Where did May go? Didn't it just start? :o As usual I'm ambivalent about the recent summer weather. Part of me loves it, another part hates the heat, hates sweating, hates sunblock... But for now it's new so I'm mostly enjoying it. Remind me of that in August, when I'm just waiting for it to go away.
Books: This month I've technically read six books, but considering that four of them are part of a larger whole. I'll say it's really just two and a half books. My favourite this month is my second Alice Cooper biography. This one he was in on writing himself, and so it felt much more personal and earnest. Everything mentioned in the first biography was explained more in detail (which is funny because the first book is bigger). I've never been a fan of biographies before, but that's really starting to change.
Music: For May I loaded my iPod with music by bands/artists who are coming to Sweden Rock this year as a sort of preparation. Lordi is coming, and just like that I've rediscovered my love for them. But I've also been playing other things. Here's my top ten of songs in May (you'll see I've been looping Lordi):
• Lordi - "Monsters Keep Me Company" & "The Riff"
• Avril Lavigne - "Hello Heartache" & Sixx:A.M. - "Skin"
• Lordi - "It Snows in Hell" & "Beast Loose in Paradise"
• Lordi - "The Children of the Night" & Nightwish - "Last of the Wilds"
• Lordi - "Evilyn" & Sixx:A.M. - "Life is Beautiful"
Games: I don't know :P I completed the story of the DLCs in ESO this month and for now I'm feeling pretty done with it. But I'll probably pick it up soon again as the new DLC released today on PC and in two weeks on console. But I also completed my first major quest mod in Skyrim and I played the first Portal. I'll go with ESO again this month. I did play that the most anyway :)
Tv shows: This month has been mostly about X-Files and Buffy for me. I have this whole 20th century thing going on with TV shows, but it's mostly focused around the 90s xD Both of them are big time favourites!
Other things: There was ESC this month, which was awesome :D And I also enjoyed the work trip to the Royal Stables and Jamie's Italian. And today there was another work trip to another museum - The Nordic Museum, which was very interesting, but I don't have any pictures from that so I direct you to their website.
When I got back into ESO again three DLCs had been released since last time: Imperial City, Orsinium and Thieves Guild. While I haven't tried Imperial City (PvP based 4 person group dungeons with all the elements of ordinary group dungeons + the added danger of getting ganked by enemy players sounds like mayhem to me), I have basically completed the other two. I waited until I had completed the base game and gotten to max level before I started on any of the DLCs, due to the fact that post-game solo content is so rare and I wanted to have something to do once I hit max (besides group content and PvP). So here are my thoughts of Thieves Guild and Orsinium.
I started with Thieves Guild, the only reason for that was because I needed Rubedite ore/ingots to create my new max level armour and a guildie told me the best place to farm that was in Hew's Bane - the Thieves Guild DLC zone. So off I went to meet Quen on the Woodhearth docks. Quen gave me a proposition to steal a valuable item (trying to be vague here) from a nobleman. I went along with her and was immediately introduced to the rules of the DLC. 1). You should be sneaking all the time as long as your stamina allows. 2). Hiding places are heaven sent. 3). There are simply too many guards in this game. 4). Someone should make a law against guards carrying lanterns. When you sneak you see blue circles around the guards carrying lanterns, if you enter one of those circles you immediately lose your ability to sneak. No matter how accidental it may be. To me the beginning of this DLC was hell. I hadn't invested any skill points into the skills that would help me with sneaking, and so I was spotted several times before I actually managed to get inside the place where the item was. After a small prisonbreak mission I finally arrived at Hew's Bane, the peninsula of Hammerfell. And while the early quests were a bit troublesome for me without the correct skills, I soon caught on.
I loved the characters and the story quests. Walks-Softly quickly became my favourite out of all of them. I had a lot of fun running around trying to complete Kari's Hit List, and the daily heist quests are pure adrenaline. The tip board quests get a little repetitive seeing as there are only five of them that circle round. The daily requisition quests are worth going for, especially if you're a crafter. The requisition areas are usually around the world bosses, and these ones don't kid around like the ones in the base game - you can't defeat these ones on your own (unless you have an extremely OP build and can one-shot boss enemies of your own lvl). But the bosses almost always drop a part from the Outlaw crafting style. No need to worry, though, as there are plenty of people around in the DLC zones (it actually gets crowded, which rarely happens outside the starting zones in the base game - now I know where all veteran leveled players went). All you need to do is shout in the zone chat and people will show up. Maybe they have a requisition quest, or maybe they're just farming the crafting style or the XP. Doesn't matter, they'll get there.
The main quest proved to be both gut-wrenching and heart-warming and I really enjoyed it. The personal quests of the characters were also really amazing and I kept coming back to do tip board quests so that I could lvl up my Thieves Guild rep and help my new friends some more.
The only thing I haven't done in this DLC is the Maw of Lorkhaj, a new Trial, which is a 12-person group dungeon basically. I don't know enough people to fill a group and it's too much trouble to find 12 random people :P
But apart from a few hiccups in the beginning this DLC was amazing. I loved it, and I actually missed it when I finally moved on to Orsinium.
Orsinium needed a lot more time before I became invested in it. Even more so because the zone chat there is incredibly confusing unless someone explains it to you. It's all "+nyz", "+poa", "+ogre", "+edu" etc... Turns out those were all shorts for world bosses. There are two daily quests there that requires you to kill a world boss (+ some stuff around the area of the boss) and the rewards sometimes contains parts of the Malacath crafting style, and like in Hew's Bane you can't really do these bosses alone. There are only 2 daily quests per person, but people work around this by creating groups and the sharing the quest with the group. So you can actually do more than two a day. So all of those calls in the zone chat were basically people asking to be added to a group doing a world boss.
But back to the story, it wasn't until the second half of the main quest line that I started to become invested in it, and after that it was mostly because I completely adored the Bosmer part-time companion Eveli Sharp-Arrow :3 Towards the end of the quest line came a plot twist that I really didn't expect and that helped making me invested in the DLC. The accompaniment of Eveli and the final heartbreaking quest of the main quest line helped this DLC immensly.
Orsinium also has a thing like Kari's Hit List where you collect artifacts for the House of Orsimer Glories, and that was fun once again :P The DLC also includes daily delve quests, where you go inside a delve and complete it and bring a quest specific item back with you. Since I basically explored the whole map before I even found the daily delves, I didn't really bother with them. I'm not a fan of going through a place again that I've already been just recently.
You got to reencounter a few people from the previous base game zones in Orsinium, which was a lot of fun - like Kireth & Raynor Vanos and Rigurt the Brash who were all throughout the Ebonheart zones, and Skordo the Knife and Lady Laurent from the Daggerfall zones.
As of this post, the only things I haven't done in Wrothgar (the Orsinium DLC zone) are the two public dungeons and the Maelstrom Arena. I've gone halfway through the Arena and it went well enough (apart from my over-consumption of health potions), and I'm planning to do the pub. dungeons with a friend at some point or other so that will change.
I probably have a worse opinion on Orsinium because I never liked Orcs or the Forsworn, while I loved the Thieves Guild in both Oblivion and Skyrim. So my heart was in it from the beginning with Thieves Guild DLC, while my interest was really low for Orsinium.
After I had completed Skyrim two times and started a new game about six times in total, I decided that I was done with vanilla. Skyrim was still my go-to game when I don't feel like playing anything in particular, but still feel like playing, so I decided to mod it. Mostly I have graphic enhancers (after Witcher 3 Skyrim looks outdated T_T), but I also added a few things like ghosts in the Dwemer ruins since I kind of liked having ghosts there in Morrowind. But to get new content I decided to get some fanmade quests.
Following Mercer was the first quest mod I downloaded. It's a small thing that ties in nicely with the Thieves Guild quest line. It's just one quest but it's one hell of a ride! Basically, when you break into Mercer's house you find a note in the basement (easy to find, it's right next to your Thieves Guild objective) that gives a hint on where Mercer has hidden everything he stole from the guild. I decided to follow this quest before finishing the vanilla quest line. Throughout the quest you get 5 clues at different locations, and you also have a secondary objective to collect plans for each of the Holds. First off is Irknthamz, a Dwemer ruin with a few surprises. After comes two caves (one with an entrance to Mercer's cabin) and a fort. Most of them are pretty small locations except for the Dwemer ruin in the beginning. Due to the content of the locations I may recommend completing the Thieves Guild quest line before completing the mod - but if you already know how the Thieves Guild quest line ends and have played it before it doesn't really matter. Though the fluidity of the mod may work better if you follow Mercer after the showdown at Irkngthand. Anyway - lots and lots and lots of riches, good fights, and it's also very lore friendly.
Falskaar was one quest mod that I really looked forward to. It's in the top 5 of Top Rated (All Time) in quest mods on Steam Workshop, and it really lived up to my expectations. Fully voice acted, with 26 new quests, lots of new items (loved the recipes, and there's a new house!), several new bard songs (loved them), two new spells, and a new shout. All in all the mod promises 20-30 hours of gameplay and it delivered. The voice acting is semi-professional, but there were a few characters I just couldn't stand listening to xD The mod also included cut-scenes (which is rare to non-existant in vanilla Skyrim), its own soundtrack, and the ending video made me think of Fallout 3.
Spoiler warning on the last video
Falskaar is an island outside of Skyrim that's basically its own country. It has three Holds: Amber Hold, Falskaar Hold, and the impassable Northern Hold. Basically the story tells of a group of Nords who came to Falskaar many generations ago and settled there. Hjalmar was the one of founded the settlements and declared the island their new land, but the land was harsh until Olav discovered a way to make it liveable. Because of this Olav's family, the Borvaldurs, became the ruling family of Falskaar, which rubbed Hjalmar's family, the Unnvaldrs, the wrong way. This supposed injustice has been the issue for several civil wars throughout the island's history, and now it's time again. Yngvarr Unnvaldr is looking to overthrow Agnar Borvaldur and claim the mythical Heart of the Gods, and the Traveler (that's you) must help stop him. Along the way you help several of the inhabitants of the island, and there's also a semi-Deadric quest line involving dream shards originating from Vaermina.
The most memorable moment for me was when I entered a cave while exploring, thinking it would just be an ordinary small cave. I have never been so mistaken in a game. The small cave turned into a huge Nordic tomb, which in turn morphed into a Dwemer ruin. When I emerged into an ice cave at the end of the Nordic tomb I thought I was done in there - then I noticed the Dwemer architecture sticking up in the ice. The ice tunnel led to a Nordic tomb front with Dwemer elements, where draugr and automatrons where fighting on the steps (that was cool). After having passed the draugr and automatrons the tomb completely turned into a Dwemer ruin. It felt like it went on forever, so when I got out of there - finally - I felt so relieved xD
The side quests included a lot of fast-travelling back and forth, but the main quest line gave me heartache several times. Emotional reactions is always a good review! Falskaar was amazing and I definitely recommend it to anyone who plays.
Two days ago I was invited with work to do some things in Stockholm. First off was a private guided tour of the Royal Stables, which proved very interesting (and the information is potentially something I could use in my writing later). Secondly we went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant in the fancy part of Stockholm, where the food was so delicious I was so full I felt like dying when we left.
At the Royal Stables we started off in the - you guessed it - the stables. The stables have been around since the 16th century apparantly, but the buildings we have today were built in the 19th century. Before the introduction of cars the stables used to have over 200 horses, today there are 16. We were also told that Sweden is one of four states in Europe who still have their Royal Stables, the others have been disbanded in favour of cars. Kind of sad imo. The horses are only used during ceremonies. For everyday transport they have cars like everyone else. One of the horses liked to nibble at people, which he showed immediately by nibbling at the coat of a colleague and when she moved away tried to reach far enough to nibble at the guide.
Mr. Nibbles in the left picture.
One portion of the Stables is a garage today, and while we're not showed the modern cars (because they look like any car you see on the street), we were shown the only two old cars left. One from the 50s and one from the 60s.
Then we moved on to the horse carriages. I immediately recognised the centrepiece of the room :P And we were told stories of all of them. We were also shown an old carriage that are not used today because it has never had any brakes installed. The only brakes for that carriage were the poor horses. It was fairly obvious that it wasn't being used even before we knew the reason - the carriages used today had rubber on their wheels, while the ones who aren't still had the original iron.
After an amazing fika with delicious muffins we started moving towards the restaurant. But not before we realised that princess Estelle and crown princess Victoria were at the Stables riding. I felt really cool to see them IRL tbh. Since we were 50 minutes early to the restaurant we decided to go to a bar nearby and have a beer before going to the restaurant. When dinner started at 6pm we had no idea what to expect. It started off with a selection of antipasti, which really felt like tapas Italian style. Proscuitto, mortadella, salami, roasted vegetables, buffalo mozzarella, root vegetable salad with yoghurt and mint, and little crackers with cheese and chili marmalade. All of it absolutely amazing. We were then presented with three main courses: carbonara, a vegan pasta dish with tomato sauce and vegan cheese, and a truffle risotto with gorgonzola. The carbonara and the risotto were absolutely amazing. I wasn't a fan of the vegan dish though others liked it, and I forgot to take a picture of the risotto. Then there were a bunch of desserts to try: brownie with caramellised popcorn, cheesecake, triamisu, and another thing which name I've forgotten. All positively delicious. Loved the cheesecake as always, but could've eaten a lot more of the brownie too if it wasn't so thick and I was so full. My plate during the desserts gave me a flashback to Sweets Paradise in Tokyo :P
And that was the whole evening. We decided to walk to our respective metro stations as well as the central station to ease the pressure of the food. I was home around 10.30pm and immediately sat myself down in front of the computer and played ESO until 4.30am. Oops ^^;
So now that that's out of the way, here are my thoughts of this year's show.
I only watched the semis half-heartedly, just to get a hum of what was going on, what the countries were doing and who would qualify for the final. And also to see the hosts and the usually funny opening and interval acts :) I was a little sad to see that no other Nordic countries qualified (that must be a first, right?), but then I thought that hopefully that would mean we'd get 12s from all of them since now they couldn't vote on each other :3
Yesterday I was ready in front of the TV with a big bowl of popcorn and Coca-Cola, and with my phone and all the social media (Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for me). I had been on a buzz all day waiting for the show :3
I couldn't understand why the world was so hung up on Russia and Poland and Australia. Fair enough, Australia had the most polished number of the bunch and it somehow came off as the most professional one. Russia had the coolest stage show but the song was seriously boring - totally flat voice fromt he singer imo. And Poland had... a good-looking guy dressed in something inspired by British military uniforms from the 18th century? If you're looking for stage shows, though, along with Russia, Germany and Italy were the most memorable. (And honestly, Italy's song is growing on me.)
I wasn't expecting Sweden to win again. Winning two years in a row seems implausible no matter how good the song is, and this year (imo) we had a song that takes a few listens before you actually really enjoy it. The first time you hear it it's kind of bland. So I didn't expect Europe to get it on their first try. We did well, though, a fifth place! (And apparantly If I Were Sorry is now the most downloaded song of all of them all over the world - so take that!)
Justin Timberlake was invited to perform a song during the voting period, because for the first time the show was being broadcast in the US. I had a hilarious time on Twitter reading Jesse Cox's (an American let's player on youtube) tweets. He was watching it for the first time and didn't understand squat.
Justin didn't go over great though. He mostly looked like "where tf am I?" and people on Twitter called him Justin Timberlame and Justin Toiletbreak. And while I thought most songs this night was boring by Eurovision standards, Justin's performance was so generic that it made all the boring Eurovision songs seem good.
The real stars of the night were the hosts. I loved the opening act of semi 2 (a Eurovision themed version of My Favourite Things) and the interval act of the final was just as amazing. How do you get the ultimate Eurovision song? The Swedish hosts are here to show you! This interval number included basically everything I missed in this year's show - including previous winners Alexander Rybak and Lordi :D (Just look to the neighbours for prominent Eurovision guests to invite for the number).
Then there was the voting, which was all messed up this year. Well, messed up in Eurovision. The system they have converted ESC into is the same system we've used for the Swedish selection competition for years. But it screwed up ESC! Sitting through the results was always one of the highlights of the show. Now we get a quick view of the points and a member of the jury handing out a 12. It was over before it hardly even begun. And since it was jurys handing out the 12s and they're supposed to be unbiased, there was no longer any bittersweet joy in guessing which country would give a 12 to which. And then the people's votes were delivered in bunched points so there's no way to know how many 12s they got. The 12s are sacred! I want to watch them being delivered and being bitter about Finland giving their 12 to Russia instead of Sweden. All of that was taken away by the new system. Everyone hates when the neighbours vote on each other, but it's become a tradition. I want it. And then the results were all messed up. The jurys gave the most points to Australia - so according to the jurys Australia was the winner of ESC16. The people gave the most points to Russia - so according to the people Russia was the winner of ESC16. And then Ukraine ended up winning?! What the actual fuck?! O_o
I didn't like Ukraine's song. I know that it won because of the message. A song about her grandmother having to leave her country during WWII works well in today's Europe, where so many refugees now live having been forced away from their countries because of war. And some older generations may connect with that too because of older wars. It works. I get it. But the song wasn't good. Maybe I would've liked it better if I could actually hear her. (Actually, listening to the video on Youtube I could hear her better than on my TV - probably because the sound is closer to my ears in my headphones. I could grow to like it tbh.)
But for the second time in the last three years I've been living in Eurovision town. In 2013, when it was in Malmö I lived there. This year it was in Stockholm, and while I don't live there exactly I work there so I got to live Eurovision town again :D It's been great! Can we win again next year? The rest of Europe seems to think the same way judging by the comments section on YouTube:
All in all, a pretty good year where the hosts were more Eurovision than the competitiors. And it also had a wtf ending which is a nice change from most years where the favourite of the polls always seems to win. That I didn't like the winning song is beside the point. It made good TV.
And now the ESC nerd in me will go to sleep until May 2017.
Celebrating the Harry Potter day with a quiz I found ages ago :D 1. What house will you be in? Ravenclaw
2. If the sorting hat was on you and it said you'd be great in a house you didn't consider before, will you follow his advice or choose what house you want? At the age of 11 I was convinced I was a Ravenclaw. If the hat told me otherwise I'd still say I wanted to be in Ravenclaw.
3. What kind of animal would you bring to school? Do I have to bring one? I don't like cats. I don't like birds. And I'm not really a fan of amphibians either.
4. If you were in class, where would you normally sit? First row in the middle, or second row to the side, preferably next to the wall. Being next to a window gets uncomfortably hot when the sun's up.
5. What do you think you'll be doing right now? Probably studying somewhere or hanging out with friends.
6. What's the core of your wand? Unicorn hair, according to Pottermore.
7. Do you think you'll be part of the quidditch team? No. I'm crap at any and all physical activities.
8. Will you be part of any organization? Possibly. I was in several when I was younger, but I quit them all once I was a teen.
9. Will you go home during holidays? Yes.
10. Do you think you'll have friends from other houses? I'd like to think so, yes.
11. What will you pack for school? Books and notebooks. Lots of both. Also muggle pens. I've tried writing casually with ink. It's a bother.
12. How about when going home for holidays, what will you bring home? School books, and magical items and sweets.
13. Would you consider studying in another wizarding school? Considering what we know about the schools now, and answering this question as if I'm British and Hogwarts was my actual school. I'd still say maybe I'd try an exchange year at Mahotokoro in Japan. That would be cool.
14. Do you think you'll be a prefect or head girl/boy? I'd prefer to be neither. I'd probably be nominated though. I was good in school. But I hate responsibility and I don't like being the boss of crowds.
15. Are you going to be a pure-blood or half-blood or muggle-born? Half-blood or muggle-born.
16. Will you be related to any wizarding family? If I'm half-blood, well duh.
17. Will you be a student who gets into trouble a lot? Not to begin with. Poddibly during my last two or three years.
18. Do you think you'll get a lot of detention? For what reason/s? The only reasons I could think of would be skipping class and roaming around the school during night. I don't think I'd do it a lot, though.
19. On hogsmeade visits, what shops will you go to? Honeydukes. I also wouldn't be surprised if there's some kind of bookshop in Hogsmeade that Harry didn't notice because he's dense. So I'd probably hang out there a lot.
20. Will you be supportive of your house's quidditch team? Probably. On Hermione's level.
21. Will you read Hogwarts:A History? Of course!
22. Do you think you'll get a lot of letters from home? How frequent do you think you'll get them? Yes. When I was in Tokyo for 4 months my parents called me on Skype at least once every week. And I was 19 then. Imagine me being away for months at 11. I'd get letters back as soon as I'd written a reply :P
23. Will you subscribe to the daily prophet or the quibbler or other wizarding world media? Nothing at 11. Maybe at 16 or something I'd subscribe to The Daily Prophet. Never liked magazines.
24. Which part of the castle will be your favorite? The library.
25. When sleeping in your dormitory, will your four-poster bed's curtains be drawn or closed? Closed. Privacy, please!
26. If the team your house played against wins, do you think you'll be bitter towards the other team after the game? No. Sports aren't important enough to me :P I may be a little sad that we lost, but not bitter.
27. Do you think you'll be a fan of wizard music? Yes.
28. Will you be curious enough to try and explore the whole castle, even if you know you can get in trouble for visiting some parts of it? Yes.
29. How frequent will your visits to the library be? Possibly daily.
30. If someone was to form an organization similar to dumbledore's army, will you join? Yes.
31. If you were to get detention, what task would you prefer? Would you want to scrub cauldrons or clean trophies or sort through unlabeled books or…? Did you say books? Yes. That.
32. On your o.w.l.s, what subject/s will you get an O in? Which ones do you think you’ll get a T on? Answering realistically; seeing how I like to read I'd probably manage an O in History of Magic, despite Binns' lousy teaching. I think I'd be a decent student in most areas though. I never failed anything in muggle school :P
33. How about in your n.e.w.t.s? Same.
34. If you were a pure-blood, would you take interest in reading muggle literature? Yes. I'm curious by nature. I'd like to know about that weird culture :P
35. At what time do you think you'll go to bed on weekdays? Before midnight, but after 10pm.
36. Would you prefer firewhiskey over butterbeer? Never liked whiskey.
37. What wizard snack would be your favorite? Or which one would you like to try? Chocolate frogs and licorice wands. I'm not a fan of Jelly Beans, so I wouldn't want to try Bertie Bott's. But most other sweets described in PoA seem cool, and I'd like to try most of them :P
38. Will you collect chocolate frog cards? Yes.
39. Will you keep track of which flavor of beans you already tried? No. I wouldn't be in to them.
40. What quidditch team (excluding hogwarts houses) will you support? Quite possibly Holyhead Harpies.
41. What classes will you take for n.e.w.t.s? As many as possible tbh. I did try to max my points in high school. I'd probably do the same at Hogwarts,
42. What will your boggart be? If we're talking about the sort of fear that gives me nightmares, then something out of a Japanese horror movie, like The Grudge. If we're talking about actual life-ruining fears, then that everyone I love told me they want nothing to do with me anymore.
43. Will you stay in the hog’s head or the three broomsticks? Three Broomsticks.
44. If you are of age, will you try to enter the triwizard tournament if they ever host one again? No. I'm not suicidal.
45. What do you think happens during graduation? During? Probably the same as in the muggle world. You get your grades, your diploma, and you have some sort of party.
46. Will you see the thestrals carrying the carriages? Nope.
47. If you were invited to join the slug club, will you accept the invitation? Yes :P
48. Will you consider becoming a professor in hogwarts after school? No. I don't like talking in front of people. That's kind of imperative when being a teacher.
49. What would your patronus be? A rabbit, most likely.
50. What memory will you think of when making a patronus? I don't think I'd look for a specific memory. That's hard. I think I'd more likely think of a person or a place or an item that has made me very happy, and the memories associated with this thought would come on their own.
51. What year are you suppose to be in right now? I'm a 7 year alumn :P
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