise), but I don't feel like I'm the same as them. And in Spanish I haven't even started talking to anyone yet. I'm the hardrocker geek that shows it off with the clothes I'm wearing. I'm the weirdo with the Harry Potter scarf who sits and writes in Japanese before the beginning of the class. I'm the girl who sits alone in the cafeteria and reads thick fantasy novels while having lunch. Somehow I think that's putting people off from talking to me; the studs + concert t-shirts + Japanese + Harry Potter + fantasy novels. I seem to be living in a different world than most people. So I don't belong with them, I can't seem to talk to them without feeling awkward. Even if they don't notice the awkwardness I do.
On the contrary I think I may have started to like our literature teacher O_o This term we're reading "Le Cid" by Corneille, "Phèdre" by Racine, "Un Amour de Swann" by Proust and "Lettres à tous ceux qui aiment l'école" by Ferry. There's something about the teacher that this semester seems more sympathetic, I don't really know what it is. I'm liking "Le Cid" and I'm looking forward to reading "Phèdre" and "Lettres...". The Proust one will probably be this semester's hardship, like Balzac and Mauriac was the semester before that, and Simone de Beauvoir was the semester before that. This semester the exam will be a home exam, which will hopefully mean that I can pass it more easily than I have with her regular exams. I passed the resit on my resit by the way ;)
I'm also taking a part-time course in Spanish and this far it's not that hard. I have lost some of it during the year I didn't use it, but it was the basics of the basics and it's all being reused and relearned this semester ;) We're reading two books this year (I don't even know if I want to call them that, they're more like booklets). They're called "Guantanameras" and "Doce rosas para Rosa" by Dolores Soler-Espiauba. The language in them are simple enough and although I understand far from everything I still understand what's happening. I'm reading "Guantanameras" right now and it's going well.
Spanish isn't really a language I like that much, but it's a language that might prove useful later since it's the second largest language in the world (#1 is Mandarin Chinese and #3 is English). I'm starting to like French a lot. I liked it before but I like it even more now. That may be because the French finally has started coming easy to me. Sure I still make mistakes with prepositions and gender, but the first one is difficult in all languages (including Swedish) and the second one isn't really talked about in Swedish (I thought for a long time that Swedish didn't have any genders).
I can't really believe that it's my last semester of French. It feels unreal somehow. I'm so excited to go back to studying Japanese this autumn! :D I'll be reviewing my Japanese textbooks the entire summer to make sure I have everything ready for when I start. Both the university textbooks and the textbooks I had at the language school in Tokyo, which may mean I might be a little ahead at the beginning of that semester ;)
Meanwhile I'm having the same old problem; I don't feel like I belong. Sure I talk to everyone in my French class (we're six people it would be weird otherwise), but I don't feel like I'm the same as them. And in Spanish I haven't even started talking to anyone yet. I'm the hardrocker geek that shows it off with the clothes I'm wearing. I'm the weirdo with the Harry Potter scarf who sits and writes in Japanese before the beginning of the class. I'm the girl who sits alone in the cafeteria and reads thick fantasy novels while having lunch. Somehow I think that's putting people off from talking to me; the studs + concert t-shirts + Japanese + Harry Potter + fantasy novels. I seem to be living in a different world than most people. So I don't belong with them, I can't seem to talk to them without feeling awkward. Even if they don't notice the awkwardness I do.
Friday, 27 January 2012
The beginning of the cyber war: SOPA and ACTA
20:15 | Posted by
Elin |
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I guess you have all heard about ACTA and SOPA? And if you haven't; what rock have you been living under for the last week? A war has just been declared. It all started with a bill in the American Senate. Basically this is what will happen if it passes:
The bill has not yet been passed, but on January 19th the US government shut down MegaUpload. I noticed only because I was trying to download some subtitles for a Japanese film, and the site suddenly didn't work. The day after Anonymous answered this declaration of war by disabling the websites of the American Justice Department, the FBI, Universal Music Group, the RIAA, the MPAA and Broadcast Music Inc. If SOPA passes it will give the American government the right to shut down major websites like Facebook, Google, Tumblr, Wikipedia (who shut down their English part themselves as a protest against SOPA), YouTube... Basically it would take away the Internet as we know it. However the American government has only access to servers on American soil. Google (along with YouTube) has already set up backup servers outside the US, Facebook is working on the same thing. This is what we have already seen in the Pirate Bay Case. Pirate Bay is still working and their servers are moved. The Senate's vote on SOPA was postponed due to Anonymous actions. But we're not safe yet.
For a moment there SOPA was what everyone talked about. Then the older, but less official, case of ACTA surged up to the surface. ACTA would not only harm the Americans but it would efficiantly go against the Human Rights and several countries' constitutions, by going against the Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech etc. These videos explains ACTA:
Since I am European, this is what worries me the most and probably what would effect me the most if it would pass. This bill is not yet passed, but several countries (among them 22 of the members of the EU and Sweden is one of them) have signed it already.
In the wake of the shutdown of MegaUpload loads of protest and predictions of the future have been made online. This prediction almost had me cry as well as this protest. Tumblr has seen an up-surge of portesting gifs like these:
What these people that suggest these laws don't understand is what the Internet really is. It's not a place for criminals to get away with their petty crimes. No. It's a place of understanding, of sharing, of peace, sometimes of silly arguments. But it's a place of friends, a place of discovery and a place of learning. This is a continuation of the Copyright lawsuit against Pirate Bay. I've read a lot about this and most of the research shows that musical artists don't earn less money because of file sharing and downloading, quite on the contrary. The ones who do earn less money are the copyrighters, the record labels, and they are getting scared. The artists make more money, because suddenly more people know about them, more people have the opportunity to discover them. More people go to concerts and buy their merchandise. It's getting more and more usual that artists create their own labels. Many Japanese groups have started touring Europe and the US, because suddenly they have fans there as well. All thanks to the Internet. All-American artists like Stephen Lynch have YouTube and downloading to thank for their European fans. The Internet is a large kind of Cricle of Life and everything that goes around comes around. You're not anonymous and yet you are. Everything you say is official but everything you say may not be heard. You make friends in other parts of the world, other parts of the country. And you get to talk about things that are difficult when you need to, to people who will listen to you. Me downloading a CD isn't worse than going over to a friend's and borrowing it. So to protect a very dear part of my world I have signed every goddamn petition anti-SOPA and anti-ACTA that I will recommend to you. The Internet is the forum of the new generation, it's not that different from the forums in Ancient Greece. The Internet could be likened to a great big square with lots of people meeting, talking, sharing, shopping, coming and going. So I guess what I'm trying to say here is:
There are several online petitions that you can sign to help stop ACTA and SOPA. Sign them, share them and try to make as many as you can to sign them as well. Because if you don't, this may very well be the beginning of a cyber dictatorship. An autocracy where a small group of people will decide everything you do. If the Internet means anything to you, anything at all, an entire generation is begging you to sign the petitions and protest:
There are several online petitions that you can sign to help stop ACTA and SOPA. Sign them, share them and try to make as many as you can to sign them as well. Because if you don't, this may very well be the beginning of a cyber dictatorship. An autocracy where a small group of people will decide everything you do. If the Internet means anything to you, anything at all, an entire generation is begging you to sign the petitions and protest:
Thursday, 19 January 2012
A common conversation with my head
21:30 | Posted by
Elin |
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There you go
You're alwys so right
It's all a big show
It's all about you
You think you know
what everyone needs
You always take time to criticize me
It seems like everyday
I make mistakes
I just can't get it right
It's like I'm the one you love to hate
But not today
So shut up, shut up, shut up
Don't wanna hear it
Get up, get up, get up
Get out of my way
Step up, step up, step up
You'll never stop me
Nothing you say today
is gonna bring me down
There you go
You never ask why
It's all a big lie
whatever you do
You think you're special
But I know and I know and I know and we know
that you're not
You're always there
to point on my mistakes
and shove them in my face
It's like I'm the one you love to hate
But not today
So shut up, shut up, shut up
Don't wanna hear it
Get up, get up, get up
Get out of my way
Step up, step up, step up
You'll never stop me
Nothing you say today
is gonna bring me down
(So shut up, shut up, shut up)
Is gonna bring me down
(Shut up, shut up, shut up)
You'll never bring me down
Don't tell me who I should be
and don't try to tell me what's right for me
Don't tell me what I should do
I don't wanna waste my time
I'll watch you fade away
So shut up, shut up, shut up
Don't wanna hear it
Get up, get up, get up
Get out of my way
Step up, step up, step up
You'll never stop me
Nothing you say today
is gonna bring me down
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In case you wonder
- Elin
- Lund, Sweden
- A 21-year-old tomboy in love with Japan. Also a geek. Wants to be an author/translator/interpreter. Trying to figure out her life and mostly have fun. Enjoy.
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