Tomboy

The beginning of the cyber war: SOPA and ACTA

2012-01-27T20:15:00.000+01:00

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:

A common conversation with my head

2012-01-19T21:30:00.001+01:00

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

School's back on

2012-01-18T16:58:00.000+01:00

It truly is. Every Tuseday is going to be hell this semester... or at least until April. On Tuesdays all the way to April I will spend 10 hours in school. First class starts at 10am, last class ends at 8pm. Reason? I'm taking one full-time course and one part-time course. I'm taking the very last French course before my Bachelor, but I only have three different classes in that course; writing, speaking and literature, and most of the time I'm only in school two or three days per week. But then there is the part-time course. Spanish. Spanish is a language that comes pretty easy to me. I guess the grammar is easy thanks to the French and the pronounciation is just easy. But that could be due to the fact that I spent one or two weeks each year from 1997-2002 at one of the Canary Islands. So I've heard my fair share of Spanish before I started studying it.

The fact that yesterday was such a hellish day could be due to all my failed attempts to set my sleeping hours straight before the new semester kicked off. All day yesterday I had the kind of headache that comes when you've had too little sleep. That combined with the fact that the teacher now speaks nothing but French and he's a mumbler so you have to really concentrate to understand everything he says makes for a hard day. Then there's also the fact that I don't feel up to studying yet and I need to practice discipline on myself. Just get it over with! That's what I'm trying to do. Finish things off in the same pace I'm recieving them. If I can keep that up it shouldn't be such a problem to study two courses.

At the same time as I'm complaining I'm kind of liking the hard work thus far. I started yesterday and by yesterday evening I had four assignments due next week. Woohoo! -.-' The ones for Spanish aren't that hard to do, it's a Beginner's Course after all. But I'm having severe achievement anxiety for French. As the two previous courses have shown me I now know that when I think I'm doing great I'm actually not doing well at all... So I'm getting paranoid. There's first the content feeling of handing in something you feel is great, then the anxiety that comes when you start going through the already handed in assignment in your head and realise that it might not be that great. I do that constantly.

The last week of Christmas vacations

2012-01-16T21:23:00.000+01:00

Or rather my only week of Christmas vacations :P After I did my exam on the 7th I went home to my parents. There I had an awesome dinner as per usual and then I showed them the 25th Anniversary celebrations of the Phantom of the Opera. My mum was very impressed with Ramin and Sierra :D The next day, Sunday, we spent playing Ticket to Ride Europe edition, which is always a lot of fun. After yet another awesome dinner I went back home to Lund.

On the 9th and 10th I went to the gym, but other than that I mostly played The Sims 2 and watched some dorama :) On the 10th I also handed in my essay. On the 11th I went to Malmö to have a birthday dinner together with Kajsa to celebrate her birthday. I always think it funny that I just turned 21 and now she's turned 22, but we're born the same year xD In the evening on the 11th I got a mail from my teacher with the result on my essay. He had liked it very much and awarded me with the highest grade :D I was so happy. I mean I was content with it but I expected no more than an ordinary passing grade.

12th, 13th, 14th and 15th I spent doing pretty much the same things as I did on the 9th and 10th. Pretty much just relaxing ;) But I did some repetition studying in Spanish since I'm starting Spanish again this year (alongside the French) and I hadn't even looked at the Spanish for over a year. So that was well needed.

Today I went to the gym again as well as buying the first few books for my university courses. Couldn't afford buying them all in one go, but hopefully the money will arrive sometime this week or next.

Now I've been playing The Sims 2 again. I'm having so much fun with it right now! :D I mentioned it before in this post. Anyway this has become a huge project of mine. I started out creating a new neighbourhood that I named Arbordale. This is what it looks like right now. Houses will increase in the same pace as the amount of sims.

As of now I have four houses that I have built myself. I play in all four of them and they look like this:

As for the family it now consists of three generations, slightly beginning on a fourth. The family tree and the family chronicles (I thought that was a fun idea to write those) look like this right now:

I may be just a little crazy... ^^;

On a totally different note... A friend just showed me this videoclip and I love it!

Concluding the musical year of 2011

2012-01-12T21:38:00.000+01:00

Yeah it's a bit late, I know. But I got the idea to look over what kind of new artists and albums I came across and looked forward to in twenty-eleven. Simply because 2011 was a big year in music for me for many reasons. 2012 isn't even half as promising.
So let's start from the beginning.

Avril Lavigne. I was very curious about her new album; "Goodbye Lullaby". She had mentioned in interviews that it would be more toned down than "The Best Damn Thing" and largely acoustic, which sounded great to me. She released the first single from the album "What the Hell" on January 7th and the two other singles were "Smile" and "Wish You Were Here". I love this album! I love how it's fun and mellow at the same time. Judging by my 25 most played playlist on iTunes this album was a huge success with me; "What the Hell" 147 plays, "Wish You Were Here (acoustic)" 45 plays, and "Smile" 38 plays. One thing I love is that she has taken the success of older songs into account when making the videos. The video for "What the Hell" is similar to that of "Complicated". The video to "Smile" is similar to that of "He Wasn't", and the video for "Wish You Were Here" is similar to that of "When You're Gone".

Kamiki Aya. The Japanese version of Avril Lavigne. This rock chick never ceases to amaze me. Her sole new release of 2011, a mini-album called "EVILALIVE" wasn't the best she had done, but it was far from bad. "EVILALIVE", "crossover", "one week", "AGAIN", "Aria", "Japanese Rockin' Girls" and "YELL" are the songs off of this mini-album.

Panic! At the Disco. I loved "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" then when they released "Pretty. Odd." I kind of lost faith in them. Their second album was slow, boring. On a whim I checked out their new release; "Vices & Virtues" and it's alright. I wasn't immediately hooked as I was when I heard "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" for the first time, but it's an okay record. I haven't listened that much to it yet due to a slight lack of interest and other, greater, releases taking up too much of my time. The singles off of the album are "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and "Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)".

Within Temptation. I had been anticipating their new album; "The Unforgiving". The first time I listened through it I remained throughly unimpressed and somewhat disappointed. But the more I listened to it, the more some songs grew on me, especially the three singles "Faster", "Sinead" and "Shot in the Dark". "In the middle of the night" is also a song that gets stuck. This album grew even more on me after I went on the accompanying tour and saw the band live for the first time.

The Sounds. I don't like that they've grown more synth-y and less guitar-y. I haven't listened attentively to this album enough times to actually recall most of the songs. Unlike "Crossing the Rubicon" this album hasn't managed to grow on me. I was actually disappointed with this release. The singles are "Better Off Dead" and "Something to Die For".

miwa. This little singer-songwriting girl won me over with the first song I ever heard of her, which was her second single as a signed artist; "Little Girl". Her first album release "guitarissimo" was fantastic and it contained all of her previously released singles; "don't cry anymore", "Haru ni Nattara", "Otoshimono", "Change" and ofc "Little Girl". I was also very glad to find one of my favourite b-sides as a remastered version on the album; "Megurogawa (strings version)". She's amazing and the following two singles released last year; "441" and "FRIDAY-MA-MAGIC" made me love her even more. She's fantastic!

Dream Morning Musume. Just the formation of this group was a dream come true. Past members of Morning Musume coming together forming this group instead. All of these members were immensly popular during their time in MoMusu and they remain that way although it's now 3-10 years since they left the group. The members are: Nakazawa Yuko, Iida Kaori, Abe Natsumi, Yasuda Kei, Yaguchi Mari, Ishikawa Rika, Yoshizawa Hitomi, Ogawa Makoto, Fujimoto Miki and Kusumi Koharu. Their album "Dorimusu 1" contained lots of old classics re-recorded by the new group along with 2 new songs; "Atto Odoroku Mirai ga Yattekuru!" and "Koibito no You ni Kao wo Shite". I like that they made a new version of "Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari" introducing every member.

Simple Plan. I haven't really listened much to these guys since 2005. But on a whim I decided to check out their new album "Get Your Heart On!", and it was surprisingly good. Overall it was upbeat, fast and cocky, fitting the pop/punk/rock image they started out with at their first album, which then was overturned by the emo-fashion in 2004. I was positively surprised and I've listened to it a lot lately! The singles off of the album are: "Can't Keep My Hands Off You", "Jet Lag", "Astronaut" and "Summer Paradise". Another song off of the album that I like a lot is "This Song Saved My Life", which is kind of still on the emo path, but I guess I am somewhat there too, still.

Buono!. This group kept me interested from their 3rd throughout their 9th singles. Their first two albums were great as well. Then it was quiet around them for about a year. Then suddenly a new single emerged that was completely fantastic. This single "Zassou no Uta" along with its B-side "JUICY HE@RT" is on this mini-album, as well as the next single "Natsu Dakara!". But apart from those three songs the majority are weird electronica songs with strange rhythms which in my head turns into plain noise. I don't like it and I was so disappointed, cause I had been looking forward to more releases from them.

Hangry & Angry. Consisting of Ishikawa Rika and Yoshizawa Hitomi, two former Morning Musume members and being a rock group, this unit had me interested from the beginning. This group was formed to promote a gothic fashion brand with the same name as the group. Their first mini-album "Kill Me Kiss Me" was fantastic as well as their first single "Sadistic Dance". In 2011 it had been quiet around them since the end of 2009 and a new single release was extremely looked forward to! This single "Reconquista" is pretty awesome actually :) The B-sides of the single are one remix of "Renai Revolution 21" and one remix of "Sadistic Dance".

Edguy. I loved their last album "Tinnitus Sanctus" and I was curious about the new one and somewhat worried that it might be too much power metal for me. I alwasy worry about that when it comes to an Edguy release. "Age of the Joker" is power metal. The opening song "Robin Hood" was so much power metal that I didn't really have any will to listen to the rest afterwards. But I did to prepare for the concert. "Nobody's Hero" is alright and I vaguely remember liking "Rock of Cashel", "Pandora's Box" and "Fire on the Downline".

Alice Cooper. This! This. This was what I had been looking forward to for the entire year. A new Alice Cooper album! OMG I was so excited about this. It's called "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" and is the continuation of the immensly successful 1975 album "Welcome to My Nightmare". Only one single was released; "I'll Bite Your Face Off", which he promoted during the concert I went to. I like this album so much! I can have this album on repeat for a whole day and still not tire of it. It's amazingly fantastically wonderful! Yes, I'm fangirling here, don't mock me ;) My favourite songs are; "Last Man on Earth", "Ghouls Gone Wild", "Something to Remember Me By", "What Baby Wants" and "I Am Made of You". "What Baby Wants" features Ke$ha and I was seriously worried about that. Could she sing Cooper? But she pulls it off, surprisingly well and makes "What Baby Wants" into one of those Beauty and the Beast themed songs that I like. Picking those songs is hard cause in the end I do like the entire album, every bit of it. It's yet another one of Cooper's masterpieces!

The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary. After seeing the musical at the cinema I got really interested and as I loved it I decided to buy the CD and the DVD from Amazon. I've seen the musical a shitload of times on the DVD and I haven't listened through the entire CD, just the songs I like. I like the first half of the musical better and my favourite songs are "Angel of Music", "Little Lotte/The Mirror", "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night". The vocals of Ramin and Sierra are just perfect! I also love the ending of the DVD with the speech of Andrew Lloyd Webber and the performance of the 5 Phantoms!

Evanescence. I used to actually like this group. Well, I still do. I like their old stuff; "Fallen" is perfection and "The Open Door" is great too. This self-titled album is not that good. It's a little too much. Too much of everything. I'm quite fond of the first single "What You Want", but I only listened through the album once and was unimpressed and disappointed and therefore I don't really have an opinion of the second single "My Heart is Broken".

Morning Musume. They released their twelfth album last year and it was the first album for the four new members (first new members since 2008) and I was really excited about it. Of course the preceding singles are there "Maji desu ka SKA!", "Only You" and "Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wa Honki de Negatteirun da yo!/Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai!". Lately MoMusu's albums have been disappointments and therefore I haven't listened attentively to this one yet. But "Silver no Udedokei" is kind of nice to listen to. I also like "Kono Ai wo Kasanete" and the rocky "My Way ~Joshikou Hanamichi~" and "OK YEAH" kind of gets stuck in your head. It seems to have the makings for a great album so I gotta get a real listen-through ;)

Goto Maki. How I hated this girl while she was in Hello! Project, but since she switched to avex trax I've started to kind of like her. Great timing I have since she's going on an indefinate hiatus as of 2012. But last year she did release one last solo album and one colaboration single. The colaboration single is called "Non Stop Love Yoroshiku!" and I liked it as soon as I heard the 60 sec preview of the PV. It's fun, speedy and just so perfectly Japanese :D Her album, "Ai Kotoba (VOICE)" is proof of how much she has evolved as a singer-songwriter. She has written the song "Nee..." herself and that is the song I love the most. "Ashiato" is also a good song.

Shibata Ayumi. This girl was in the Hello! Project group Melon Kinenbi and always got the most screen time out of the four girls. When they split up I wondered whether she'd go on solo and I was right. Her first solo single "Believe" isn't that fantastic, but it's not bad either.

Disturbed. The announcement that they would go on a hiatus was awful, and all we got after that announcement was a compilation album of all the unreleased songs and B-sides. The album in itself is kind of nice, but the fact that I already had almost all the songs made the release a little less interesting. "Hell" was the only single from the album and that's the best song off of the album. Other good songs are "Monster", "Dehumanized" and the only really interesting song, the previously unreleased "3".

Nightwish. There we have it. This release along with the Cooper album was what I was looking forward to the most. This album that I had been waiting for practically since the concert in 2007. 5 years. "Imaginaerum" sounds like Nightwish so much that it annoys me even more when fans still complain that Anette isn't Tarja. No she isn't, but this album was made with Anette in mind and it sounds absolutely fabulous and it still sounds like Nightwish used to. The release of the preceding single "Storytime" had me on clouds all day. I loved the video and I loved the song. It felt like a big lump of anxiety disappeared when I heard the piano intro and realised that yes, this is Nightwish. It's still Tuomas and I still love his genius. I haven't listened much to the album yet, haven't really had the time and I was still in the Cooper period. But another song that I immediately liked was "I Want My Tears Back". The upcoming single is "The Crow, the Owl and the Dove" which also is a great song. I need to listen through this album properly by April when I'm going to their concert in Copenhagen :D

First week of the year

2012-01-06T00:57:00.001+01:00

Phew, it's been a tough first week of the year. Since January 1st I've been studying for over 8 hours every day. Reason? Resit exam on the 7th and I think this is it. This is an exam I have left since spring term 2011 and to be able to continue studying French for this spring term I will have to pass it this time. It's nerv-wrecking. But my French is also way improved since last time I did this exam and I've been tactical when studying, looking over my past exams (I have already had a resit on this one) and seeing what I did wrong, and I've also been trying to go deeper into the subject. Tomorrow will be my final in-depth studies and then there isn't anymore I can do but hope she will pass me. I feel better prepared this time, though, and I'm more confident with my French so hopefully I'll be good enough!

After I've done the exam on Saturday I will have time to fully enjoy my last week of vacation before the next term starts. I'll probably go and see The Lion King in 3D. It's one of the most memorable and simply one of the best films from my childhood that it has to be done! There are some old films coming back in 3D this year. I'm considering seeing Titanic in 3D, also I might go and see Star Wars Episode 1 when it comes. I'm in a sci-fi set of mind right now and this year my project will be to watch the entire Stark Trek franchise, from the original series all the way to the 2009 film. Love has suggested that I add Battlestar Galactica and Star Gate to that list as well, and then I might just as well add Star Wars too.

Speaking of TV-series: Sherlock is back! Professor Moriarty, Irene Adler, Mycroft... Do I need say more? This season seems to have the recipe for success! And Sherlock himself isn't too bad to look at either... ^^

Happy New Year Twenty-Twelve

2012-01-01T20:15:00.000+01:00

Happy new year 2012! :)
I guess you can all see the changes, right? I figured that a new year called for a renewed blog layout :) I'm planning on keeping this for the entire year and not make a new one until next New Years. What do you think about it? I think it's kind of stylish ;)

New Years this year (or should I say last?) was quite interesting. Instead of going as planned we re-scheduled very quickly and Kajsa and I planned an evening together. Love and I went out to buy steaks and potato wedges for dinner, and we also managed to fix a cheese tray. We got home and Love immediately put the steaks in their marinades and then we started cleaning the flat.
Around 6pm Kajsa showed up and we started cooking the dinner. She brought wine for me and her (Love was working later). We sat down in the sofa in front of the TV and while eating we watched an old film called "Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines", it was quite funny xD During the intermission of the film (yes, it's that old!) I brought the dishes back to the kitchen and brought back the cheese tray. Love opened the champagne bottle before he left (neither Kajsa nor I were certain we would manage).
After the film I asked Kajsa if she had seen the Christmas Special of Downton Abbey. She hadn't, so I put that on and we watched that. We discussed it afterwards and generally just talked until it was time to turn on the TV and wait for the clock to turn midnight.
Five minutes to midnight we poured the champagne and said cheers and happy new year :) Then we went out to watch the fireworks. Our neighbours were all firing. Here we had the first laugh of the new year: While we stand there watching the fireworks a mother comes walking carrying her baby. She says happy new year while walking past us. Two seconds later the dad comes running after her with the baby carriage! He said hi while running past! xD After that we went up on a bridge to see better and when the fireworks started to die off we walked back to the flat while singing Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Misérables. Quite the great evening it turned out to be :)

Kajsa woke me way too early today, I only got to sleep 8 hours xD We got up and had breakfast and then we did all the dishes from yesterday and cleaned up in the kitchen. Soon after Kajsa left to get home and I started studying. (Great way to start the new year, I know, but I have a resit in less than a week). I stopped around 6pm and since then I've been fixing with my blog. Now it's time for our weekly movie nights :) We're going to watch the Mummy Returns and eat some home delivered sushi :)

This year starts off pretty good. I hope that will make for a great year!

Another Harry Potter questionnaire

2011-12-30T01:02:00.000+01:00

The first one I did is here.

1. Favourite book in the series.
Deathly Hallows. It answers everything as well as ends everything :)
2. Least favourite book in the series.
Order of the Phoenix. It's painfully obvious when I read it nowadays that she really had no idea what to do with that one when she started it.
3. Favourite character.
Dumbledore. He's just awesome.
4. Favourite villain.
Bellatrix Lestrange. She's so deranged it's fascinating O.o
5. Saddest moment.
Death of Dumbledore
6. Favourite professor.
Professor McGonagall
7. Least favourite professor.
Gilderoy Lockhart. Yes, he beats Umbridge!
8. Favourite subject.
Charms
9. Least favourite subject.
Divination. It's just a bunch of crap.
10. Favourite shop in Diagon Alley.
Either Florean Fortescue who sells ice cream or Weasley's Wizard Wheezes... I'm not sure.
11. Most handsome character.
Sirius Black. Not Gary Oldman. Just Sirius Black.
12. Most beautiful character.
Lily Evans.
13. Most missed dead character.
Dumbledore
14. Favourite book cover.
Now this is a tricky one. I'm not a big fan of the original British covers and I don't really like the American ones either. But I used to really love the Swedish covers of Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkban and Goblet of Fire (the first four and also those I've read most in Swedish). I also like the adult cover of Deathly Hallows. I'm not too sure about the signature versions. I think the colours are too bold.
15. Favourite Tri-Wizard Tournament challenge.
The Third Task. The hedge maze. It's fantastic. A perfect way to let the best win. The one who knows enough magic to beat whatever is thrown in front of them.
16. Favourite Hogwarts house.
I'm a Slythclaw. And I can't really decide between them.
17. Favourite animagus.
McGonagall.
18. Favourite unforgivable curse.
Am I too morbid if I say the Cruciatus Curse?
19. Favourite horcrux.
The Slytherin locket
20. Funniest moment.
"I've got a good feeling about going to Hagrid's"
Or potentially "I've always wanted to use that spell" and "Boom!"
21. Most emotional moment.
Death of Dumbledore
22. Aspired Quidditch position.
Chaser. I think I'd suck a little less in that position than at everything else :P
23. Whose pantronus is your favourite?
Luna's. A hare.
24. Your own patronus.
Probably a dolphin or a rabbit.
25: Favourite Dursley.
Dudley :D
26. Favourite wand.
I think I'll have to say James' or Lily's... Or maybe Draco's...
27. Favourite magical ability.
The flying Voldemort and Snape does. It's Dark Magic but who wouldn't want to be able to fly? Honestly?!
28. Favourite death eater.
Bellatrix Lestrange
29. Favourite Hogwarts portrait.
Hahah! Sir Cadogan ofc! :D
30. Favourite spell.
Accio. I'm lazy enough to like that.

A kind of girly questionnaire

2011-12-29T20:11:00.001+01:00

Okay, so recently I've found four of those questionnaires that you're supposed to do over a month, answering one question a day. But I hate doing that and I haven't actually seen many people finishing one of those xD That's why I take it all in one go. This one is originally in Swedish so I'll translate the questions. But it's also very girly and, actually, I'm not too sure if I'll be able to answer all of the questions ^^; But I'll do my best :P

1. Tell us about yourself
Well, my name is Elin and I'm 21 years old. I'm a linguistics geek and I love to learn languages. I'm a nerd overall and I like to play games and learn way too much about certain things. Harry Potter is my biggest subject. Right now I'm studying French at the local univeristy and this autumn I'm going to continue on my Japanese. The goal is to be a translator or maybe a linguistics expert. I'd also love to live in Tokyo.
2. The city you live in
I live in Lund. Sweden-wise it's a large town, world-wise it's very very small. We only have a little over 100,000 inhabitants in the entire municipality. Anyway we have one of the best and largest universities in Sweden. It's a very old and cosy town and I love to live here. Many areas in the city centre are still left the way they were in the medieval period. This is beautiful, but it also makes for a very difficult city to drive in xD Probably the reason why almost everyone bike everywhere, always, even with half a mtre of snow...
3. Your friends
I don't have a lot of close friends. I usually only count 6 people into that category and out of those only two are very close. But there are still friends I hang out with a lot. Most of them are nerds just like me. Most of them are also weird in some way. I tend to run into all those weird people :P I like it!
4. A person you look up to
Hmm. If we're talking role models then I don't have any.
5. A picture of yourself from a year ago

Picture of me taken in Japan in 2010... That will have to suffice.

6. The blogs you read
Pretty much only my friends' blogs. So that'll be those in the list to the right.
7. Who's the funniest person you know?
Does it need to be someone I know and have met? Otherwise I'll have to say this guy.
8. Picture of your mobile

9. The content of your bag is...?
I don't really have a handbag... But what I always bring with me are mobile, keys, camera, iPod and wallet. But usually in my pockets...
10. What does your future looks like?
I have seriously no idea, and I don't like to plan things too far ahead. Right now the plan is to finish my education and get my degrees. Then we'll see.
11. A picture of someone you miss

12. A picture of an animal that means a lot to you
The picture above and these two gamines:

13. A picture someone else has taken of you

This is one of my favourite pictures of me. Taken in Tokyo.

14. Your biggest dream
To go back to Tokyo and be able to live there and stay there for a very long time. Also travel all over Asia.
15. A person/star you wish you'd met
Alice Cooper. Next time he comes to Sweden or Denmark I'll make sure to buy a VIP pass!
16. This is what I do on weekends
Play games, blog, write, read, study, hang on communities, hang with friends
17. This is where I want to go before I die
To be quite frank: I want to see all of the world before I die :P
18. This is where I prefer to shop
http://www.shock.se
19. Your closest friends
Cicci, Kajsa, Tiffany, Didrik, Rickard, Love
20. Picture of what you bought last
http://www.shock.se/system/search/product.asp?id=134653
http://www.yesasia.com/global/harry-potter-and-the-philosphers-stone/1004300675-0-0-0-en/info.html
21. Favourite place
Actually I think my favourite place is in Malmö in summertime. The bridge in the canal that's next to one of those trees with hanging branches that touches the water. You can sit on the edge of the bridge and bathe your feet in the chilly water. It's a really cosy place and a place where I can stay for hours. There's also a kiosk nearby that sells soft ice :)

22. A TV-series you love
A present one? I'd have to go with Sherlock or Downton Abbey.
23. Your favourite nail polish
I really don't do my nails very often. It's years since I last did it seriously. But I do own a black one. I don't have any favourites though.
24. A picture on your computer

From when we went on hanami alongside the Meguro River. I think this is one of my favourite pictures from the entire trip to Japan.

25. I'm addicted to this
I have no idea. Right now I guess I'm in a new period of The Sims 2, so I can always say that...
26. Something you want right now
Snow
27. Your future wedding
I'm not really planning on getting married, and unlike most girls I haven't planned my wedding since the age of 5. I hardly even care. As long as I'm with a person I like I don't really care if we're married or not.
28. Picture of the makeup you usually use

29. I had this for breakfast
My breakfast habits changes. For spring and summer it's usually milk and cereal. For autumn and winter it's usually oatmeal and for Christmas it's gingerbread curdled milk. Right now it's the latter:

30. Five good things that has happened during these 30 days
Well I can't really answer that question properly. Good things that has happened in the last thirty days? 1. I passed my course. 2. I finished my essay. 3. Christmas. 4. Meeting with old friends. 5. Finding a friend who loves the story I'm writing :D

Post-Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T21:14:00.000+01:00

The Christmas holidays are finally over with. I've been living in a bubble at my parents' place. It's cosy being back there and I like being there! But I know that I'll only like being there for as long as the holidays go on. As soon as school kicks back up or I have to get out of the house and realise that I'm back at that hellhole I won't like it anymore. That's why even considering to move back isn't an option!

Anyway, back to Christmas...

This year Christmas was very traditional and I won't even go into details. There will be other years when I can describe my standard Christmas. I got some really nice gifts, though! Mostly things I needed (a sign of growing up, yes?) rather than things I really wanted. This is what I got: a new mattress pad for my bed, a clotheshorse (needed to dry bath towels on!), a breadbasket (way better than having all those different kinds of bread lying about), new towels and bath towels (yay!), a warm cosy wool blanket ^^, a new stereo with iPod docking (!), Nightwish's new album, a package with bath salt, body lotion and body scrub, and 200 sek :) It was a good year :)

Now I'm back on the training track. I can't believe how much I've eaten over Christmas (as per usual) and from today on I'm starting early with my New Years resolution; no more sweets or chocolate. I've had this one before, but now I really think it's going to work! I don't like sweets anymore. It just doesn't taste good anymore. As for the chocolate, well usually I'm done with it after just one piece so why bother getting it at all? Now I just need to convince my brain that I actually do not like sweets so that it stops bothering me with requests of sweets :/

I'm going to start working on a new layout soon! A new year makes for a new layout! And tomorrow I have a big dinner with my closest friends :D Is gonna be awesome as usual!

Christmas, the controversy

2011-12-19T23:23:00.001+01:00

Unless it actually starts to snow I doubt I will have time to make another post so I'll just go ahead and make this one.

I love Christmas. I do. It's the cosiest holiday around. I love the atmosphere around it. The burning candles and most of the food. I love the family traditions. But seriously there are parts of Christmas that I can't stand and that I'd love to just not hear about.

I hate it when people exaggerate the lights. Americans are very good at that. Swedes tend to just have an electric candlestick or a star in each window and then we're done with the lights. But there are those who stick those friggin lights in every tree in their garden, every bush at their front yard. Blinking Santas and reindeers just drive me crazy.

Then we have to thing with Christmas shopping. Eveery goddamned year we beat the record. Every damn year we beat last year's sales and go past this year's expectations. Why? Why, why, why? I feel bad inside when I hear the rapports of how much money we spend on shit. Apparantly it's how many presents you get that counts, not what's inside of them.

I hate that everything is so exaggerated. Like with the food. We spend 11 months of the year trying to eat right, exercise and stay away from things that are bad for the heart and colesterol and everything. Then we go eat loads of meat and sweets in two-three friggin days. I probably eat more meat during Christmas than I do for the rest of the year. It's not that I don't like the taste of it. I do. It's just the sheer amount of food...

Then we have the shoppers. The streets are teeming with them. Shoving, hurrying, yelling over the phone... Completely stressed out people. They say that we are stressed out from work, but sometimes I wonder if it's not the Christmas stress that shows for the rest of the year. I dread going out these few remaining days until Christmas. It's gonna be crazy. It's been bad for the last two weeks or so, but now it's just gonna be ridiculous.

This is what I will have on repeat for a few days now.

Christmas baking part 2

2011-12-19T23:05:00.000+01:00

Last part of the Christmas baking! First part is here.

So this time Dad, my sister and I started out making the almond cakes. We have three shapes; hearts, circles and diamonds. Most of them are diamonds. It's pretty funny to make them. You butter up the inside of the frame with melted butter. Then you take a small lump of the dough and then you use your thumbs to flatten it across all of the frame. Not too thin cause then you can't get them out of the frame, but still kind of thin so the finished product still has a kind of hole in the middle. Because of the thumb thing we call them thumb cookies usually xD I tend to forget their real name xD

Before being taken out of the frames

Finished product :)

I'm not usually a big fan of these. I think they're too dry and you have to take a sip of water in-between every bite or your mouth will completely dry up. But this time we accidentally used too much butter and too little flour and suddenly the cakes were very luscious and not at all dry :) Success!

While we were making the almond cakes, Mum was starting out on the dough for klenor.This dough has to be made the day before. So today she tucked it out and started to shape the cookies. It's kind of interesting cause you make a kind of diamond shape and then a cut in the middle of it. The top goes into the hole and you turn the whole piece inside-out :P Then you fry the cookies in coconut fat. Here's the procedure in pictures:

Pieces turned inside-out

Fry pieces in coconut fat

Finished product

After a coffee break (my sister and I had hot chocolate), Dad started making the rosettes. He's pretty much the only one in the family that manages to make them properly xD Basically you have some kind of iron with a flower shape on. You dip it in the mixture and then again dip it in coconut fat. The trick is to make sure that none of the mixture happens to get on top of the iron (just in the bottom and around) or it'll stick to the iron. You also have to make sure that you don't keep the mixture in the coconut fat for too long or the rosette will fall off the iron. The rosettes are then dipped in sugar and left to dry :) They look like this when finished:

Also, my sister managed to talk my mum into making toffee this year. We don't make it very often cause my mum doesn't like to melt sugar xD That's one of the reasons why we no longer have any gingerbread house. Another is that last time we made a gingerbread house Dad managed to drip melted sugar on his thump that ran alongside it and later he got a huge blister across the entire side of his thumb xD That's why. But she talked Mum into it this year and we got delicious delicious home made toffees! Yay! :D

Fourth of Advent has now come and gone. Christmas is at the door. I have two gifts left to buy, but I know what they'll be. Christmas is at the door. Now I'll go make another post about that...

Problems in the labour market

2011-12-18T20:10:00.002+01:00

Today I heard on the news about threats and violence on the Swedish version of the Employment Office. Unfortunately I can't say that I'm surprised. The current situation is unsupportable, it's crazy. I've mentioned previously that my age-group is a big one and that it seems to come as a surprise for the authorities every time we gain another level in society. I don't know anybody who has been at the Employment Office and felt like it went well. I've never felt welcome walking in there. "Yet another one", they seem to be thinking.
How can people be surprised that we are getting so frustrated that we turn to violence and threats? No one listens to us. We do not count. We are not important. This should not be happening and the fact that it is should be an eye-opener, but somehow I doubt it. In the current situation I can say, without hesitation, that I have no faith for the Swedish labour market. It seems to be non-existant for my generation. That's one reason as to why I want to go abroad. I put all my faith and hope to the labour market abroad. Hopefully I will find a place where my presence is valued rather than frowned upon.

Nerd pictures!

2011-12-14T22:11:00.001+01:00

I wanted to blog about something nerdy, but couldn't think of anything nerdy that I had been up to lately. So I decided to give you a taste of how I put nerdy in my environment :P

1). My Potter shelf. Two copies of each book (Swedish and English) + Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them + Quidditch Through the Ages + The Tales of Beedle the Bard + Harry Potter Page to Screen + Harry Potter Film Wizardry. 2). Harry Potter Trading Cards + game board + Pokémon Trading Cards + Harry Potter Quidditch Card Game + Death Note Deck + RPG dices with bag + Charmander figurine + a Neopet. 3). My DS + console case + games + game cases + PokéWalker. 4). Harry Potter notebook from Wizarding World + a replica of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand

1). Winnie the Pooh box with memories from Japan from Tokyo Disneyland + soda can with Hello Kitty + fruit drops can with Hello Kitty + two boxes with Mame Goma. 2). My two Gloomy bears. 3). Munchkin Board Game + Monopoly The Nightmare Before Christmas. 4). Pot with Pikachu.

1). Marauder's Map Wall Scroll. 2). My teddy bear with a Konoha forehead protector. 3). Poster with Morning Musume. 4). Books of Greek mythology, Japanese design, Korean and Pirates.

1). Slytherin crest key chain on my rucksack. 2). Slytherin crest key chain + Les Misérables 25th Anniversary key chain on my keys. 3). My Ravenclaw scarf. 4). My DVDs with Phanom of the Opera 25th Anniversary and Les Misérables 25th Anniversary.

Now I am planning on buying more Potter-related books so my Potter shelf my have to expand. There will overall be more Potter objects in the future :) I'm also considering buying myself a third Gloomy bear, this time a purple one. But all in due time and when I have money. More Hello Kitty items will probably follow as well...

And of course I forgot to take pictures of some things that I have on other places in the flat. But at least you'll get the idea ;)

Christmas baking part 1

2011-12-12T18:03:00.000+01:00

Didn't have time to do it all in one day xD We will be continuing on Sunday :)

For this round we made gingerbread, saffron buns and Christmas sweets. My sister and I started out with the gingerbreads while Mum started making the dough for the saffron buns, while the stereo in the living room was playing Christmas songs. It's always a lot of fun making gingerbread, or rather Christmas baking overall is always a lot of fun :) We never have any icing on the gingerbread though, Mum doesn't like icing ;) So that takes away a part of the baking, but we've never done it and we don't really miss it. Anyway, we buy the dough for the gingerbread premade. Gingerbread dough is heavenly, though! Tastes so much better than when the cookies are done :P Incidentally so thinks our dog. She loves gingerbread, and not only the cookies, but also the dough!

We always make all the classic gingerbread forms; Christmas trees, hearts, hubbys and ladys ;) But we also have some special ones. Two huge forms, one of Mickey and one of Donald that I think my parents bought in the States when they (and I) were there at Disney World in 1991 (don't remember shit). They are really huge and usually we don't make these anymore (used to when I was little) because they have to have an oven sheet all to themselves or the smaller forms will burn. But the special ones we do make are Pippi-forms and Moomin-forms! Here are some pictures :)

I forgot to take pictures of the finished saffron buns! It's really hard to make those look good! Only Mum got the knack for it! It's a lump of dough you roll in your hands so they become long strings and then you make shapes like S:s of them. It's really hard! Here's a picture of the unfinished product:

Then of course it was time for the Christmas sweets. I remember when it was Mum doing most of this and my and my sister's jobs were to put almonds on top. But now I make them ^^ Simply you put water in a saucepan and wait for it to boil, when it boils you turn down the heat and put a soup-plate on top. In the soup-plate you put milk chocolate (in Sweden there's specific melting chocolate :P) and wait for it to melt. Then there are various ways to make sweets. We usually have four different kinds. The first kind is small almond icing cubes covered in the melted chocolate and then we put an almond on top of each. The second kind is puffed toasted rice (I don't really know what it's called in English, this kind) and make small lumps of puffed rice and melted chocolate (heavenly!). Those first two kinds are made with milk chocolate. The next two are made with dark chocolate. The third kind is practically the same as the first kind, although made for the adults. Before putting the almond icing cubes in the chocolate Mum puts a drop of punch on each cube. Other than that they are the same. The third kind is usually cornflakes and raisins mixed together with the melted dark chocolate to make lumps similar to the ones with puffed rice, but we had forgot to buy cornflakes xD So we chopped up the rest of the almonds and made lumps with chopped almonds and dark chocolate instead. Hopefully they will taste great anyway :)

And I forgot to take pictures of these as well...

Next time we will be making klenor, rosettes and almond cakes.

Something small...

2011-12-05T22:10:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the total lack of posts lately. Exam anxiety is taking over my life! This week I have two exams and then the semester is pretty much over. For Christmas I have an essay to write and a resit to study for (hopefully just one) so there will be time for me to relax and regain control of my life :P Which I really need the things in my downloads folder are piling up, some of it I downloaded months ago!

Things that I have done while studying has been to watch all the seasons of Friends (episodes of only 20 minutes are great to watch in-between studysessions!) and just like last time it feels like something died inside when the final episode is going towards the end and the camera zooms in on the six keys lying on the table... Wow, the memories!

Today I made time for watching a concert with Morning Musume. It was a graduation concert of the leader who had been in the group for ten years (longest ever) and of course I couldn't help but crying my eyes out during the graduation ceremony when all the members gave their messages to the one graduating and they all cried (some of them could hardly get any words out at all). She was probably the best leader they ever had.

This will be all for now. You can expect a Christmasy post on Sunday or Monday since I'm going to my parents place on Saturday evening (after the exam) to do some Christmas baking on Sunday ^^

Thoughts on education

2011-12-02T00:15:00.001+01:00

I've been thinking about my education lately. I don't really care what kind of a fancy job it leads to as long as I like what I'm doing. As long as I can live on the amount of money the job pays me doesn't really matter as long as I like it.

Lately I'm getting more and more freaked out about not passing my upcoming exams (and I'm kind of worried that I didn't pass the one last week) and if I don't I'll only be studying part-time next semester. It will feel kind of nice to have a small break, but if I'm not going to be able to continue to the next level of French because I fail this one then I'm considering skipping it. French has been really really hard on me, although very fun and satisfying at times. I love the language but I just don't love it as much as I love Japanese. If I skip the next level of French then I won't be eligible for the Master programme of Translation. So if I'm not eligible I'm going to study part-time next semester then go back to Japanese by autumn, get a Bachelor in the language and go on to the Master programme of Linguistics. It's a road that's even more shaky than the original one, but at least I'll do what I like.

Any thoughts?

End of semester, end of year

2011-11-25T15:39:00.002+01:00

I'm feeling a lot better now. Life is moving on and I need to do that too. I'm itching for the holidays. There are two weeks left of the semester! I have three exams to do, but I'll probably be OK. One of them is tomorrow and it's one of those that are almost impossible to study for. We will be given a Swedish text to translate to French and one small assignment where we write something of about 300 words and we have four hours to complete it. How do you study for that? I've been going through the texts that we have done this semester, I'm checking up on some grammar that I'm not completely certain about, I'm trying to memorise certain vocabulary and expressions that show up in the texts and I'm trying to understand what it is I've done wrong while translating these texts and learn from my mistakes. Is there anything else I can do to prepare for tomorrow? I can't think of anything so this will pretty much be a test to see if I've improved and learned anything this semester :P I feel more comfortable speaking and writing French now than when this semester started and definately since last semester, but I want to be as fluent in French as I am in English. Which would mean that I have to start hearing French all the time, but I'm simply not that interested in anything French except the language. I could watch the Asterix and Obelix films... Those are kind of funny. If I can find them in French.

Anyway let's move on to something funny :) Soon it's Christmas! Yes, I'm allowing myself to start thinking about that now. After all it is the First of Advent this Sunday! Which means lit candles, mulled wine, gingerbread and everything that comes along with it. The Christmas displays started showing up at the end of October. October! For crying out loud! I've been completely ignoring everything Christmasy until the end of this week. No thinking about presents or food or celebrations before the week of First of Advent. That's my rule.

I'm eagerly awaiting the first snow, but it seems quite far yet. The temperature still refuses to go below 6 degrees. The first frost. Getting up in the morning (well, about 10am) opening up the curtains and finding the world glaced with ice. It's so beautiful looking out at a landscape that resembles a gingerbread land :P Then at the first snowfall I always take a walk. Snow means snowball fights, which I love. Snow means being able to trudge through the snow as I now do through heaps of leaves. Simply put I love this time of year. October to March is the best time of year :) The sun now seems to have given up, which makes me happy because it means that I no longer will get a headache from looking out the window. I love that already at 3pm they have to light the street lighting because the sun is starting to set. I love that it's only bright outside between 9.30am and 2.30pm. Also, the world smells wonderfully when it's cold and snowy. The only negative thing about this time of year is that the municipalities don't seem to be able to handle snow, the fact that snow falls each year still comes as a shock to them. The buses are late by up to half an hour or cancelled. The trains can get stuck, cancelled or they're hours late. Cars fall off the roads and it's hilarious to watch people that still insists to try and ride their bikes through the snow.

I think I'm gonna watch Love Actually at dinner. It's that time of year again :D

No one likes me anymore

2011-11-23T14:49:00.003+01:00

Two days ago I broke up with my boyfriend from over a 1 year. It feels weird but it had to be done. I felt that we were drifting apart and I didn't feel that way about him anymore. I still like him a lot, but not that way. I told him all this.

Originally I had planned on waiting with the whole breaking up thing until after New Years, cause then maybe he had a job and could afford a flat all by himself. But it wouldn't really make a difference. We dealt with it and as we live in a two room flat we decided to take one room each. So we have one room each and we are still friends. Sure it can be a little awkward sometimes when we have to surpress reflexes that comes from being together with someone for over a year, but we're doing fine.

At least that's what I though yesterday. Because in the evening I find out from him that he had talked to his mother and told her everything and she had been angry with me for not moving out. He later met up with a friend (our friend) who felt the same way. He even told me that it would be more appropriate for me to move out since it was his dad who found us this flat. My best friend thinks that I shouldn't consider his economical situation and move out. My dad feels the same way. When Love got home he brought with him the two friends that are usually here almost all the time. One of them hugs us everytime he arrives and everytime he leaves. But his hug felt forced, like he had to or it would be weird for me. He didn't say a word to me this morning. At least the other one said 'good morning' and 'bye'.

So that's it. No one likes me anymore. I kind of saw this coming. We've mostly been hanging out with his friends and I had counted upon this as one of the side-effects from breaking up with him - having to find all new friends and start over. But I didn't think it would affect me so much. I feel totally abandoned. So what I did after he told me yesterday was to start looking for flats and rooms like crazy. But there's nothing. No flats that I can afford, no rooms that fit. I don't want to leave Lund. I love this town. But suddenly I feel unwanted. I broke up with my boyfriend and now everyone hates me. I cried myself to sleep last night and when I woke up getting out of bed was the hardest thing I have done in a long time. I decided not to go to class today cause I'm too weepy to be able to hold it together. I'm feeling a little better by now, though. Probably thanks to the fact that this morning I got a text from Love that said that he didn't want me to move out. It made me feel a little better, a bit more appreciated.

So I bet I won't get any comments on this post, because all the people I know fit into one of these three categories:
1. You don't like my anymore and won't comment because of it (why you're even here if you don't like me is a mystery to me)
2. You're too uncomfortable by the fact that I've been pouring my heart out in this post and don't know how to say it
3. You're at a loss for words cause you're too afraid that everything you say will be insufficient and make me feel worse
If you feel like you don't fit into any of these then go ahead and prove me wrong.

When you were here before I couldn't look you in the eye. You're just like an angel. Your skin makes me cry. You float like a feather in a beautiful world. I wish I was special. You're so fucking special. But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here. I don't care if it hurts I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. I want you to notice when I'm not around. Your so fucking special. I wish I was special. But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here. She's running out the door. She's running. She run, run, run, run, run. Whatever makes you happy, whatever you want. You're so fucking special. I wish I was special. But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don't belong here. I don't belong here.

Birthday presents part 1

2011-11-16T17:15:00.001+01:00

Happy birthday to me :) Now I'm 21. That is not reflected on the presents I got today (next batch comes on Saturday when the family shows up for cake).

Day starts out with pancakes with vanilla ice cream and strawberry jam for brunch :) Then I got a 200g bar of Marabou milk chocolate with Dime in from a friend :D Then I got my presents from Love. Three of them. I opened them in order of size of course, smallest first ;) The Nintendo DS game for Plants vs. Zombies. See you sometime around Christmas. I've pretty much finished everything there is on the PS3 game so now I can start over on the DS one. I'll be so lost.

Second biggest was a Harry Potter book called "Harry Potter Film Wizardry". It's amazing. It's more of a toy than a book. Except for containing loads and loads of information on the actors and the sets, the actors memories etc. It also contains loads and loads of artefacts and pop-up things. The first thing you get to actually hold in your hands is Harry's letter to Hogwarts; a parchment paper envelope with green ink writing and a Hogwarts crest and a wax stamp at the back. As you open it you're able to extract Harry's admittance letter to Hogwarts. As you keep turning pages you arrive to Diagon Alley where you can find (after opening up the spread) a product catalogue from Borgin & Burkes. Later on you're given a copy of Advanced Potion-Making with stickers to put on bottles and boxes to make them look like they contain potions or ingredients! When we arrive at Hogsmeade we're given a sheet where you can extract two sweet boxes to fold together :) Moving on we arrive at the Quidditch World Cup and we're given a programme to flick through. At the Yule Ball we're given another programme to flick through. Towards the end there's an awsome spread of the Black Family Tapestry. Then we arrive to Dolores Umbridge and we're given five Educational Decrees on paper than you can actually use and put on your wall. And (the best thing) at a page called Confidential we're given the Marauder's Map :D At Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes we're given a product catalogue. The last thing we're given is a Ministry of Magic Identity Card for Mafalda Hopkirk.

The third present (and the largest) was a huge Harry Potter-esque book (meaning it takes up all of my desk and doesn't fit in the bookcase). It's called "Harry Potter: Page to Screen" and basically tell you the story of how the films were made with loads of photos and interviews etc. How the casting was done and everything. It was quite fun to read although I didn't read all of it, I mostly flicked through the pages and looked at the photos and read whatever I though was interesting. I loved reading about Evanna Lynch who played Luna Lovegood since her story is somewhat remarkable. She started out just like the rest of us: a huge fan of the books. She was one of the lucky few who wrote to Rowling and got an answer and at the casting they realised that she was a personification of Luna. I love this book. I actually thought of buying it myself, but then I decided against it - and I got it anyway!

This night we will order some sushi for home delivery and then we will cuddle up in the sofa watching a film of my choice - Cutthroat Island. I wanted something piratey, but I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean too many times so I decided to let Love watch my other pirate film for the first time. Obviously it's not as great as Pirates of the Caribbean, but it's not total shit either ;)

So to sum up my 21st birthday:
• Pancakes with icecream
• Chocolate
• DS game
• Harry Potter nerdiness
• Sushi
• Pirates

And the world seriously considers me an adult? O.o

This is just not going anywhere...

2011-11-13T20:40:00.002+01:00

What happened to this project of mine? It went really well to begin with then it kind of just disappeared. I have no idea why, but as soon as I stopped thinking about it I returned to being this introverted shy little girl. I have skipped several oral classes because they include speaking in front of people and I'm getting even more conscious of how I act around people. It's stupid. I hate it! I really should try to stop it. Again. I can give myself credit for meeting up with a new person though... Gotta count for something. I'm actually trying to reach out here. Can you reach me behind my walls?

When I try to stop thinking about how other people percieve me I get worried that by just being myself I'm putting them off cause I'm too weird and awkward just being me. I'm not mellow and I'm not loud. I'm shy in new environments and as soon as I set foot inside someone else's house I become extremely well-mannered and extremely conscious of my surroundings. Around the right people I could be very random and energetic in some kind of explosive weirdness, but around the right people I'm almost never awkward. The right people are usually those that I've known for a while and that I've been around a lot. Doesn't matter if I've known you for years but only meet you a few times a year or I'll still be awkward. It has to be something like meeting up several times a week for me to slowly become comfortable around you. So when I meet a new person that I like or whose company I enjoy I instantly become very pushy. I want to be able to text message, IM, call or whatever that person. I want to be able to talk all the time and meet up a lot. Cause the more bits and pieces I continuously give to that new person the more I relax, the more I stop feeling awkward.

Like that old post says I want to be more outspoken. I want to stop being afraid and worried all the time. I hate it. How do I stop it? How do I fix myself so I'm not broken anymore? Is that even possible? I'm trying to fix how sensitive I am. I want to be able to become angry or frustrated or irritated without instantly starting to cry. I want to be able to have a heated argument without burtsing into tears. How do I fix that? I want to be able to go to my oral class without getting the urge to run away from there. I want to be able to stand in front of people and not wishing that I could just sink through the floor or that they would stop looking at me. Also I would like to gain some kind of self-respect and self-confidence and stop being so goddamn self-conscious. I should remember that if people keep telling me that I'm pretty then it's probably true. How do I fix it so that I can see that too? Cause all I see in the mirror is that girl with glasses, braces and long wispy dirty blond hair that I used to be in my early teens when everything mattered. In a sense I'm probably still stuck there... How do I fix that?

I'm always scared to tell people about myself face to face cause I'm afraid that they'll turn away from me. That they'll think that I'm whiny and emo and too much to deal with. Yeah I come with some baggage. You can get rid of me and my baggage if you want to. I can't. You happy now? Is life ever simple to anyone?

I've started second-guessing myself more often lately. I still know what I want to do. I just don't know in what order and I'm increasingly doubting my ability to actually do it. Do I really have any special talents? Sometimes I think I do, but I'm not sure. I'm never sure when it comes to me. How do you know if you're happy? How do you know what's going to make you happy?

I have a lot of opinions. To what purpose? What's the point of having opinions if you don't have the courage to actually speak up? What's the point to try to stick out in your teens if all it's going to lead to is you being miserable cause you don't fit in anywhere when you finally grow up? Most of the time I'm happy being unusual. But sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have made me happier if I was indeed like everybody else. If I was one of those girls you see everywhere and not a geeky tomboy, would I be happier? Or is this a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side"?

That I actually even bother trying is probably due to the fact that I'm terrified of being left alone. I don't mind being alone I just don't want to be lonely. Two completely different things. Affirmation that I'm not completely alone keeps me sane.

• Kinda philosophical...

• Fears

• Stop hiding. Let go.

• Stage fright

• The Tomboy and Fashion

• The ugly duckling and her pet

• That's just the way I work

• Reminiscing about my school days

Adulthood

2011-11-10T23:07:00.001+01:00

"We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?"

- Grey's Anatomy

I think I have to agree. As a child all you want is to grow up, then the older you get the more you wish it'd stop. Life would be so much easier if one could do anything and not have to plan out what one's going to do with one's life or if one could completely ignore the demands put on you by society as soon as you pass that line.

I'm part of an age group that never had enough room, okay? My parents had to put me in a daycare that wasn't of their choice cause there wasn't room for me on the one they'd want. Choosing schools there were never enough places for all of us. Now we're off to employment, how do you figure that's gonna work out when it comes as a surprise to the society how big my age group is everytime we change level?

But it's not as much that as it is for all the demands. When you're 18 you're an adult. That's when you're supposed to know what you want to do with your life. You're supposed to continue to study to get a higher education, get a fancy job somewhere, have a career, get married and make some babies. Usually in that order. For that to work out (especially for the women) we have to finish our education before we're 25, hopefully manage a quite well-rounded career before 30 so that we have time on our biological clock to do all that baby-making that's required of us from the society. What? So there's not enough of humans on this planet already? It's a well thought-out plan, but the strictness of it makes it almost impossible to stray from it even for a moment. Despite the industralised countries' boasting of how free their people are and how much freedom we have, we have surprisingly little to say about how we want to live our lives. There's so much required of us in so little time that it doesn't even come as a surprise to me when I read in the paper that school children are becoming stressed out, burnt out; collapsing from the stress. It's ridiculous! A teenager should not have anxiety problems! It doesn't come as a surprise to me to find out that the prescriptions of anti-anxiety medicins are continuously increasing and that the average age for whom uses them is steadily getting lower and lower. Come on, people! There's a reason why every other child is depressed nowadays!

I'm becoming stressed out just writing about this...

Maybe I can count myself lucky in that sense. When I was 18 I didn't have a plan. I knew I wanted to do something that had to do with languages. Other than that I was a complete blank taking my first step into adulthood. I wanted to do what I wanted to because I wanted it. But there seems to be some kind of magical barrier at 20. You're no longer a teenager. Now it's suddenly inappropriate for you to just go with the flow and see where life leads you. Now you need to be an adult. Shape up! Get a job! Get that degree! Move out! Get married! Have those children!

Well, what if I don't want to?

I don't care if a have an awesome career as long as I have enough money to live on. I don't need to get married. I don't want to have children (ask the same question in 10 years, I might answer differently then). I want to see the world. I want to break free. I want to go where the wind blows and just follow where life leads me. Is that too much to ask?

And now what? When I'm turning 21 next week and steadily take another step into adulthood, is my biggest goal to get a degree? No, my biggest goal is for me to be able to return to Tokyo. Second biggest goal is to go to Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, FL. I will probably do everything in due time, but I have been cured. I no longer see any rush in finishing off my life before 30. You have time. Just relax and go where the wind blows. You need to be sure of yourself, cause as long as you can't nudge yourself off your crooked path, then no one else can. It doesn't have to be a straight line, you know. There's no wolf threatening to eat you if you stray off that straight line for a while. Don't worry, the straight line will always be there for you to come back to. If you want to.

• Life, happiness and age

• The world is broken

• Min generation och vår framtid

• Serious for once - in Swedish

• The big twenty

Hey, what're you doing with your life? Why don't you settle down and find yourself a wife? Don't you know you can't run away from here? When will you act your age? Why don't you listen, dear? I say: I'll never grow up. I'll never grow. I'll never grow up now. They say: you better stop dreaming. You're going nowhere fast. What if we throw you out? How long do you think you'd last? When will you go to school? Why don't you get a job? Hey, girl you better shape up. You're looking like a slob. Well, I say: I'll never grow up. I'll never grow up. I'll never grow up now. And I say it again: I'll never grow up. I'll never grow up. I'll never grow up now. I can't believe you can't hear what you're saying. Take a good look at yourself. Why don't you listen to the music we're playing? Go pick on somebody else. They say: You think life's a free ride. Well, take a tip from me. We're gonna end your party with some responsibility.

Challenge accepted

2011-11-08T21:48:00.002+01:00

After being shown this video I kind of feel like I need to prove my nerdiness in some way, and at the same time help her prove that hot nerdy girls exist ;) (Cause seriously she's hot. The first thing I look at when she's going to show the Lord of the Rings copy around her neck is her boobs! O.o)
I've kind of done this two times before: 1 and 2.

Let's start with the obvious:
Harry Potter. I have two copies of each book. One in English and one in Swedish. I haven't actually read the sixth and seventh books in Swedish but I like to have the complete set, you know? I also have "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". I also have had two books containing background facts about the world of Harry Potter, unauthorized by JK Rowling. The first one I got kind of fell to pieces (like my very first Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Swedish. Had to buy a new one) the second is "A Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter", which I must say isn't all that accurate. I actually had a lot of fun correcting the thing while reading it! ;) I also used to play dress-up Harry Potter as a child (so long playing with dolls, I'm off to Hogwarts!) I had a wand as a child, but it broke. Now I've ordered a new one (Bellatrix Lestrange's wand) along with a wall scroll of the Marauder's Map ^^; Oh and after I got sorted into Slytherin at Pottermore I bought two key chains with the Slytherin chest; one is on my keys and one is on my rucksack. I used to have Harry Potter Lego (it's probably still in the Lego bin at my parents' house). I also have a Quidditch card game and I have a fair few of Harry Potter Trading cards, along with the playing chart. Oh and I also loved playing Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 on my DS and I can't wait for Years 5-7 to come out which is happening real soon! Yay! :) Oh and I've played through the computer games for Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets a few times each ;) Here's my Harry Potter playlist on YouTube and if there's anything else you want to know of my Harry Potter fandom then I redirect you to this older blogpost of mine. I also used to hang out a lot at hogwarts.nu (Swedish community) before it closed down, still have contact with a few people from there though. Now I sometimes hang out at mugglarportalen.se, but thing is it's not the same. Hoggy had this amazing spirit and it's not present at Mugglis :( I kind of miss that.

Now how to top that? :P The others aren't as much fandoms as fangirl crushes... Oh well, let's take them in some kind of order.

Pokémon. I fell for them in elementary school. I still stand by that there are only 151 Pokémon, I may stretch it to 250. But I really don't like the Pokémon beyond the second generation that much. That is why I'm still playing SoulSilver on my DS ;) I love the PokéWalker! I didn't really get the hype over Black & White, although I do have White version. I don't have all my old Pokémon cards left. I sold most of them, but I kept those that I really liked and now they serve as bookmarks (I have a tendency to lose real bookmarks, but I've never lost a Pokémon card :P) I have seen the first three films and I have the entire first season of the anime on my external harddrive ;) If you throw a Pokémon from the first generation out in front of me I can probably name it without having to think (much) about it. A friend of mine used to have a poster of all the first 150 Pokémon on the ceiling above her bed and we used to lie on her bed and testing ourselves if we could remember the names of all of them xD I only have one plastic figurine left and that's Charmander, but I did buy a mobile strap with Eevee on when I was in Tokyo. I also love reading this one.

Digimon. Well I might as well. Digimon was the only thing that made me get up early every Saturday morning. (I got that sleeping-'til-'noon thing when I was about 10). I've seen the first two seasons of it and I have the first season on my external harddrive. I never collected the cards, but I used to know the names of all the Digimon and what they evolved to, similar to what I knew about the Pokémon. Thing is I can still find watching Digimon fun, that's not really true for Pokémon anymore.

Pirates of the Caribbean. Wow, I can't believe it's soon going to be 10 years since the first film was released... I feel so old... Anyway, the first film got me into a kind of big frenzy. I read up on pirates in general, both on the Internet and in books. I bought a book about it. I had a pirate flag in my room and I still have a pirate cushion. I know all the lines of the first film by heart. The DVD with the extra material on it has gotten jumpy due to me watching deleted scenes and bloopers too much. That film also got me a huge fangirl crush on Johnny Depp and I started watching every film I could find starring him. I've kind of gotten over that one by now. But Pirates of the Caribbean is still going strong. I love his entrance in the first film, I love this song and I love this cover. I have Lego Pirates of the Caribbean for my DS, but I haven't really tried to play it yet.

Hello Kitty. Not even slightly possible to skip that one. I can buy anything because it's Hello Kitty on it. I have socks and shirts with that cat on them. I've got a tin can no longer filled with caramels, saved just because it's Hello Kitty on. I even saved the soda can with that cat on ^^; I still love Hello Cthulhu. It's such a shame that in Sweden Kitty is percieved as something only little girls can wear and have. So loads of children's clothing and stuff have Kitty on them but not adult ones. There are also a lot of make-up and creams that have Kitty on them - but I don't really use that :/ I have Hello Kitty case for my DS and loads of DS Hello Kitty stuff that came with it. I also have four mobile straps with Kitty on. This is my current desktop background:

Manga & Anime. I used to have a really big one for that. It started with Pokémon, Digimon and Sailor Moon. Then it evolved to Naruto, xxxHolic, Chobits... really I've seen a lot of them! I lost interest in anime first cause I always found the manga so much more interesting and funny to read. I used to buy a lot of them. One time I counted my manga volumes to about 400, of course 40 of them were One Piece, 15 Naruto and another 15 Fullmetal Alchemist, but you get the point. I used to have a really big thing for CLAMP so I had loads of their mangas, other than them it was mostly shounen that I liked. Oh and the gothic style of Kaori Yuki! I got a slight back-glimpse at anime when Kajsa showed me the anime for Nana (I had previously read Paradise Kiss). I watched the entire anime with her, then I found OneManga (which is currently not working because of copyright issues) and there I read all the mangas I was currently reading plus a fair few one shots and I started on several new ones. Now I've sold most of my manga volumes. I still have my 45 One Piece ones and some odd ones like the first volumes of Azumanga Daioh and School Rumble, and I don't really read a lot of manga anymore. I only keep track of five; FairyTail, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and D.Gray-Man.

I think this next one is more dorky than nerdy, but whatever.
Greek and Nordic mythology. I started with Greek mythology in about sixth grade. I read everything I could find, mostly on the Internet. It came to an abrupt end when I (at the age of fourteen) gave myself the task of making a family tree of the Greek gods. Fantastically impossible! Then I went through a phase where I wanted to find myself a faith and I went for the old Nordic gods. So I learned all about the myths, the gods, ceremonies all that I could find! In the end it stopped being for the faith (I finally found myself comfortable with being an ateist) and it became to be only for the fun of knowing and reading up on the mythology.

Code Lyoko. I spent an entire summer watching this show. It's four seasons of pure cartoon awesomeness. The first half of the first season is really not that great but then you start getting some hints of a background story. And the fourth season is just wow. Anyway four high school kids find an abandoned factory which contains a super computer. They start up the super computer and find that it holds a virtual world, where they also find Aelita; a girl who apparantly lives there. In this world there's also XANA an evil entity that tries to take control over and destroy our world. To stop that from happening three of the four children are scanned into the virtual world when a threat appears. There they have to fight off some of XANA's monsters to help Aelita (who can't fight herself) get to an activated tower (XANA activates towers to get to our world) where she can deactivate the tower and stop XANA. After the tower has been deactivated they press the button that makes the super computer return them to the past. All of the children remember everything that has happened but no one else does, and so the world remains unaware that XANA exists. But there's a remaining question almost throughout the entire series: who is Aelita?

Heroes. The TV-series, that is. I remember some of us had a period in school where we greeted eachother with "Save the cheerleader" "Save the world". I think that's enough to describe how nerdy we were about this.

Other small things that make me nerdy? RPG is one thing. My favourite dice is a D10 which instead of numbers has kanji. Another one is that I've seen all the six Star Wars films in the right order (the order they were filmed, not the order they take place). I've also seen the entire first season of the original series of Star Trek (I actually kind of enjoyed the 2009 film). I get the strangest associations to YouTube jokes when watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy ("They're taking the hobbits to Isengard-gard-gard-gard"). I used to watch the cartoons Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Justice League and thanks to that I know most of the characters. Spiderman is without any doubt the best of them! I have tried playing WoW, but I don't like games that tell me what to do all the time. I'm kind of good at Guitar Hero, Bejeweled and Fruit Ninja and I'm getting really good at Plants vs Zombies. I've tried out Magic the Gathering once in the beginning of the 21st century, but really we weren't that good at English at the age of 10 and really it wasn't as fun collecting them as it was collecting Pokémon and because of the lack of English and the lack of someone explaining properly I never got the game... Oh and I looooove boardgames. That's one of my reasons for buying Monopoly Nightmare Before Christmas edition:

Admittedly I have had other obsessions throughout the years, but other than these most of them were simple fangirl crushes (meaning reading everything, collecting pictures, downloading everything...). I've had fangirl crushes on Avril Lavigne, Jonas Brothers, Johnny Depp, Nightwish, Lordi, Alice Cooper, David Eddings, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley and most lately Ramin Karimloo :)

I think that covers most of it. Am I as good at the nerdy stuff as she is? I'm not entirely sure, but heck what to do if I don't like most sci-fi, Tolkien or MMORPG? I mean if I dislike those things I have to find supplements, right?

Dungeons & Dragons inspired fantasy RPG #2

2011-11-07T19:40:00.000+01:00

It's been ages since last time, I know. Life kind of got in the way for at least one of us all the time. But we did manage to get together on October 29th (I know I'm lazy with the RPG blogging) the same day I had my phonetics exam. Great way to end a day, although because I got up at 7am I was tired to death around 11pm so we had to quit early :/ Anyway, if you don't remember (I know none of us did without reading old notes first) here's how it all began and where we were when this meeting started.

Ariana Stumbles the first scaly man that comes running. It doesn't really have any effect. But in that moment the entire place shakes as if from a huge earthquake and everyone lose their balance. We feel some kind of shockwave from behind - the direction from which we came.

Mirion has with the help of his Invisibility Cloak been able to move from the tunnel in which Gapy and Ariana are to the tunnel with the archers. He kills the archers then deactivates his Cloak. More scaly men comes running and Mirion recieves a cut on his arm which almost cuts his arm off. Starion heals him. Gapy hits the first one coming at him, he gets hit and falls down unconscious. Ariana tries to push him aside to be able to get past him. Starion borrows Mirion's Cloak and sneaks off into the hall beyond the tunnels. He conjures a huge Grave of Thorns which kills most of the scaly men, but when he conjures the spell another spell goes off and give each of us 15 HP damage. Gapy dies. Mirion, Ariana and Barrskägg are unconsiouc. Starion pretends to be unconscious (he's got some kind of magician in his mind that at this point tells him what to do. Starion's magic Protection saved his life.) The magician in his mind healed us and put a spell on us so we'd look dead, because now there's a person walking among us and making sure we're really dead. After this Starion's shizo-friend magician disappears (something with an old debt being repayed). We find a glass coffin or chest (blackened glass) that can't be opened by magic. At the glass there are loads of demon faces. The floor around and under the chest seems to contain loads of iron ore. Starion can't feel any kind of consciousness coming from the chest. Mirion's Perception gives us nothing. We try to destroy the ches with the weapons of the scaly men. Not even a scratch. Mirion conjures a sylph to get the rocks away from the landslide. Starion squeezes through to the outside and swims back to the surface. There is no ship. Starion flies around looking for a ship and finds none. He is discovered by a water dragon that agrees to help us in exchange for the chest. The dragon digs us out and takes the chest to his mistress. We get dropped off at the coast of Narania, because we still couldn't find the ship.

The boredom continues

2011-11-06T16:44:00.000+01:00

The boredom continued today. Although I am planning to finish off one of the French books. However I've spent most of the day playing The Sims 2 and doing some writing. But my head felt so slow that I had to go outside, take a walk. It didn't work as well as I thought it would so I ended up doing what I did every boring night in Tokyo; watching George Carlin. These two rants always make me feel better and they're kind of uplifting :)

The small mundane things can be really funny

Airline announcements part 1

Airline announcements part 2

Nowadays Carlin's airline announcements is all I can think about while flying, although the safety lecture isn't like that anymore I remember those from my childhood :)

Mostly about The Sims 2

2011-11-05T19:48:00.002+01:00

This Thursday I went out to meet a guy I had only talked to online previously. It went well actually. I'm just so ridiculously shy that I feel uncomfortable keeping eye contact for very long and then I don't know where to look. I can't talk with someone knew without having something to fiddle with (this time I ripped a napkin to pieces :P) But all in all it went well and he seems like a nice guy :P At least he said he'd like to meet again so I can't have been as weird and awkward as I thought ^^;

Moving on, yesterday and today have both been terribly boring days. I read some French books yesterday, but other than that half-hearted attempt at studying I've only been playing The Sims 2. Basically what I do is building houses. I usually get bored with the families after a while and to keep them interesting I usually do something kind of evil; like having the wife cheat on the husband with more than one sim. Having the husband abducted by Aliens makes for an Alien baby. Hurrying up the birthdays and creating new families with the children or have the teenaged sims cheat with eachothers girlfriends/boyfriends, make them run away from home, skip school (to the point where they are sent to military school) or having them sneak out every night and being brought home by the police every other night (the police yells at the parents for letting the teen sneak out). Sometimes I just kill off one of the boring sims :P Creating a big happy family without any internal problems is usually less fun than making a completely messed up family.

I also make up stories for my families. In the neighbourhood I created today my first family consists of Sayumi that fell in love with Bradley as a teenager and accidentally got pregnant. Her parents shunned her and they ran off together to start a new life. Their future contains some terribly naughty children :D I initially created two adult sims and after some cheating Sayumi had twins the very same day they moved into the new house (which made for her being pregnant as a teen without actually being it) and Bradley is already halfway through his adult life (which made for him being much older than her). This is the house I built for them:

Recently I got a thing for pillars, balconys, sloping roofs, several porches and orchards, and all my creations contain one or more of them. At least I've gotten over my fireplace period :P

The reason I'm still playing The Sims 2 and not 3 is because I tried out 3 and it was too much. So many details, it was so elaborated that it lost its fun part. I didn't like 3 because of that. 2 is what you make it out to be. 3 is just the way it is.

Oh, and because it's that day I just have to add this:

Remember, remember

the fifth of November

The gunpowder treason and plot

I know of no reason

why the gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot

It's horror time! :D

2011-10-31T15:42:00.002+01:00

Happy Halloween everyone :)

I'm not very big on the dressing up part, but what I love about Halloween-week is the horror theme. From tonight all the way to Sunday (All Hallows Eve on Friday) there will be at least one horror film every night. I had some idea of some kind of crappy but still pretty scary horror films that I wanted to see, but I needed more tips so I asked IMDB. IMDB's horror list is pretty funny. I should make a project of going through it. There'll be a whole lot of crap! I'm not big on gory horror films, I want the psychological part, the nagging part. The films that make you scared, but you have really no idea why you're scared. I love those. I also love the jump-out-and-scare ghost films. I get tense, I get scared and jump up half a metre and then I laugh my ass off. I remember in 2009 there were two good jump-out-and-scare horror films at the cinema; My Bloody Valentine and Friday the 13th (which incidentally premiered on Friday the 13th, I went to see it on Valentine's as a date). It occurred to me while going through IMDB's list that I've seen quite a few horror films, more than I actually thought. Even more if I count those I've only seen clips from.

Anyway, I've downloaded six horror films, four of them I've already seen and liked. I have a few back-ups in the shelf and also I've got all the four Scream and all three Exorcist on the computer already. Here are the six:
Thirteen Ghosts (2001). This was the first horror film I ever saw completely alone. On Halloween. When I was about 13. It made me paranoid then and it can have that effect still. Also the film contains some amazingly funny puns.
Ghost Ship (2002). This film contains both the psychological element as well as the jump-out-and-scare element. And some paranoia. The story is actually incredibly sad beyond all the ghosts. Not gory. Not horrible. Just sad. I think that's what made me like it.
The Haunting (1999). I remember seeing this with my mother when I was very young. I must have been about 11 or something like that. It kind of amazed me. It was horrible and refined at the same time and it contained one of those incredibly evil ghosts... That didn't actually do anything at all. You were just told stories of him that made you fear him without him practically ever showing his face. Once again the story is incredibly sad and this is one of the films that does not have a happy ending. This film stars some surprisingly well-known actors; Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. Is it ironic that the first film I ever saw starring Liam Neeson was a horror one?
The Shining (1980). The classic. Jack Nicholson is the actor that knows how to play mad. I haven't actually seen many screen adaptations of Stephen King's novels, although I love his work. I have It on my computer, but I'm terrified of watching that one alone. Phobia of clowns and all that you know. This one I loved as a child and I must have seen it about five times.
The Mist (2007). A screen adaptation of Stephen King's book with the same name. I thought I'd catch up on some Stephen King screen versions and I've heard of this one before.
YellowBrickRoad (2010). Never heard of this one before. The summary of the plot on IMDB sounded interesting though and by the time I found this one that seemed interesting I was up on results 300-350. So I decided I'd pick this one.

All I need now is some dip, a big bowl of crisps and some lit candles and we can begin! :)

Pre-exam anxiety

2011-10-28T19:34:00.001+02:00

Sometimes I doubt my ability to remember things. Sometimes I doubt my somewhat photographic memory. My first exam of the semester is tomorrow and I'm scared and nervous and the anxiety is just ridiculous. I think it may be because I put all those high standards on my shoulders and now I'll be back to feeling like a complete failure if I only get a passing grade and not the highest grade. I'm weird like that.

Thing is that if the language was Swedish or English I'd just be able to write rubbish for a really long time and in some way manage to get everything I need across. I can't do that in French cause my vocabulary sucks. The resit for this exam is in December, but I really don't want to have to go through all of this again. I don't like the subject there are so many words to remember, so many new terms. What do I care about phonetics? I guess I'll just have to go to the exam tomorrow and write everything and anything I can think of and hope that it all goes really well. I hope I'm lucky and he asks stuff I have studied for a lot. I may study some more in an hour or two, but right now my brain is completely fried I can't stuff any more stuff in there and it makes me worried and nervous about tomorrow.

That study schedule I made didn't last. I haven't had time to do most of it. All I've been doing is studying phonetics and it still feels like all of it isn't stuck in there yet. I had two happy moments this week though and one of them was ironically enough my oral presentation. After class everyone left real quick as per usual, except for me cause I take my time to put on my scarf, coat and bonnet and collecting my stuff and putting it in my rucksack. My teacher approached me and said that it was much better than last time and that I had approved a lot. I was very happy about it and I explained to him that I'm always nervous when I talk to and infront of people and that I was nervous even talking to only him. He said that I had gotten a lot better than last time and that small sentence had me dancing on clouds for the rest of that day. Also the regular weekly assignment, which consists of translating a small text to French and making a small personal text relating to the subject of the translated text. My translation was well recieved with her and when we got back our personal texts from last week I discovered that I had actually gotten a comment of "Very well done". I'm still at war with the French prepositions, but heck that made me happy.

Hopefully all this worrying is just my mind playing tricks on me and everything will work out fine tomorrow. I need more time to rehearse but time is running out fast! Wish me luck tomorrow!

Within Temptation

2011-10-26T20:58:00.001+02:00

Yesterday it was time for the long-awaited concert with symphonic metal band Within Temptation. There has been some troubles with this concert. The date was first set in March at Store Vega in Copenhagen, however at the end of last year the singer of the band announced that she was pregnant and thus the entire tour was moved. My concert was moved to October 25th. Soon the venue was sold out and to be able to get more people to the concert the venue was changed to KB Hallen (where I previously have seen both Nightwish and Disturbed). However about a month ago there was a fire at KB Hallen and for some time I was worried the concert would get cancelled, but instead they changed the venue again to a place called Falconer Salen.

When we got to the right place (after a very nervous (on my part) walk from Copenhagen Central Station to Falconer Salen) we discovered that the new venue was a real fancy place. Big glass walls and everything. We got inside, payed for wardrobe, bought our tour T-shirts, got something to drink and entered the hall. I had read nothing about a support, for a moment I though there was none. But turned out that there was. It was a three-piece metalband called Triggerfinger. Although I remained unimpressed by the music I was throughly amused by their performance and I looooove their image; three men properly dressed in suits. The singer/guitarist had a backslick, the bassist was bald with sunglasses and he never said a word, the drummer was as hyperactive as drummers are supposed to be (as was the singer/guitarist). I liked their performance, but I probably won't listen to them again since I didn't enjoy the music. A live band through and through.

The support played for about 30 minutes, then we had to wait another 30 minutes while the crew fixed the stage and then they got on. I haven't listened much to their knew album. It's different from their other stuff and I wasn't overly impressed with it. But this tour was to promote that album and thus I knew they were going to play songs from it and in the end it wasn't that bad. I actually came to like a few songs. Albumwise (newest first) these are the songs played (may have missed one or two):
The Unforgiving:
Shot in the Dark
In the Middle of the Night
Faster
Fire and Ice
Iron
Sinéad

The Heart of Everything:

The Silent Force:

Mother Earth:
Mother Earth
Ice Queen

I loved that they had a huge screen at the back of the stage that either showed the official music video or a videoclip made for the song. The screen also gave away which song would come next. When the intro was shown/played for Stand My Ground I swear the ceiling lifted. This was the only song where Sharon told the crowd that we could sing along if we wanted to. And if we did! Wow. Same thing happened when What Have You Done started. It was perfect. They were very good at getting the crowd going and there was always loads of arms up in the air, heads banging and people jumping up and down or singing along. All of those make for a perfect concert experience. One of the best made-for-concert songs was Our Solemn Hour. All those "Sanctus Espiritus" were perfect as crowd chants. What Have You Done was second best, the crowd really screamed "What have you done now?" everytime that line showed up in the lyrics.

Any song I'd wish they'd played, but they didn't? Maybe It's the Fear or Hand of Sorrow or The Cross... Would Deciever of Fools be a good concert song?

I'll end this post with the two videos that made me like Within Temptation back in 2005 (especially the first one):

Stand My Ground

Angels

Les Misérables in Malmö #2

2011-10-23T23:58:00.004+02:00

Today it was time again and I'll try to write something of a more professional review. But I'm still quite the newbie at theatre and musicals so my expectations and opinions may be somewhat faulty and well... childish.

Scenography. I was impressed with the scenography last time as well. The wolf still sticks out like a sore thumb though. I still not get that one. Although I loved the Paris scene where all the extras press together and spread their arms it somehow seemed less amazing this time. Still an impressive scene though.

I still love the bar scene. It's a drunken place with raggedy, drunken, happy people (probably the way it was until they woke up the next day, hung-over, and only to discover they'd been robbed). I hate hate hate Lovely Ladies. I hate how the extras are marionnette dolls. The misery of the scene may be kind of accurate, but weren't the whores kind of bold women? Didn't you have to "have some balls" (lacking a better expression) to be able to continue living on as a whore? Still don't like the whole cage-thing with Cosette, nor the Christmas tree shaped bushes. I found myself approving of the barricade. It seemed accurate to me that the barricade consisted of whatever sturdy material the students had been able to come across to help build it. The actual use of guns (cap guns) made it seem more real. All in all I like the scenes.

Jean Valjean. Dan Ekborg's Valjean has grown on me. Before going today I listened through the soundtrack of Les Misérables in Stockholm in 1990 and Tommy Körberg's Valjean sounds kind of, well, bored. he's boring to listen to. While Dan Ekborg puts loads of feeling into his voice. It's not just lines here. He's not just standing about saying his lines, but he's actually moving and acting and actively taking part in each scene he's in. I like his Valjean a lot. The way he's dressed also seems appropriate in my eyes.

Javert. Fred Johanson. Do I need say more? He's like a mixture of Norm Lewis and Roger Allam. With a voice similar to Norm Lewis' and facial expressions similar to Roger Allam, he makes for the ultimate Javert. He's incredible! Also his proper completely black clothes are very fitting. I like the top hat.

Fantine. It was Karolin Funke this time 'round as well. I'm still not impressed by her. Not only because of the producer obviously having a hard time finding a blond girl in Sweden (the wig bothers me), but because she looks nothing like I picture Fantine. I picture Fantine as a very beautiful fairly young girl (as beautiful as Cosette grew up to be). I'd set her maximum age at 25. The foreman is supposed to have the hots for her and I get the image that she's somewhat younger than the other girls working at the factory. They accuse her of being a whore (obviously she's more good-looking than the other girls and they're jealous). She sings of her man "taking her childhood in his stride" so she can't have been very old when she got pregnant. Karolin Funke looks somewhere between 35-40 and she's a squat woman. The clothes and the wig bother me. I don't like her at all in this production.

Mr. Thénardier. This time (I made sure of it) I got to see Peter Harryson as Thénardier and I liked him. He wasn't as lively as David Lundquist but it wasn't necessary. He got the job done and he did it well. He may be a little too old for how I picture Thénardier but otherwise I like his performance. He wasn't just sitting around, but he was moving about and he used his facial expressions and the feelings in his voice. He was perfect at the Wedding! Still don't like the ragged clothing of Thénardier, but I really liked how they dressed him in the Wedding. Also the perfect Thénardier in my book is Alun Armstrong. They got it right the first time! Matt Lucas is great too...

Mrs. Thénardier. Kajsa and Tiffany had mentioned how Marianne Mörck wasn't any good so I made sure that I got to see Evamaria Björk as Mrs. Thénardier again. She's great. I love how she's doting on Éponine and how she's pretending to be loving of Cosette when Valjean shows up. She puts on a great show. I also like how they've dressed her.

Little Cosette / Little Éponine. Same little Cosette as last time and she seemed less nervous this time. She's adorable and she sings Castle on a Cloud (I Himlens Slott) as perfectly as Mia Jenkins whom I love as Cosette. It was a different little Éponine though and she wasn't as great as the other one. The other stuck her tongue out at Cosette, teased her when she had Cosette's doll. This one behaved like a spoiled child but she only showed some kind of expression towards Cosette when Valjean put on Cosette her dress and she managed to look extremely envious and pouty. The dressing of Cosette is actually very fitting. The dressing of Éponine is less so. If she's so spoiled she should be dressed as a princess in a frilly dress like her mother.

Gavroche. Oh my my! This Gavroche was sooooo cute! I just wanted to grab him and bring him home. He was obviously nervous, but he still made a better show than the other kid. This Gavroche may have been 7 years old while the other kid we saw last time could have been about 11. His (this one's) Little People was perfect and he actually managed to shout "Listen to me!" before they all went quiet anyway. The introduction of Gavroche in Look Down (Gavroches Sång) is still too measly, but that may just be the Swedish language... He's dressed perfectly and his news paper boat hat in the beginning is extremely fitting. I cried when he died.

The students. Marius is still hot (and tall!). Philip Jalmelid makes a very convincing Marius. Enjolras (Anders Gjönnes) seemed to be less nervous this time and made a good job at being a convincing leader. I love love love Grantaire (Glenn Daniel Nilsson). I love how his playing around with his wig and being all theatrical. I've never really payed any attention to Grantaire before but this time I rather looked at him than at Enjolras. I like their clothes but I'm not that happy about the (very revealing) striped pants (they have to be stuffed with a sock or something, right?) I also like Grantaire's relationship with Gavroche! As per usual I didn't really pay any big amount of attention to Feully and Courfeyrac.

Marius. As mentioned above he's tall. He managed to hit his head in the ceiling of the cage! He's awkward but still very gentleman-y in front of Cosette. He seems the most grown up of his friends and he's very good at stepping all over Éponine's feelings as usual. He has the best clothes out of all the students. No striped pants to be seen anywhere. He's a skilled singer and he knows how to express sadness with his eyes.

Cosette. I'm not a big fan of Cosette. I do not like her in any way. Emmi Christensson, however, made a much better Cosette than Mathilda Ahnell. I don't know what else to say about her. We are always given very little of Cosette. Emmi sings well and she can act a happy lovefool very well. The feelings were present in her voice when she begged Valjean not to die yet at the end. Her suspicious looks from a distance at the Thénardiers at the wedding were very well done. The dress could have been of a different colour though. Yellow/Gold is usually not a very flattering colour for blonds.

Éponine. Same Éponine as last time. Ida Högberg sings great. Her voice is fitting of Éponine. But it's hard to feel any kind of compassion when she looks like Little My from Moominvalley in a punk rocker outfit. I hate her clothes so much more when she's all grown up than when she's little. What was the producer thinking?! A Little Fall of Rain made me cry again, though so there's no problem acting on her part.

Extras. David Lundquist (Thénardier last time) served as an extra this time. I'm seriously wondering if he shouldn't be diagnosed with something regarding too much energy. He's a clown. As soon as he steps out on stage he steals the attention from everyone else. This didn't make me like him better, if possible I now like him even less. Although he made a great job playing the bishop in the beginning! Speaking of extras. I've already mentioned that the marionnette doll whores bother me. What else bothers me is that the soldiers are dressed like traditional London soldiers. I mean, come on! Doesn't the producer know any better or did he just think those hats look cool? I also hate that all the servants are dressed in a fashion 100 years out of style. The musical takes place in the 19th century, not the 18th. No powdered wigs, okay?!

Translations. I listened through all the Swedish songs from Stockholm 1990 to know something of the songs when I got there today. Imagine my disappointment when I discover that they've changed the lyrics at a fair few places! Also mayor in Swedish has 4 syllables (borgmästaren) so when Javert sings "but monsieur maîre" it sounds very forced and wrong. Do You Hear the People Sing (Folkets Sång) sounds very weird in Swedish although the both songs basically sing the very same thing in the very same order. I don't like the Swedish version of On My Own (För mig själv) maybe because "I love him" in Swedish has 5 syllables (Jag älskar honom) but it doesn't work with the song so instead she only sings "I love" (Jag älskar). Songs I do like in Swedish are Red and Black (Rött och Svart), Drink With Me (Drick Med Mig) and One More Day (Än En Dag).

Rött - för blod från arga män

Svart - för gamla tiders hat

Rött - för sol i gryningen

Svart - för natten som blir dag

Breakdown

2011-10-21T14:39:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I had a mental breakdown. It's no longer strange for me to feel like I'm eons behind the rest of the class in knowledge and performance, although I'm probably not. I slouched off a bit last week and now I have to pay for it. The exam next week is looming over me and I feel like I can't get it all into my skull. At the same time I have to finish "Le Père Goriot" before Monday, which wouldn't be such a big problem if Balzac didn't use every single darned word in the entire French vocabulary! I feel like I undestand half of what's written on every page. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for the fact that we are supposed to write an analysis of the story later and that a paragraph to translate most definately will come up on the exam in December. Or if it's not a paragraph it's most definately going to be on one of the big questions (basically if you fail completely at one of the big questions you fail the exam). If that's not enough I have my big oral news presentation on Tuesday which I have to finish and which has to be great because I need to show this teacher that I can speak French and that I'm not completely useless. I don't think I managed that last semester, so now I have some proving to do. I took this entire week off. I didn't go to a single class just to stay home and study and I still feel completely stressed out and like I'm not going to be able to do any of it.

Most of what's on the exam I think I know. Sort of. But I don't want it to be "sort of"! I want it to be stuck in there perfectly! I want to get back up on the highest grade! I want to return to being the overachiever I used to be in elementary school, in secondary school, in sixth form, in my first year of university! Maybe I'm just being too hard on myself. I've read 130 pages of the 360 page novel "Le Père Goriot". I have to read it all in three days and I'm not even gonna be home for two of them! I need to learn the vocabulary. I need to understand the story and I want to understand it without having to read the synopsis of it on the English wikipedia!

They are not nice enough to give us the week before the exam off. On the contrary this coming week is the toughest yet. Balzac done 'til Monday, oral presentation on Tuesday, the regular weekly assignment to hand in on Wednesday and an essay to start writing on Thursday. The exam is on Saturday.

We had more subjects, more assignments, more tests in sixth form before holidays, but I never ever felt like just cuddle up in a corner, hide under a cover, cry and wait for it all to just go away. I think I need to get back up on my old disciplin. I can't slouch off no more. From today 'til the 30th will be my gauntlet.
The disciplinary schedule:
Friday: Finish off the vocabulary of the first chapter (130 pages) of "Le Père Goriot". Study more phonetics for the exam. If possible make the oral presentation better.
Saturday: Read Balzac on the train to parents place, in the car to grandparents place, in the car from grandparents place and on the train home. Anti-motionsickness pills, here I come.
Sunday: Read the rest of Balzac. Start working on the last of the vocabulary. Study more phonetics. Hone the oral presentation. (Go see Les Misérables in Malmö somewhere in between there)
Monday: Study more phonetics. Hone the oral presentation some more. Start working on analysis of Balzac.
Tuesday: Study more phonetics. Make regular weekly assignment. Write on analysis. (Go to concert somewhere in between there)
Wednesday: Study more phonetics. Catch up on grammar. Start working on Dossier 2 which there will be a debate on. Write on analysis.
Thursday: Study more phonetics. Study more grammar. Write on analysis. Work on Dossier 2.
Friday: Repetition of phonetics (although it should all be stuck by then). Study grammar. Write analysis. Work on Dossier 2.
Saturday: EXAM TIME! Afterwards: Celebration.
Sunday: Finish analysis (handing in on Monday). Finish work on Dossier 2 (debate questions to be handed in on Wednesday). Start reading "En attendant Godot" by Samuel Beckett.

October 31st to November 6th I have my week off. If I can keep this schedule I might have done just about enough to actually be able to take time off studying that week. On October 31st it's time for me to go get some old exams to practice on before the next exam takes place on November 26th. Probably should get old exams to practice on for the final exam on December 10th as well...

I should be getting started on this. I just need to give you this song once again and this time I'll translate it:

Who got this crazy idea

to one day invent school

It's the damned Charles the Great

damnCharles the Great

Without leaving us in life

except for on Sundays and Thursdays

It's the damned Charles the Great

damn Charles the Great

This son of Pepin the Short

Have given us loads of boredoms

et we have a thousand sorrows

towards him

Who got this crazy idea

to one day invent school

It's the damned Charles the Great

damn Charles the Great

Past participle

4 and 4 makes 8

lesson in French

Mathematics

Nothing but work

Damn damn damn damn Charles the Great

He should have caressed

his flowing beard for a long time

oh oh damn Charles the Great

Damn Charles the Great

Rather than boring us

with Geography

oh oh damn Charles the Great

Damn Charles the Great

He only had to deal with

battles and hunts

We shouldn't be obliged

to go to class every day

One has to learn to count

and make loads of dictations

oh oh damn Charles the Great

Damn Charles the Great

Past participle

4 and 4 makes 8

lesson in French

Mathematics

Nothing but work

Damn damn damn damn Charles the Great

Because without him in our lives

There wouldn't be anything but Thursdays

oh oh damn Charles the Great

oh oh damn Charles the Great
oh oh damn Charles the Great

A Harry Potter questionnaire

2011-10-19T14:08:00.002+02:00

This is supposed to be one of these things that answers one question a day. But I don't like the thought of having forced themed posts for a whole month. So I'll do them all in one go :)

1. Your favourite book?
Tough one. During the gap between fourth and fifth my favourite was Prisoner of Azkaban, although later on I liked Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. I think I have to say Deathly Hallows.
2. Your favourite film?
Once again Deathly Hallows. Both of them. Thanks to the book being split into two films they managed to make the final story the best one. The other films are just abysmal, although the first two are quite well-made as well.
3. Is there any of the film adaptations that have made you angry because they've ignored important parts of the book?
Goblet of Fire is without doubt the worst film. But the only film that has made me angry instead of just disappointed is Half-Blood Prince, which tend to be more of a high school romantic drama than a real Harry Potter film. I know that there's a lot of love and couples in the sixth book, but the main story is Dumbledore's lessons with Harry, teaching him about Voldemort and Horcruxes which we don't see that much of in the film. Also, Dumbledore's death left me completely unemotional in the film, whilst I had to read it three times over and over in the book (while crying) to actually realise that it was true and that left me feeling empty and sad for days.
4. Favourite male character and why.
Albus Dumbledore. Already in the first book he became my hero. My would-be go-to person. Not even what was revealed about his past in the final book could remove him from that pedestal. This is also why I hated Michael Gambon's portrayal of him. I loved Richard Harris, although a bit more lively would have been good. So the greatest Dumbledore would have been portrayed by a Richard Harris who wasn't sick with cancer.
5. Least favourite male character?
I think I have to say Cornelius Fudge, although this is a hard one. He seems sympathetic enough in the first two, three books and then he's transformed into this proud, ignorant, indifferent, negligant bastard. I just want to smack him.
6. Favourite female character and why.
Minerva McGonagall. She's a wonderful person. She's so strict and yet she's a person who loves Quidditch. She's patriotic towards her House and she loves her students. She wants to protect them and hates it when she has to punish them. I love Maggie Smith's portrayal of her. Especially in Deathly Hallows part 2. I also love that we are given her full background story at Pottermore :D
7. Least favourite female character and why.
Easy. Dolores Umbridge. She's sort of made to be hated.
8. What House would you want to be in?
I think I would be a Hatstall. I think it would be between Ravenclaw and Slytherin and I wouldn't mind either. I don't want to be in Gryffindor, that much I know. I don't think I'd want to be in Hufflepuff either. Pottermore sorted me into Slytherin, and after googling and reading all of Rowling's Welcome letters and descriptions of the Houses I feel like Slytherin suits me the best, although I thought myself a Ravenclaw for years.
9. What do you think would be your favourite lesson?
Probably Charms. Possibly Defense Against the Dark Arts.
10. Horcruxes or Hallows?
Hallows.
11. What character would you say you are most like?
As a child I resembled Hermione most. I'm still an incorrigible know-it-all. But I don't think I'm that Hermione-esque anymore. I think I'm kind of a mix of Bellatrix-Hermione-Minerva...
12. Favourite ship?
I've read the most fanfics shipping Harry/Hermione and Harry/Draco. Although I must say that my own favourite ship is Albus/Minerva ^^
13. Least favourite film?
Goblet of Fire.
14. Team Voldemort or Team Harry?
Do I have to pick a side? I think I'll have to say Team Harry. Simply because I'm liberal and Team Voldemort in my opinion stands for oppression and conservatism.
15. Who would be your best friends at Hogwarts?
In the Marauders' time it would've been Lily and Severus. In Harry's time I'm not so sure. Maybe Ginny and Luna?
16. Favourite professor?
You have to ask? McGonagall!
17. Favourite Harry Potter actor/actress and why.
Another tough one. Maggie Smith (McGonagall) or Evanna Lynch (Luna) for favourite actress. Alan Rickman is simply the best actor on the set.
18. Least favourite book?
Order of the Phoenix. Thinking back now that book distinctly shows the signs of her (Rowling's) writer's block.
19. Do you prefer the books or the films?
Books. Not even glancing at the films.
20. If you had to meet one member of the cast, who would it be?
Evanna Lynch. Unless I can count Rowling into the cast? In that case, definately Rowling!
21. Out of all the characters that died, if you could bring one back, who would it be?
Fred. I feel so sorry for George having to lose his twin.
22. Harry Potter or Twilight?
Isn't that something of a stupid question? I'll answer with this picture:

23. Any part of the books/films that makes you cry?
Books: the deaths of Dumbledore and Dobby. When Harry uses the Resurrection Stone.
Films: Death of Dobby.
24. Any particular scene you wished would have been put in the film but it wasn't?
I'm a huge fan of Quidditch in the books and in general the films have contained way too little Quidditch. A scene I would have loved to see on screen is for instance the Quidditch final in Prisoner of Azkban. Also there's way too little of Keeper Weasley and Grawp in the sixth film, but the sixth film is lacking in most areas.
25. Nineteen years later. Are you happy how it turned out, or do you wish something was different?
Actually I was sincerely hoping that Harry wouldn't survive and that both Harry and Voldemort would die. I'm not a fan of happy endings and I was extremely disappointed by the epilogue when I first read it. I've gotten somewhat accustomed to it now but I'm still not a big fan of the extremely obvious ending.
26. If you could be able to work one spell without a wand what would it be?
I'm considering Impervious, the water-repellant. Would make umbrellas completely useless and that annoying drizzle wouldn't be as annoying anymore. I'm also considering the Disillusionment Charm. Imagine to be able to go practically invisible at will! :)
27. Would you rather own The Invisibility Cloak, The Resurrection Stone or The Elder Wand?
The Invisibility Cloak. Easily.
28. Do you listen to Wizard Rock? What do you think of it?
I used to listen to Harry and the Potters. The lyrics were hilarious at first, but after hearing them over and over for some time I got kind of sick of them and stopped listening to Wizard Rock altogether. My favourite songs at the time were The Foil (Malfoy), Luna Lovegood is OK and The Dark Lord Lament.
29. Did you enjoy A Very Potter Musical?
Seeing it is on my to-do list :)
30. What affect has Harry Potter made on your life and how much does it mean to you?
I think I've covered this question before. So I'll just redirect you to my previous post:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

Plants vs. Zombies

2011-10-17T13:39:00.000+02:00

I watched Love play this on his computer last year I think, or maybe even in 2009... Anyway, quite recently he bought it for his PS3 and he and Will played it for a while. I gotta say it's friggin' impossible not to watch it while someone is playing it. Love pestered me for a while and wanted me to play it. But I hate the controllers for video games. I can't use them without button-mashing. However yesterday I gave it a try and went Walnut Bowling :P Turned out that it was surprisingly fun and yesterday evening I started playing the adventure and played through four levels xD I will continue today I think. All studying is postponed! We'll see...

Gameplay. First level of the adventure.

This guy sucks at playing.

Walnut Bowling gameplay.

This guy sucks too. I think it's the same person...

While looking for gameplay videos on YouTube to put here I found a gameplay from a Nintendo DS version. If I can find that one... My average student performance will drop really bad! Still the way this person plays the game... Wow... Just wow... It's so bad:

Hair and old old pictures :)

2011-10-15T22:47:00.001+02:00

So I redyed my hair. It had gotten too blond again. Now I'm back to a really really dark red (probably new profile picture tomorrow if I can get a good one). Dark hair again! Wooo! :D

I know that in most parts of the world (it not all over) my original colours and looks are the ideal. Fair blond hair, big blue eyes, tall, really fair skin... You get the picture. In any other part of the world I'd look special and interesting and unusual. Here I look like any other girl. I'm standard Swedish, standard Scandinavian, standard northern Europe... I got sick of it when I was 15. That was the first time I dyed my hair. I wanted it black, but I didn't read the instructions and the recommendations thoroughly enough and I ended up with purple hair. Got no picture of that on my computer, but I know there's supposed to be one photo somewhere at my parents place of how I looked back then. Purple hair and black eyeshadow. Then the dye disappeard and I got blond again. I kept it for a while but cut it really short. It was kind of cute the way I styled my hair back when I was 16.

When it got long again I tried my luck with bangs. Shouldn't have done that. The worst idea ever. I looked really cute in bangs as a child, but not as 17. Then I started dyeing my hair again. Red. It's pretty much always been red since I was 18. There have been periods when I've been back to blond but not very long periods. Because of the red it's also been all different shades of orange and pink.

In Japan I was pretty content with my blond hair for a change, but then on the other hand I didn't see that darned blond hair all the time on all the other people. Also I had a pretty nice haircut :P

This year I've tried my luck with brown, copper (no picture) and now really dark red.

Also Kajsa got the idea to try out pin-curls on me a few months ago. I haven't shown you the pictures from that adventure. I'm not sure if I liked the look of it, though. But it was pretty fun :)

I'll end this post with this comic from Scandinavia and the World. It's a stereotype, but unfortunately it's not that far from the truth...

A rant and some writing

2011-10-12T19:54:00.002+02:00

I feel like blogging. I usually do. But my life is at a very uninteresting point right now consisting only of studying, eating and sleeping - in that order of priority. University is a bitch. I felt somewhat proud today though. One of my teachers usually talk very fast in French and she's full of energy and does everything very fast. Today on the other hand she was ill and low on energy. This meant that she was speaking more slowly and taking things at a more understandable pace. I actually understood everything and I talked (imagine that) I expressed by opinions and I spoke up if I thought I had found a solution to a problem. Usually I only sit quietly with a headache as company cause I put all my concentration on trying to understand what's going on. I don't have this problem with any other teacher, but I don't tell her about this. Why? Not cause I'm shy but because I want to learn to understand that fast talk as well. Anyway, is it bad if I wish she'd be ill(-ish) for the rest of the semester so that I can pass my most important exam?

I'm getting kind of worried about my upcoming exams. It's the beginning of October and I realise that this semester has been ongoing for over a month and it still feels like the first week. I feel like I'm in way over my head here and that I will fail every single exam. The first of which are in three weeks. I started to study for that exam this week. It's crazy! I never study for an exam a month in advance! I'm worried. That looming essay does nothing to make me feel better. Still when I read I feel like I understand loads. I feel like the language is kind of flowing naturally when I write although I make many mistakes (usually in the shape of prepositions and personal pronouns). When I talk it's a completely different story, but I've found that if I relax I don't get stuck on words and I won't stutter and it will simply sound better. Seems simple enough but it took me ages to figure out what was the problem.

Oh well, now I've been ranting and complaining some and that wasn't even what this post was supposed to be about. I felt like blogging and thus I was going to post some old writings of mine. On an old blog of mine (no longer existing) I posted a short story called "Dawn" that I wrote during a boring class in sxith form when I was about 17. I still like it a lot, though, and I will post it again at a different time. This time I'm going to show you my four poems originally written in English. I don't write many poems and I'm not very good at it (cause I never practice). Last time I made a poem was actually in 2009 but before that it was around 2006. I have poems in Swedish as well, but it's harder to write poems in Swedish cause I always want it to rhyme. That doesn't feel as necessary in English.

My first English language poem called "Vampire Princess" (I was 15 and depressed, ok?)

Vampire Princess

In love with the night

Help me live through this life

Dressed in black I follow

Life around me

Alive on the outside

Dead on the inside

A heart full of chaos and sorrows

My element is the chilly winter night

Candles and coats

The Northern wind, please, come play with me

Be my company

Cause I've got no other

The Stars and the Moon, please, shine upon me

Help me see through this darkness

Help me find my path

Cause I seem to have forgotten the purpose

Of my life

The second one is called "The Little Girl" (still 15 and depressed)

A little girl

She seems so nice

Bleeding heart and crying eyes

Dry but still crying

A sore soul

She wants to believe that there's something more

Warmth and love

Two elements undone

A cruel world

A world she has to meet

Cause there's no other

She wants to let go, but she cares too much

It demands courage

Courage she doesn't possess

She won't do it

Third one is called "The Time"

Only the narrator knows

What lies ahead

Time will tell

But will we?

The time flows

Forces us to go on - go away

There's no telling

What it can do

What it will do

It hurts

But it's the truth

The truth always stings

I know that's the way it's said

Should we believe it then?

Should we trust it?

We try not to put our lives

in the hands of time

But we fail

Everyone fails

Every time

Even you

The last one is called "Daydream"

You're my daydream

You're always on my mind

Your face is always visible

If not direct, then indirect

I can see you

And when I'm with you

All I want to do is to keep looking at you

Never lose sight of you

Look into those eyes

Drown in crushed glass

Blue glass

I never thought one could feel so safe

in someone else's arms

But I know that in your arms

I'm safe

I can't be hurt

Because you won't let them

And I love you for it

I said I wasn't any good, so if you have to bash me do it nicely, please?

Love Never Dies

2011-10-07T13:02:00.003+02:00

I wanted to wait for the 25th Anniversary album to be released before I listened to the sequel, but I wanted more Phantom. I looked in vain for a recorded DVD-version of the musical, but when I found none I downloaded the concept album instead and read the synopsis on wikipedia. Since it's a sequel I had no hopes for it, sequels are usually not as good as the original. I don't know if it's equally good (I hate the Vaudeville stuff) but it's great in a different way than Phantom of the Opera. I love how the characters have evolved. I also love that it's "my" Phantom and Christine (Ramin and Sierra), exactly as it should be.

I've listened through the musical 2½ times and I have three favourite songs, and no, my three favourites do not include the most known 'Til I Hear You Sing (lyrics), which I find simply boring. There's nothing in it that appeals to me. My favourites here are Beneath A Moonless Sky (lyrics), The Beauty Underneath (lyrics) and Devil Take the Hindmost (lyrics). I'm one of those who can see The Beauty Underneath. Listen to the song! I can relate to it so much! Beneath A Moonless Sky is simply beautiful and shows their (Phantom and Christine) true feelings for eachother. Devil Take the Hindmost is the song where the Phantom challenges Raoul and I love it cause he (the Phantom) seems so proud and sly. I love it!

There are so many twists and turns in this story that I don't know what else to say without spoiling the whole thing. But I can tell you as much as that the opera in Paris was burned down by an angry mob, the Phantom was believed to be dead, but with the help of Madame Giry and Meg he was smuggled to America where he built Coney Island with their help. Raoul has turned into a drunk gambler and sourpuss with huge debts. Christine hasn't sung in years but she's had a very succesful European career and she's invited to launch her American career... where? At Phantasma in Coney Island. Invited by a Mr. Y. This story takes place 10 years after Phantom of the Opera and we have moved from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. All the candles have been exchanged for electricity and I'm not sure if I like this development.

Another thing that I like about this musical is that the story reveals more about the relationship between Christine and the Phantom. It reveals that Christine really loved (loves!) the Phantom and when he finds out about this his self-confidence gets a huge boost. The timidity is exchanged for pride and he challenges Raoul.

I'm torn as to whether I want to see this musical if it comes to Sweden or if I get a chance to see it in London. I mean, it won't be "my" Phantom and Christine. I wonder if that's because I totally adore Ramin's voice and his Phantom, or if it's because I'm sceptical as to whether anyone can portray the Phantom as well as he does. I learned that playing the Phantom has been a dream of his and that usually make for great portrayals.

Three Phantom-related posts in one week... Yep, I'm pretty much lost. I tried to play the soundtracks in French (1991), Swedish (1990) and English (25th) for Les Misérables yesterday. But there's something missing, suddenly.

Music of the Night

2011-10-05T19:44:00.003+02:00

Seeing the Phantom of the Opera gave me a huge fangirl crush on Ramin Karimloo. Since Monday I've been looping this song over and over on YouTube:

His voice is amazing, this song gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it! Look at his eyes! The expression in them is absolutely wonderful. The way he whipsers "touch me, trust me" is amazing. His final tone in "night" is incredible. I also love the way he portrays the Phantom as bold but still awkward. If you take a look at his hands, he never really touches anything, he's just holding her in place. Still he seems to want to get close to her, but everytime she seems close to kissing him or touching his mask/face he turns away, suddenly shy. I love it! I can't stop watching it! It also helps that he manages to look cute/handsome even with the mask on!

Thing is I have to force myself to listen to other kinds of music, other artists, other groups, because my brain stops working when I hear this song.

The Phantom of the Opera

2011-10-03T11:50:00.004+02:00

When I showed Les Misérables 25th Anniversary to Love he was, as I was before, enthralled by Ramin Karimloo who played Enjolras, one of the students. Partly because he's insanely hot and handsome, partly because he's a great singer and actor. I looked him up to see what else he'd done and found out that he was going to reprise his role as The Phantom for the 25th Anniversary in October. Love and I wanted to see it in London of course, but the tickets sold out in less than 30 minutes. We were somewhat sad about that until Tiffany mentioned that they were going to show it live from London in Malmö on October 2nd. We immediately went to that cinema's webpage (Spegeln) to book tickets, but they were all sold out. Then I got the idea to check the similar cinema in Lund (Kino) and it turned out that they had tickets left! We immediately booked three tickets (me, Love, Kajsa) and yesterday it was time.

The show began at 7.30pm with an introduction of how the musical came to be with interviews with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh and several others who helped the musical come to life. At 8pm the musical started. I can tell you right away that I'm not a big fan of opera. The arias of the sopranos usually gives me a headache, that said I have nothing against male opera. As soon as the show started I started thinking: "Where is the Phantom?", "I want the Phantom!". He's the only character that I've found interesting when I've read short plot descriptions. But then I also have a thing for Beauty and the Beast-ish stories, my favourite always being the Beast.

The music wasn't as fun and upbeat as the music of Les Misérables, still it was extremely beautiful. My favourite is the kind of heavy score called The Phantom of the Opera. But I also enjoy Music of the Night. All the others sort of flow together. The song with all the notes is kind of fun to listen to :)

I love the climax and the final scene. I wasn't disgusted by his face when she removed her mask at the end. Not because I knew that it was make-up, but because I never look at people's faces first. I look at their eyes, their manner of moving, their manner of speaking, I look at their general behaviour. All I wanted to do was to comfort the poor soul. He's a wonderful character who's been forced to live a hard life because of an unfortunate facial distortion. I can't do anything but to feel sorry for him and want to help him.

I loved this musical and leaving the cinema I felt really happy. I had enjoyed this musical a lot. I've gone and went all cultural! Never thought that would happen :P

I realise that I've almost only talked about the Phantom here, but I love this character.

I'll end this post with the song that got me interested in the Phantom of the Opera to begin with:

Autumn

2011-09-30T22:35:00.001+02:00

Last post of the month. Summer seems to refuse to let go and today the temperature was back up above 20 degrees, even the air couldn't stay chilly. The other days this week, the sun's been out and it's been about 18 degrees but the air and wind have been chilly enough make one want to wear a jacket, and I like that. Tomorrow it's October and officially autumn, let's just hope the weather realises that too.

I refuse to accept that it's not fully autumn yet and I've put away all my shorts and brought out all my tights and knitted shirts. It's time to sit in the sofa in the evenings with a big knitted shirt and woollen socks and a steaming cup of tea! The scenery outside is astounding. A breath-taking mixture of yellow, orange, red, brown and light green. This is what the university library looks like nowadays:

This day I've spent cleaning. Scrubbing this flat 'til it gleamed. I've heard of spring cleaning, but I'm more of an autumn person, so cleaning for the winter suits me better ;) Well needed anyway. Didn't have any classes today so I spent the day hoovering, washing the floor, doing the dishes and doing the laundry. On the other hand I got to spoil myself with sushi and crisps with dip in the evening :D Tomorrow I'm going to IKEA with Mum and hopefully that will mean curtains, hatrack and larder. There are some things to do still until this place is exactly the way I want it. I'm trying to get it that way until my birthday when all of my family is coming here, and I want them to see "the finished product" ;) But those three mentioned above are must haves tomorrow!

Autumn is the season of acoustic songs. But I couldn't decide if I should share "You" by the Pretty Reckless, or "Heartbeats" by José González, so I'll go ahead and give you both :)

"You" - The Pretty Reckless

Cosy song, one that will most definately end up on my new autumn playlist :)

"Heartbeats" - José González

If you recognise the song it's probably from this TV ad. I love it and can watch it over and over. Colour is pretty.

Alice: Madness Returns

2011-09-28T23:53:00.001+02:00

Okay, so I started playing this game yesterday. I must say that I love the screenplay, the screenwriting, the game is beautiful! However it's always leaving me frustrated, increasingly frustrated. My game sessions always end in me rage-quitting. Why? Because I'm a n00b at platform gaming and since Alice is among the upper level platform games, I'm in way over my head here. I'm a turn-based game geek and I'm totally out of my league here. I originally set my game play level to Normal, but had to admit crushing defeat and rage-quitting in tears and changed the level to Easy.

I manage some jaw-dropping amazingly beautiful dodge-attack moves, solely by button-mashing. I'm a button-mashing n00b. But I'm still clumsy with the controls, I misjudge the space between platforms and if this game counted deaths I'd be aiming for the World Records - this is why I never managed to play Super Mario, cause I died at every goddamned hole and turtle. This is why I'm glad that this game does not give you a specific amount of lives, just a health bar and an unlimitied amount of tries.

So this far I've been jumping on mushrooms, shooting pepper at flying pig snouts, shrinking to get through key holes and flying on steam. I've met the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter and The Duchess. Now I'm at the end of chapter one and the Hatter's Domain. All I have to do to move on is to defeat a humongous Menacing Ruin that keeps shooting fire at me. But if I managed to kill three tea-shooting Eyepots which were assisted by three Insidious Ruins, I guess I'll be alright as soon as I figure out this guy's weak spots (do not tell me). My favourite enemy? Probably the Madcaps at this point.

Another thing I like about this game is that you collect teeth as you collect coins in Super Mario, and lifepoints are in the shape of red roses. Despite my continuing rage-quitting I do like this game and I will finish it, although it will take forever, and all of my blood, sweat and tears :P But it's a good game, every major fight leaves me with my hands shaking from adrenaline :D

Les Misérables in Malmö #1

2011-09-25T19:57:00.002+02:00

About the headline... We have already booked tickets to go see it again, because sometimes the actors change. Anywho...

Yesterday evening I, Love, Kajsa and Tiffany went to see Les Misérables in Malmö. I was really looking forward to it, although I was a bit sceptical and wondered whether I would agree to the Swedish translations. For some reason it seems impossible to sing pompously and majestically in modern Swedish and for some reason they always have to make the lyrics somewhat oldfashioned.

(All links to Swedish songs are from the 1990 musical in Stockholm)

Anyway we sat down and waited for the show to start. The intro was great and I didn't even react to the fact that they had changed Valjean's number from 24601 to 25601 (simply because 4 contains two syllables in Swedish and it doesn't work in the song) until Love told me so. Speaking of the intro, can someone explain the wolf to me? I liked Dan Ekborg as Valjean, although it bothered me for ages that I had seen him somewhere before but couldn't remember where. Of course Fred Johanson was absolutely spiffing as Javert, but who'd expect otherwise?

Continuing on to Fantine (Karolin Funke), I thought she looked old and it bothered me that she wore a wig. I mean how hard can it be to find a blond girl suitable to play Fantine in Sweden? Seriously? Her voice was spot-on (I Dreamed a Dream / Jag Drömde en Dröm), and her performance was nice. Another small detail that bothered me was the colour of her dress. I want Fantine to be dressed in white because Cosette sings of a woman all in white in Castle on a Cloud (I Himlens Slott) and I've interpreted that as she's singing about her mother, but she doesn't remember that it's her mother. Little Cosette and little Éponine were amazing though. I'm also not too sure about the general performance of Lovely Ladies (Sköna Damer) because they had made most of the extras who were whores were dressed as marionette dolls for some reason.

I liked the Swedish version of Master of the House (Herre i sitt Hus), but I was so disappointed in David Lundquist as Thénardier. He looked ragged and disgusting, somewhat like a zombie. I've seen pictures of the regular Thénardier, Peter Harryson, and it's still not how I picture Thénardier, but at least he doesn't look slimy. Madame Thénardier (Evamaria Björk) was very convincing and I liked her performance a lot.

Moving on to Paris. Gavroche sounded too cute in Stockholm Swedish. Maybe I'm spoiled with Robert Madge, but even the French 1991 version of Gavroche is cockier. We all agreed that Cosette (Mathilda Ahnell) sounded to opera-y to be fitting for Cosette. But the students were awesome! The guys portraying Enjolras (Anders Gjönnes) and Marius (Philip Jalmelid) are hot! :) I actually prefer the Swedish version of Red and Black (Rött och Svart) on the other hand the Swedish version of Do You Hear the People Sing (Folkets Sång) was bad. The translation was bad. The English version is true to the French original, while the Swedish has a meaning somewhat resembling the English/French ones. It's still a battle song, but not as awesome as the English/French ones.

I liked the stage, I can say as much. I also liked the Sweeney Tood-esque costumes and aura of the play. I liked how they had set up the scene of Master of the House, the whole bar was awesome. Still don't get the wolf though. Can someone also explain why the bushes in the park later on was formed as Christmas trees? Or why Cosette is in a cage?

During intermission we were nerdy enough to stay seated instead of stretching our legs, use the toilet and buy sweets. We sat there discussing the play thus far and comparing it to the original book, the French version, the original London cast version, 10th anniversary and 25th anniversary. None of us liked Éponine (Ida Högberg). Why does she resemble a Joker with a big fat green bow on top of her head? We liked her voice and her singing but not how they had styled her appearance.

The second act started and there was not much new to tell. I liked to watch the fighting at the barricade, it was well done. It was also my first time seeing the death of Gavroche. I cried some when Éponine died, which I didn't when I watched 25th anniversary, so I thought it was well done.

When it was all over we got out of the stage room, decided not to go to the stage door to get autographs and walked out through the doors while singing Do You Hear the People Sing. All in all it was a great night :)

Coming home I booked another viewing almost immediately. Today I've been listening through the soundtrack in French and Swedish. I've also found some songs in Danish and I also stumbled across some songs in Japanese! Gavroche sounded too cocky there! xD

Edguy

2011-09-24T14:07:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I went to Malmö with Love to go to my second Edguy concert. It was the same venue as when they performed there in 2009. I was a little worried, cause their new album felt too much power metal, I love the heavy metal part about them, but I'm always second-guessing the power metal part. This time Malmö was also the first city they went to on their Age of the Joker Tour 2011, which meant that we set the standard for all the other cities xD Kind of cool.

Unfortunately just like last time they had two support acts, but this time there was no pleasant surprise like H.E.A.T, this time it was simply boring. The first band, Fullforce, was your generic power metal band (thing with Edguy, and especially Tobi, is that all other power metal sounds mediocre). The only fun thing about that band was to watch the drummer who seemed to be having the time of his life and enjoying drumming way too much :D The second band was called Kottak and I soon learned that their frontman was the drummer of the Scorpions; James Kottak. But you know why the drummer is always in the back, both on stage and on press footage? It's because drummers are not supposed to be frontmen or singers. It was bad. Really bad. They sounded like a punk band trying to be metal. Their lyrics were on the same intellectual level as Ramones, but without the humour. If they had toned down the disted guitars a bit they would have sounded more like a punk band and it would've sounded so much better than what it did now. Kottak's performance actually made me want to leave for some fresh air and not having to listen to the noise. Kottak was too American, too obnoxious and made too much of a big deal out of being from L.A. He's almost 50 years old! Stop acting like you're 15!

It took forever for the roadies to fix the stage for Edguy and my mood dropped to the bottom. But it soon switched back up again when they finally got on stage. Tobi's energy was contagious. The show started with the intro of Mysteria ("Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the freakshow") and thus it took me a while to realise that they weren't playing Mysteria when they got on, but Nobody's Hero off of the new album. Tobi got the entire audience going. I don't recognise the songs off of Age of the Joker yet (the new album), and Tobi was aware that many hadn't learned their new songs yet but still got us going. Still they played many songs off of the new album. The older songs, however, got the most cheering from the crowd as usual; Tears of a Mandrake, Lavatory Love Machine, Superheroes, Ministry of Saints, Vain Glory Opera and the encores Land of the Miracle and King of Fools. King of Fools is my absolute favourite song by them and just like it was last time, I knew it would be in the encore, because it is one of their most popular songs. Land of the Miracle, Tears of a Mandrake and Vain Glory Opera are all really old songs, both Land of the Miracle and Vain Glory Opera being from the 90s and Tears of a Mandrake from 2001. It was my first time hearing Land of the Miracle live and Tobi mentioned that it had been a long time since they last played that song, but it worked amazingly well live!

On a sidenote I can mention that the girl in front of me caught a plectrum, as did the guy to my left and the girl to my right caught a drumstick... Why can I never catch anything? :(

"We live to fight the hand of doom. We got the pride to strike a fool. Vain Glory be my wicked guide."

- "Vain Glory Opera", Edguy 1998

Keep on railing at what I believe

Call me insane and I'm proud to be

And I walk the wicked way

We don't wanna be like you

Don't you get that King of Fools?

We don't mind your life is trite

You are the King of Fools

We are never gonna be like you

We don't follow King of Fools

You're the blind to lead the blind

Everything is as it should be after a concert; my neck and throat are sore from all the screaming and headbanging. Going to bed yesterday my ears rang. Going out of the venue the chilly night air was the most lovely thing in the world, being sweaty from all the jumping, headbanging, screaming and waving hands. Getting back to Lund that McFeast was the most delicious thing I had eaten that day (I was so hungry and so thirsty). Went to sleep around 3am, got up again around 11am. Tonight it's time for Les Misérables in Malmö! This weekend is already amazing!

Swedish Idol 2011

2011-09-22T17:47:00.001+02:00

This show started in 2004, but the only part I've ever been interested in are the auditions cause it's fun to watch people making fools of themselves. But last year there was a guy who got me interested in the show; Jay Smith. He also ended up winning the whole thing, and I have a fangirl crush... on his voice. I can listen to his versions of Like a Prayer and Heart-Shaped Box over and over. He was my favourite from the auditions. He auditioned with Black Jesus:

Anyway Jay's success in last year's Idol got me hooked on this year, and I wasn't disappointed. First day of auditions in Stockholm this wonderful girl shows up. Her name is Moa, she's 16 and she's incredibly cute!

Audition:

Solo in final auditions:

Last day of auditions in Stockholm this girl is "kidnapped" to the auditions after a tip made by her sister. She's also 16 I think. Her name is Linnea, but called Lini, her voice makes my heart tremble.

Audition:

Solo final auditions:

In Falun a boy shows up called Mikael. He's 17 and he looks so sweet. His voice makes him sound like a woman, which is incredible. He's the sweetest character...

Audition:

Solo final auditions:

Then there are of course others that are amazing as well, but these three are the ones I follow with utmost attention, I want one of them to win! The jury is guessing that it may be a girl winning this season, cause there are so many young girls that are amazing this year. Two of them that still makes me dumbfounded that that little girl can be so amazing are Frida and Amanda, both 15.

How school has been so far

2011-09-21T23:21:00.002+02:00

Woke up today with an extremely sore throat. I wouldn't have minded it, I've gone to school with a sore throat before (that's about everything I get when I'm sick with tonsillitis), but when I tried to get up from the bed I got very light-headed and felt very weak, so I decided to stay home from class. This is such a bad week for me to get sick, seriously! I got a debate in French tomorrow, and we hardly ever have this guy's classes. I didn't speak a lot last semester and I had firmly decided to do so now so that he could get an idea of how much French I actually do know. And now I'm sick, the world is a cruel place. Earlier today I wanted to go tomorrow no matter how I felt when I wake up, but I think I have decided against it now. It's better if I send him an e-mail explaining that I'm sick and apologising for not being able to attend the debate. That way I can rest one day more, seeing as I'm going to a concert on Friday and the theater on Saturday.

I have not told you anything about this semester, have I? Well, it's much better than last semester! Remember those girls I hated on? They're not here anymore. Also the class consists of only 9 people myself included, which somehow makes me feel a little safer and I talk more, I laugh more and I try to reach out more. Of course the classes are also more advanced now, everything is in French, they only translate single words, that they don't expect us to know, into Swedish. Our first class for the semester was called "Text and production of text", a fancy way of saying literary history. Yes, we still have that. This year we're going to read books by Mauriac, Le Clézio, Balzac, Beckett, Ionesco and Nadeau & Barlow. She started out and I felt proud after that class. Proud that I had understood everything she had said and actually been able to listen to her (she has a very annoying way of speaking).

That pride was soon taken away as we had our first class in the next subject "Writing and translation". I'm pretty sure this girl is originally Swedish, but she speaks French like a local and it's extremely fast. She asked us once if she talked too fast and everyone (including me) said no. I want to learn to understand her! She can't speak slower for us! This subject includes one translation, review or some small writing to be done and handed in before or at every class. Meaning one or two hand-ins a week! We also have grammar during these classes, but the grammar now isn't the elementary things. It's advanced. It's all about those small picky things that you hardly ever notice. I had that in English C-level in sixth form as well, so I know all about picky grammar. But just to be certain I bought an extra grammar book to read in Swedish just to be sure I get all of it down. This class is actually the hardest we have.

Third class introduced was oral, with the same guy as last semester. He told me after the exam last semester that it was hard for him to decided whether or not to give me a passing grade since I hadn't talked a lot during classes and discussions, and I was so incredibly nervous during the oral exam. So I decided, as mentioned above, to try to talk as much as possible. I'm also reading the recommended side-lecture for this course, just to get on the top of my game. This class will probably be the hardest on my confidence as it was last semester.

Fourth and final class introduced is phonetics. It's also the only class we have midterm exams in, then it's over. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this is the most boring subject there is. The book is extremely confusing (my huge grammar book contains phonetics too. Lucky!) Fortunately we have the best teacher ever. Best teacher ever in the sense that he makes phonetics fun. Phonetics was the only class we had on Monday and it consisted of him talking about how it worked all the while giving away funny anecdotes and making funny gestures. We got to learn Parisian accent (sounds extremely weird and funny!) and then he ended it with a little game. Amanda got up to the whiteboard, Sara said a French word (from a list in the book) and Amanda had to write it in phonetic signs and we got to tell her if it was right or wrong and correct her. They switched roles. Then it was my turn to get up to the whiteboard and Terese to tell me a word. Same procedure, then switch roles. Amina and Göran got up. Final pair was Marlene and Simone. In the end I was the only one to get it right to begin with. I got words of praise from both teacher and and some of the students. Once again English C-level plays a role. We did phonetics there too and the only new phonetic signs I had to learn were the nasal ones. But the appraisal had me walk on clouds the rest of the day. This will probably be the funniest class of the semester.

I started another blog to blog in French, just to be able to work on my French and get used to thinking in that language. I'm serious about this semester and I will work hard to pass my exams. If I feel better tomorrow I have a lot to do...

Since I've been sick today as well, the day has mostly consisted of doing nothing, also almost eating nothing. I lose every ounce of appetite I have as soon as I get sick. Got up around 11am. Had breakfast (half a bowl of cereal) and read the news. Sat on sofa with cover and pillow from the bed watching episodes of Gummi Bears and random episodes of Code Lyoko. Love gave me an ice cream before he went out to have lunch with a friend. Took a nap while he was gone. Got me a huge home made (the boys, e.g. Fluff and Love, were baking this morning) cinnamon bun when he got back. Moved from sofa to computer (about 1m) to build houses and play The Sims 2, mostly build houses. Love bought me sushi for dinner and watched an episode of Heroes with me.

Scandinavia and the World

2011-09-20T18:46:00.001+02:00

Scandinavia and the World is an amazingly funny web comic about country stereotypes. This far we've seen most of Europe, some Middle Eastern countries, some Asian countries as well as America, Canada and Australia :) There are a little over 200 strips there and most of them are really quick reading. What takes time is you trying to stop laughing. These two are my favourites:

Italy invented the Latin alphabet, but the Nordic countries have to mess with it, obviously.

Finland's computer is acting up.

Another thing I love is that here England is portrayed as the father of USA, Australia and Canada. There are a lot of pictures, not as many comics, that show this relationship and this is one of my favourites:

Enjoy your reading :) Don't forget to read the descriptions of every comic as well! You might learn something :)

Nostalgia

2011-09-19T23:09:00.002+02:00

Lately there's been a lot of nosalgia around here. We've been looking through old cartoon intros in Swedish on YouTube. I even made a playlist that will continue to grow little by little. Yesterday we only looked through Disney intros like Gummi Bears, TaleSpin, Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers. Not to forget Pokémon, Digimon (although not in Swedish) and Sailor Moon! I also had to look through my favourite song of my favourite cartoon film when I was a child; the Swan Princess:

Yesterday ended with me finding and downloading four out of six complete seasons of Gummi Bears in Swedish!

Today however I was more inclined to old Cartoon Network shows, so while I looked at the PowerPuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory intros, I accidentally came across an old cartoon that I remember that I absolutely loved and that scared the hell out of me at the same time; Courage the Cowardly Dog. I first came across the intro in English and by some easy clicking I soon enough found it in Swedish as well, and right now I'm downloading all the 52 episodes :) There will be a Courage marathon here as soon as I have the time! Seems like I was morbid already when I was 10 years old!

However speaking of old cartoons. I remember one cartoon I used to watch, before I was old enough to go to school, so about 5 years old. I don't remember much except that there was some kind of purple space alien who lived in a cave down on earth and was friends with two children, one boy and one girl... Other than that I don't remember anything, except than I liked it. Anyone?

There's also this show that I distinctly remember. The Ketchup Vampires. Can't seem to find it in Swedish though, only found the intro in German (of all languages?) on YouTube:

Movie nights

2011-09-18T13:14:00.004+02:00

The last three weeks Love and I have been having "movie nights" every Sunday. We get to choose a film every other week. I started to choose and I chose Titanic. Simply because Love had complained so much about it being so bad. Point is last time he saw it he was 10 years old. Titanic isn't really made for 10-year-old boys to like. I like the film because it looks so big-time. Especially the scene where the ship is sinking and the water is rushing everywhere. That is the best part of the film according to me :) I also love to watch the dresses Kate Winslet wears. After the film was over Love had to admit that it wasn't as bad as he remembered.

Week after that it was Love's turn to choose and he chose to watch Shawshank Redemption, simply because I hadn't seen it and because it's the top of IMDB's top 100. When we started watching it I remembered having seen bits and pieces from it before. However I liked it a lot. I've realised that I usually like films that star Morgan Freeman. Shawshank Redemption is a real feel-good movie and I recommend it!

Last week was my turn and I started to educate Love in film history, as Kajsa has been doing with me. We watched Arsenic and Old Lace, an old Cary Grant film. It's a Halloween comedy so it's kind of morbidly funny, but most of the time just funny. It uses shadows to make things scary, something that has kind of disappared now that we have all those CGs and special effects. I like the entire old-fashioned feeling about it :) CHARGE!!!

Tonight we are going to watch Silence of the Lambs. Love wants to see it since he hasn't seen any of the Hannibal Lecter films! O.o Tonight's gonna be awesome! The weather is just right too...

Little People

2011-09-14T22:22:00.005+02:00

Is it bad that I can relate to this, despite being 20 years old?

Dorama mania

2011-09-12T21:26:00.000+02:00

Okay, this person made a post about Japanese boys/actors/singers and seems to have gotten me into a new period of watching dorama. I was only going to download more subbed episodes of Gokusen, but I ended up discovering that they had made Ouran High School Host Club to a dorama and spent some time looking around for it on the net. Later today I also discovered that they had made a live action film for Paradise Kiss!!! OMG, gotta have that! I looked around everywhere, but I can't seem to find it subbed to English :/ My Japanese is far from that great yet :/ But I was able to find a raw version, so I'll have to go with that for a while... Here's the trailer for Paradise Kiss:

So now I'm sitting here trying to download loads of dorama that had me interested before. Like Liar Game season 1 and 2 and the film, Densha Otoko, Anmitsu Hime SP 1 and 2 and Stand Up!!. I'm also trying to find Sentou no Musume?! with subs but it seems almost impossible :( I have only found softsubs for the first seven episodes :/

I can also take the opportunity to tip all of you off on some doramas that I have seen and liked a lot: Hana Yori Dango first and second season + film, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (Hana Kimi), Koizora and Gal Circle.

9/11

2011-09-11T17:42:00.001+02:00

I've been pondering this subject the entire week, thinking of whether I actually should go ahead and blog something about this or not. In the end I decided that I'd do a small post about it, simply because today I relived 9/11 through the eyes of an adult.

I was 10 years old on September 11, 2001. I remember coming home from school around 3.10pm (GMT+1), right around the time when the second plane flew into the other tower. I remember my mother telling me to come into the living room and watch the news with her. I understood that something big had happened. Something serious. I was struck by the horridness of the deed, but I didn't understand much. I didn't understand what consequences would come from this, I didn't care that the stock market fell rapidly. I understood that it was bad what had happened, but I didn't care much since I knew the US was far away and thought it wouldn't affect me here in Sweden. In the end I actually got kind of annoyed by the same footage being showed over and over on the TV, I got sick of seeing all those horrible pictures.

Today when I got up to read my news feed during breakfast as is the norm for me, I saw that the news paper (Svenska Dagbladet) had uploaded the first news program on TV after the attacks of WTC and Pentagon. I watched it ofc and it was a completely different feeling seeing and hearing all that now, and understanding it, understanding everything and all the effects from it. In hindsight now I know what has come of those attacks.

In it they talk to different people in high places, including the Swedish Prime Minister at the time and different experts on terrorism. We also get to see snippets from the speaches given by George W Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, the Palestinian leader (I tend to forget his name) and even some words by Usama bin Ladin himself. We can see now that they got it right, that the attacks led to increased suspiscions and control, but it also led to the world's democracies fighting against terrorism as one as said by Putin. Not only did these attacks make us suspiscious of one another, but it also erased the borders and made us fight this new evil together. It gives me hope that the world isn't all that bad.

On a sidenote I feel like I also have to devote some thoughts to Anna Lind. A very popular and well-liked Swedish politician and the Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time. On September 11th, 2003 she was murdered. This however, I remember more clearly than 9/11 and this I do not need to relive. Still I felt that she shouldn't be completely overshadowed by 9/11 and also given some space. If she'd lived Sweden would probably have stayed Social Democratic for an even longer period of time. Almost everyone I know, left or right, agrees to this. Everyone liked her. And Sweden misses her.

The gym, Pottermore, Les Misérables

2011-09-09T00:00:00.003+02:00

So I started going to the gym last week. Not to get a muscular body, just to get rid of some fat that I don't think I need. Simply I'm just doing 30 minutes of spinning and then, since I'm going easy on myself, two reps on some machines for the shoulders, lower back, chest and abdomin. I actually think I like it. Today I woke up lazy however, so there was no trip to the gym today. I needed a lazy day so I've just been hanging about at home. Tomorrow however I'm going again. Next week I think I'll buy a pass card. If I can get that flat belly 'til the end of February I'll go get that pierced navel again. Better to do it in springtime, rather than during the dogdays as I did last time... About 5½ months, exercising about 4 times a week... You think I'll make it if I try to stay away from sweets and ice cream as well? Christmas this year will be tough!

On a different note, Pottermore is making people crazy. Kajsa got her entry mail today and after she got sorted she called me to vent her frustration of being placed in Slytherin other than her House of choice; Hufflepuff. Slytherin really doesn't fit her at all... Not like it actually did me after I got over the first shock of not being placed in Ravenclaw (#lunadontleaveme ;)) I couldn't help being quite amused by it all, sorry hon, but one kind of gets into a happy bubble when one is able to enter. Just now I read on Facebook of another friend who hasn't gotten her mail yet, and she's getting seriously frustrated by that. Even threatening to write and complain if she doesn't get her entry mail in the coming batches of mails being sent out! While I myself am being completely frustrated that the second book; the Chamber of Secrets, isn't available to explore until February. FEBRUARY! What am I going to do 'til then? Brew friggin' potions?! At the moment I'm re-exploring the first book; the Philosopher's Stone, for the fourth time, and re-reading all Rowling's thoughts and news on characters, magic and places.

#lunadontleaveme that I wrote above comes from when Evanna Lynch twittered after she got sorted on Pottermore. I'll copy the article from MuggleNet:

Ahhhh umm errrrrr.... Just got sorted. Slight identity crisis. Need to sit down and process this... #pottermore

I'm in Gryffindor. #Pottermore #confusion #shock #pride #happiness #LUNADONTLEAVEME!!!

I don't know what to do. I feel like Jo just told me I'm a man. I'm SO utterly confused.Gryffindor! Woahhh what an honour! I'm so happy! But confused! But happy! BUT CONFUSED. #Pottermore #farewellravenclaw

Dammit, now I have to change my whole bleedin' wardrobe!!! #pottermore #butredandgoldarenotmycolours

Sorry for the tweet explosion... I'm just...having a moment. #farewellravenclaw #pottermore #JowhathaveyouDONE?!

Tonight we re-watched Les Misérables 25th Anniversary in Concert at the O2. This time it wasn't as painful to watch Nick Jonas, he's not that bad although he's still leagues behind the rest of the cast. I'm getting slightly nervous. I, Love, Kajsa and Tiffany are going to watch the Swedish version of Les Miz in two weeks and I wonder if it will be as grand? I'm guessing not, I never get my hopes up really high for a Swedish version of anything really. Swedish doesn't really have that big of a vocabulary, and compared to English it's a very small and limited language. I'm not that fond of it actually, except maybe the spelling that can be beautiful sometimes. Beautifully strange :P Also, will I like the songs as much as I like the British ones? Will they sound as great? Will they ruin my favourite songs; Master of the House, Do Your Hear the People Sing?, Look Down and Lovely Ladies? Anyway, I hope that they will prove me wrong. I'm actually looking forward to it, despite being nervous about it.

Joe Abercrombie, Aesop and François Mauriac

2011-09-05T21:36:00.001+02:00

So the last couple of weeks I've finished reading three books. Remember that I started reading Joe Abercrombie's "The Blad Itself" in the beginning of the summer, but then put it on hold to read "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" once again? Well, I've finished it now and I think I like it. It's the first book of three in a series called "The First Law", and this book is pretty much just a prelude where you get to know the characters and what they do. There are some suspicions, what's the Arch Lector really up to? And of course this is also the book where all the characters are assembled and where they go on their great journey. Since this is pretty much a prelude there are no real exciting moments, but the book can pretty much be defined as interesting. It's not exciting, but there's something about the book that makes you want to continue reading it, something that makes you want to know what'll happen next. My favourite character is by far Sand dan Glokta, an ex-excellent swordsman who was captured by the enemies during a war and tortured 'til disabled. He's in his thirties but have to live like a man in his eighties. We often hear him complain about stairs (lifts aren't invented yet) and how everything important is placed on the highest level in every building. He can no longer work as a soldier and has taken up work as an Inquisitor and as such often has to torture people during interrogations. He seems to enjoy torturing people, making them feel the same pain as he did. He's a sadist, misanthropist and an incorrigible sceptic, even when the First of the Magi, Bayaz, shows up he refuses to accept magic as part of the world. Simply put; I love him!
And then if we turn to look at Bayaz... He's pretty much a childish old man, kind of like Belgarath. But every high fantasy novel needs its fair share of Belgarath ;)

Well, I said I'd go through the bookcase starting at A, right? Next book in line that I hadn't read was "The Fables of Aesop". An old copy in Swedish. It was pretty interesting. All of them were of course very short, but they all contained some kind of proverb or apothegm. Some of them I recognised from having heard elsewhere in my childhood. However, it's always interesting reading in old Swedish. It's far from incomprehensible, but it's still different. Like the plural conjugations of verbs don't exist anymore. I am going to read everything in our bookcase, including the Bible, although I will read that one last :P After "The Fables of Aesop" I started reading "Oncle Ben's Cabin", also an old Swedish copy.

Our first assigned book in French as "Thérèse Desqueyroux" by François Mauriac. It was interesting reading it, maybe because it reminded me a lot of "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert, only "Thérèse Desqueyroux" is written about half a century later. Maybe a more modern version of "Madame Bovary"? Anyway Thérèse has me interested from the beginning, her behaviour is something out of the ordinary and extremely destructive. As most of these old important classical works it didn't seem to have a proper ending. It always bothers me.

Religious discussion part 2

2011-08-31T19:52:00.001+02:00

Part 1 is here. This is the end of the discussion and I should have posted it a long time ago.

I'm dark green, and he's dark blue.

We don't go to Heaven, we are awoken on Earth after we have finished proving that we can rule the Earth and the society without God the way we want.

If you want to see death as natural, then it's your choice.
Why life if there is no meaning?

And we don't have such a long time nowadays, because without God we have soon fixed our collective suicide through nature.

Why die at all if God is going to revive us again?

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article13224787.ab
For the reason that we chose to show if we could control the human society, we turned our backs to God. God could then have deleted us, but chose to let us prove what we could do and it's on that road. During that time He lets us, in free will, choose the broad or the narrow path.
http://www.watchtower.org/z/kt/article_01.htm

I ask once again:
How can life after death by the side of God be that good if several of those who helped create this world is there? This world sucks. How can that world be different?

How can life after death be that much better? Because we don't age, don't become ill, don't die? How can there be any difference at all if we regain life (an invulnerable life) at the same damn planet? This cursed place! I hate the world. The world is a horrible place and it's not just cause we age, become ill and die, but because people are horrible. People hurt eachother. Physical wounds heal, mental never do. People are idiots and I like to see death as a final destination to not having to meet all the idiots that hurt you, either consciously or unconsciously. Mankind will never emend. All the "good" people who've never broken any of God's bids and pray and go to church etc will all "live" by hos side. In that case I'd rather choose the alternative. I'd rather choose to live amongst the sinners. More open people, more alive people, who don't spend their time looking down on others who don't live godfearing lives. It's vile. It's despicable. And it doesn't get any better. None of it will change only because they get to live again. I have those unhealable mental wounds given to me by people, and now I can't do anything else but looking down on mankind. Including myself. So explain to me, what benefits would I have had from choosing a life after death by God's side? Now is your chance to convince me. Give me a reason. Something I can't upbraid, something I can't appeal or argue away. Do what Jehova's Witnesses fail doing when they knock on my door.

I have no faith in any god, but I also have no faith in mankind. I don't believe in any supernatural power greater than myself. I'm a total atheist and I enjoy it. I've never had any childhood faith. The Bible stories have always been on the same level as fairytales. That Jesus walked on water or revived Lazarus is in my book none the different from The Little Mermaid or The Ugly Duckling.

I answer once again, we are not by God's side but on a rinsed Earth where God rules, but now mankind has learned that she can't rule herself.

Today we live under these circumstances:
"Time and unpredicted occurrences happen to all" it's said in Ecclesiastes 9:11. This means that whole lot of things happen without us being able to do anything about it.
We are at the wrong place at the wrong moment.
Ecclesiastes 8:9
"All this I have seen when I directed my heart to every deed made under the sun, in a time when mankind had the power over mankind to her injury."

But if we are careful and thoughtful in hour deeds this will prevent many accidents. "Whatever a person sow, this will she also reep" is it said in Galatians 6:7 which verify the relationship that our deeds will inevitably have consquences, some of them very bitter.

Read this as well:
Imagine that you've built a housing estate.
Everything is new and clean, most tenants are good people with well brought up children.
But then you get a tenant that's the exact opposite.
Vandalises and destorys, *he has wild parties all through the nights preventing the other tenants from sleeping.
And under the affection of drogs he has also started to push small children down the stairs.
Do you think it correct to evict a tenant like that?
If he has small children, can you evict him but let the small children stay there alone?
Parents have a resposibility for their children.
If the children have bad parents the children will suffer.

God has created the planet Earth and everything on it.
God's intentions for Earth is that it will be a paradise where only good people who treat eachother well will live. There is no place for people who rape, abuse, steal etc.
That's fair considering the good people to remove the bad ones.

Talking about hell.
To put someone under eternal torture isn't fair.
God hasn't created any hell, it doesn't exist.
However, God will let people who have died, but who haven't had a fair chance to prove whether they're evil or good, to be resurrected from the dead and then show their worth.
That's justice.

Sounds as if God is as big of a dreamer as his followers. That will never happen.

It's up to you to chose your path.

By the way, you once asked in the forum if the god of Abraham would be triune. He wasn't. Abraham is in the Old Testament, that basically is the Jewish Torah. The grounds of Christianity is in the New Testament and it's also not until there where Jesus shows up. Jesus himself was Jewish, as was Abraham. Trinity wasn't thought-out yet.

It's everyone's God, even in OT everyone had the possibility to worship the true God. Jesus didn't show up, it was already prophesized when Adam misdid in Genesis 3:15
http://www.watchtower.org/z/20050915/article_01.htm

Ask a Jew or a Muslim what *he thinks about you saying that the Christian god is everyone's god. The Christian god is only the god of the Christians. Jehova is for example the name of the god mentioned in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament God doesn't seem to have a name anymore. Why this development?

There are no historical evidence whatsoever that Jesus have existed. Chronology is a cultural phonmenon that has come from the Christianization of the Roman Empire that started to spread the Christian message with crusades, preachings, missionairies and forced baptisings. All writings about Jesus were created after his death, and since being able to read and write wasn't that common in those times, but sagas were oral traditions the stories were added to as time went. When they finally were put on paper the stories had been added to a lot.

The Jews have recognised Jesus in the history of their religion. But only as a prophet, not in any way more extraordinary than Moses, Abraham or Noah. Likewise the Muslims have acknowledged Jesus. In the Coran Jesus is called Isa and there also he was only a prophet. Every single one of the Abrahamitic religions have one main prophet. To the Jews it's Moses who came with God's Ten Bids and freed the Jews from Egypt. To the Christians it's Jesus. To the Muslims is Mohammad.

There are also those who says that Christianity isn't monoteistic since Christians worship three holy entities; God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit (in some cases even the Virgin Mary).

Are you conscious of your religion's history from the point of view of religion investigators and the school books? Or do you only follow the words of the Bible?

What can Jews, Christians or Muslims answer, they have no god with a name, just look at what their actions have led to.

The greatest man that ever lived.
Is there any one man who undeniably can be said to be the greatest man that ever lived? What is it that makes a person great? Strategic skills? Physical strength? Great intelligence? The historian H.G. Wells said that a person's greatness can be measured after "what he sows and if he makes people think differently with a passion that lasts after he's gone". Despite Wells not being Christian he confessed that: "According to these criterias Jesus is the greatest." Alexander the Great, Charles the Great (who was called "great" already when he was a live) and Napoleon Bonaparte were powerful rulers. Through their awesome presence they exercised great influence over their subordinates. Napoleon is said to have said: "Jesus Christ has exercised influence over his subordinates and ordered them without physically being there." Through his dynamic education and by living as taught Jesus have powerfully affected the lives of people for about 2000 years. As an author expressed it: "All armies that have ever marched, all navies that have ever been built, all governments that have ever been in power and all kings that have ever ruled have alltogether not affected the life of humankind as much as this only person." A historical person.

But strangely enough there are still those who says that Jesus never lived - the the figure of Jesus is made up by people who lived during the first century. The reputed historian Will Durant gave the sceptics this answer: "That a few simple men in one single generation could create such a powerful and agreeable character, such an elevated etic and such an impressive version of human brethrenship would be a miracle by far more incredible that the wonders describen in the evangels." Ask yourself: Would a person who has never lived be able to exercise such a great influence over the history of mankind?

The encyclopedia The Historian History of the World explains: "The historical consequences of... [Jesus'] doings were very important, even from a purely worldly point of view, than the achievements of any other historical person. A new era, that's acknowledged by the whole world, is dated from his birth." Yes, those are really words worth considering. Even in the calendars of our day are based on the year he's said to have been born. As it is written in The World Book Encyclopedia: "Years before that year is written as BC, i.e. Before Christ, or as AD, i.e. Anno Domini." Critics insists however that everything we really know of Jesus is to be found in the Bible.

It's said that there are no other contemporary document mentioning him. Even H.G. Wells wrote: "The old roman historians ignored Jesus completely, he left no traces in the historical documents of that time." But is this true? Even if references to Jesus are relatively rare in historical sources, there actually are such references. Cornelius Taciitus, a noted roman history writer who lived during the first century wrote: "Their leader Christ had under Tiberius' governing been crucified by the procurator Pontius Pilatus." Two other roman writers from that time, Suetonius and Pilinius the Young, also talks about Christ. Furthermore Flavios Josephus, a Jewish history writer living during the first century, mentions the disciple Jacob whom he identifies as brother to Jesus, also called Christ". Referring to these mentions in historical documents it's said in The Encyclopedia Britannica: "These independent descriptions proves that in ancient times not even the opponents of Christianity ever questioned that Jesus was a historical person, which was for the first time questioned by several authors in the end of the 18th century, the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century., due to inadequate basics." Pretty much everything we know of Jesus was written by his followers during the first century. Their accounts have been kept inside the evangels - the Bible books written by Matthew, Markus, Luke and John. What do these accounts tell us that Jesus was?

What their actions have led to?!??!?! The Jews must be the only one of the Abrahamitic that actually have been peaceful and only been subjected to lies, threats and prejudices for thousands of years.

What Christianity has led to? The extinction of several cultures, crusades (war in God's name, ridiculous!). Christianity has taught us to be afraid of that what's different and wanting to transform the differences to something generic. That was how forced baptisings started (to force the poor pagans to a religion that offered them salvation, what a joke!). It taught us that all other religions are dangerous and should be extinguised. Do you know how many wars that have been started in the name of religion?!?!?!?! The reason to have killed most people in world history is religion. Second place is communism and third place is the Third Reich. Do you have any historical sources that people used to be fighting over religion before to Chritianization of the Roman Empire? Christianity has also led to prohibitions against abortion and contraceptives, something that has created great successes for HIV and AIDS, and raped teenage mothers. It has led to millions of people still, in this age, listens to a half-senile old man in Rome! Where's the logic in that? If we for a moment pretend that God created the world, then his greatest mistake was to give humankind free will. Why ddin't he remove the free will when he noticed that things started to go to hell? Why didn't he give up completely and extinguished us completely in the so called cataclysm?

The Muslims are like the Christians. Their chronology is 400 years behind ours. How did Christians (specifically Catholics) act in the 17th century? Exactly. If you haven't noticed the Muslims have started to wake up an riot. I'm happy for them.

Yes, Jesus are mentioned in some texts. A name. Nothing more. In writings outside the Bible he's a name, but nothing more. There is nothing that indicates that he was what he said he was. There is nothing who contradicts that he was a big lier who tricked people into believing him. They haven't found the grave he supposedly borrowed cause he couldn't afford his own. They haven't found a skeleton. Furthermore there is new research questioning if Nazareth even existed as a city in Jesus' time. There are signs that Nazareth was hardly more than a small, small village if it even existed. So there are doubts that Jesus (if he existed) can have been from Nazareth. Don't forget that pretty much all texts in the Bible are written hearsay. They are written long after his death.Just because some of them are written during the first century doesn't mean that they are contemporary. Jesus didn't become over 40 if I remember correctly. All those writings you wrote about... None of them are written by eye-witnesses. There is no protected documentation from eye-witnesses to Jesus' "wonders".

Your defintion of great people... The first one I thought of was Martin Luther King.

All human actions have led to despait and will go nowhere until this has happened:
Book of Revelations 11:18
"But the nations were wrathful, and your own wrath came, and it pointed out the time, when the dead will be judged and when you will give payment to your slaves, the prophets, and to the holy, and to those who fear your name, the small and the big and plunge them into the corruption that corrupts the Earth."

2 Peter 3:7
"But through the same words are the skies and the earth that are now separated by fire and are kept until the day when the ungodly people will be judged and destroyed."
http://www.watchtower.org/z/kt/article_01.htm

So you believe we will be judged by God. Do you think the judging happened on May 21st? Do you think the world will end this autumn?

I must also ask, out of pure curiousity; do you look up quotes in the Bible to answer me or do you actually know all that by heart?

If all human actions have led to despair... Did the human writing of the Bible lead to despair?

If you follow the bid to love your neighbour, then it would be better now already.

The world will not end and when God intervenes we do not know, only when we see the signs mentioned in Matt 24 and 2 Tim 3:1-5
http://www.bibeln.se/las/2k/

And yes, I know most of the Bible.

So the world won't end? You don't believe in any judgement day when humankind will have to answer for her sins and stand equal in front of God and be judged by him? The signs that I've heard to be in the Bible can be interpreted in many different ways. What signs are you talking about?

And I have to admit to being impressed by your knowledge of the Bible.

The kind of judgement day you're referring to doesn't exist!
The Day of Judgement consists of a 1000 years when Jesus arrives to lead humankind to perfection.

How would this perfection appear? Would we be great at everything we're bad at? Suddenly be nice to eachother and throw away all weapons?

And if that kind of judgement day doesn't exist... Then what was cataclysm? God pressing the delete-button?

We would be great at what we need already and with competent rulers.
The judgement day you're confusing it with is the following:
I repeat

Book of Revelations 11:18
"But the nations were wrathful, and your own wrath came, and it pointed out the time, when the dead will be judged and when you will give payment to your slaves, the prophets, and to the holy, and to those who fear your name, the small and the big and plunge them into the corruption that corrupts the Earth."

2 Peter 3:7
"But through the same words are the skies and the earth that are now separated by fire and are kept until the day when the ungodly people will be judged and destroyed."

Here I felt that we were going round in circles so I just stopped answering. It wouldn't go anywhere anyway. Sorry if I've made you read all this, it may not be that interesting to read, but it was pretty fun doing it :)

Autumn

2011-08-30T17:05:00.003+02:00

I believe autumn is already here. Waking up every morning discovering that the temperature is only 15 degrees, the skies are grey and it's windy. It makes me happy. The leaves are already starting to turn yellow and have even begun falling to the ground.

Today after I picked up a parcel from the post office I was taken by surprise on my way home when the sky suddenly opened up and heavy rain starting pouring over me. It was cold rain, so no summer rain and with the strong wind it was quite some trip home and I was soaked to the bone when I got through the door.

The award?

Sitting in front of my computer dressed in nothing but a sweater two sizes too big, and with a large steaming cup of spiced chai tea for company. Had it been a little colder I would've had a blanket in my lap.

What I picked up? A book for autumn reading: "Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow", by Katy Towell. Towell has been hosting a web page for years containing some of my favourite clips of little girls being mean and scary. Cartoons obviously, but they're so delightfully morbid. The longer ones (the 8 minutes ones) are always good stories. When I heard she had released a book I bought it immediately and got to pick it up today.
Here are my two favourite clips:

A story clip called "When Genevieve ruled the world"

When Genevieve Ruled the World from Katy Towell on Vimeo.

A shortie with zombies called "El Despertar"

El Despertar from Katy Towell on Vimeo.

If the clips don't work at first try refreshing the page and they should work...

New semester

2011-08-30T10:09:00.004+02:00

Soon I'm going to walk back to school to have my first class of the new semester. I'll leave you with this picture to ponder over:

Pottermore!

2011-08-29T17:21:00.003+02:00

Ever since I registered I've been logging in once every day, just to check and the page always said "We look forward to seeing you". But not today. Today the page looked completely different! I haven't even gotten my Welcome email yet! But I got started and begun exploring the world of Harry Potter. You get to enjoy the books, one by one, while you discover small elements that you've never thought of before and new material from Rowling whose imagination has just kept on spinning. I loved reading the background story for Minerva McGonagall! One of my favourite characters.

I loved when I went to Diagon Alley to buy my school stuff. I loved getting my wand, and after reading all about wandlore, wand cores and wand woods I thought that wand fitted me perfectly :) Then came the sorting...

Just like Evanna Lynch (who plays Luna Lovegood) got sorted into Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw and had to deal with the confusion, I myself got sorted into Slytherin! But after reading Rowling's description and thoughts of Slytherin House I realised that it fits me quite well. I always thought Ravenclaw to be the place for me, but Slytherin might not be so bad... I'm not all that good-natured after all... I'll grow accustomed to being a Slytherin after a while I guess...

So I'm now a first year student and I'm slowly taking my time through the first book. It's recommended to read the book while you discover the site, but as I've read the first four books around 20 times each I think I'll manage without them ;)

Now I'm off to brew potions and earn myself some House Points =D

Malmöfestivalen 2011 part 2

2011-08-28T21:15:00.003+02:00

Second part. First part is here.

Wednesday: Slow day. Everyone was working or in school and nothing really happened. Not even in the evening. Was kind of nice to just be able to hang around.

Thursday: Started out slow, turned out real nice. Halfway through the day a group of people dressed up completely in pink and coloured pink showed up next to my stand and made a complete show out of everyone walking by. People stopped to film and take pictures, and since everyone was busy doing that I could do it as well. I had no costumers while they were there cause everyone was busy watching them. I hadn't brought my camera and tried to take pictures with my mobile, but they ended up bad and pixley. Then I figured I could film them. So here are the two best pictures and the video I put up on YouTube:

In the evening I went to the other stand by the stage to watch Jay Smith. He was part of the Rix.fm thingy. Jay Smith is last year's winner of Swedish Idol, and by far the only good thing that has ever happened to that show. He played the winner's song Dreaming People, which isn't one of my favourites. And then his, by now, famous version of Like A Prayer.

Friday. The end. I started by the stage and stood there for almost the whole day. Was interviewed by a news paper (can't find it online). At dinner time I changed places and then around midnight I got back to the stage and was able to see The Ark's final concert ever. It was the same concert program as on SommarRock in Svedala. I was able to hear One of Us is Gonna Die Young, The Worrying Kind and Calleth You, Cometh I. I'm usually very torn about this band. I can't decide if I think they're absolutely brilliant or if they're kind of boring. Everytime I hear them live they're awesome, incredible. But when I hear only the songs, they fall flat. So it all comes down to that they are (were) a great live band. Sayonara.

My feet ached so bad. I even had work on Saturday, but was able to leave early due to my aching feet. This is gonna turn into a nice salary in September :)

Malmöfestivalen 2011 part 1

2011-08-23T23:53:00.001+02:00

Last Friday on the 19th this year's edition of the annual festival in Malmö began. Of course I'm working there 7 out of 8 days. So here goes the first five days (including my day off).

Friday. Had arrived at my parents place the evening before to help my dad get two cars to the festival. Got there, got unpacked, all was fine. Then the electricity guy shows up claiming that we haven't ordered nor payed for the extra juice that we needed. Great. That meant we had to run the popcorn machine, the cotton candy machine and the lights on the same cable - not a good idea. Can't pop popcorn and making cotton candy at the same time without blowing a fuse. So we had to pop the popcorns while there was no people to stock up enough popcorn to last until we got that extra electricity, so that we could make cotton candy to those who wanted some. Some phone calls later and we still hadn't recieved that extra juice. 8 hours after the nasty electricty guy had left another one shows up, handing me an extra cable. Great! Turns out that there was no electricity in the cable. Traced the cable to a locked electrical cabinet. So one more phone call for Dad. Switch places to the other stand and there it turns out we haven't got electricty for the lights. The cable is pulled out of the cabinet and the cabinet is locked with white plastic strings. Great... Calls them up and they say they'll come and fix it. Before they do the guy next to us selling sugarcoated almonds has solved the problem by cutting of the plastic strings with a knife and putting in our cable and his own. The electricity people arrive after it's already dark.

Saturday. A new electricty guy shows up and gives us power in both cables. Day goes smoothly after that. It gets even better when Zombie Walk walks past us. I curse myself for leaving my camera home, but an old friend of mine was in the walk apparently and so I found these pictures on FaceBook :) Rest of the day goes smooth. Except that I and Love are sent to the stand next to the stage, cause Dad and Jeanne didn't want to listen to techno... As if I did. After five minutes of constant bass I started to wish that it'd be over soon.

Sunday. Except for terribly aching feet the day went smooth until it was almost closing time. The sky opened on us and I had to get creative to protect the balloons and the cotton candy machine. On top of that Love wasn't feeling well. I switched with Jeanne at the stage so that she and Love could pack up the other stand. After Veronica Maggio finished at 11pm loads of people wanted to buy. Unfortunately we are not allowed to sell after 11. How did they figure that one out? And after selling to a few people I was practically chewed out by a girl not much older than myself flanked by two security guards. Then a new police office was stopping Jeanne to drive the car to the stand cause there was too many people (the day before there had been more people and it hadn't been any problems for Dad driving in). Dad went mad on all of them as did I. I was furious at this self-important bitch who couldn't step outside protocol just to realise how stupidly arranged the schedule was, and that if someone asked to buy while I was packing I would sell to that person. I was still friggin' packing! Walking to the train home I felt as if my feet would fall off. They hurt so badly from standing on stone for 16 hours/day 3 days in a row. On the train I tried to put weight on my knees instead of my feet as to relieve them, instead I got a cramping in all of my right leg. Joy. It hurt so much that I couldn't keep myself from crying and when we got off the train I walked as if I was wearing a diaper cause I had to walk on the sides of my feet and without bending my knees much for it not to hurt.

Monday. Feet pretty OK when I woke up. Still I refused to spend any time at the stand next to the stage as to avoid any extra pressure on my poor poor feet. So instead I made cotton candy the whole day. This was Love's day off and Kajsa worked instead. It was nice spending some time with her, although I was pissed at the world in the beginning. The day went perfectly fine. It was first day of a new semester. All the adults were working and all the children were at school, a nice quiet day that I could actually spend sitting more than the other days. Day was only partly disrupted by the fact that we once again only had electricity in one of our cables for a few hours. And that the backstage area where we put our stand wagons after work was completely closed down and almost impossible to get into for the first time since Friday. Kajsa and I had to push and pull and heave both of us at the same time to manage to get one of the wires loose to be able to get inside.

Tuesday. Finally my day off. Woke up around 10am (my biological alarm clock is always set on ten hours) and immediately felt the effects of doing cotton candy four days in a row. I couldn't move my right hand without it feeling like the entire thing was bruised and broken. Muscles were a complete mess. Still hurts a little now, but after showering the muscles warmed up a bit and stopped aching that terrible. Feet were OK. So my day off was spent shopping for food for me and for Dixi the Rabbit and for the start of term in a week. I also scrubbed the entire flat, changed sheets and did some laundry. All that boring stuff that one doesn't have time for when one works full weeks.

All in all management has been shit this year.

Resit worries

2011-08-18T12:41:00.002+02:00

So I got my resit exam this afternoon and I'm getting nervous. I know all the authors by now, I've made absolutely sure of that, and I've read the last book that I didn't manage before the original exam. But I'm scared that I've forgotten my vocabulary and parts of my grammar during my summer vacation. I just hope it all goes well. I'm so nervous, I really have to fix it this time.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - Again!

2011-08-16T22:48:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I went to the cinema again to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. This time with my best friend. I had finished reading the book on Sunday and with the book now in fresh memory I wanted to see what I thought of the film this time.

Well, I can say that a lot is changed. Still I'm mad that they did nothing of Percy's reunion with his family and Fred's death... Why oh why did they destory a wonderful scene from the book like that? The wands bother me in the final battle between Harry and Voldemort. That connection is only supposed to be possible with Harry's original wand along with Voldemort's original. It's not possible when Harry's got Draco's wand and Voldemort's got Dumbledore's! Why do they have to make it so dramatic on film? In the book Harry shoots Expelliarmus at exactly the same time as Voldemort shoots Avada Kedavra. Harry's being the stronger spell of the two, Avada Kedavra crashes with Expelliarmus and rebounds on Voldemort who is thus killed by his own hand.

And WHY did they destroy Neville's moment of awesomeness!??!?! There's no friggin' hunt for the snake. Neville kills it in front of everybody at the same time he pulls the sword from the Sorting Hat!!!! Don't ruin my favourite book!

Like Kajsa said: they have exchanged the fun moments from the book with fun moments of their own creation. I love when McGonagall says that she always wanted to try that spell, and I love how it's Hermione's idea to escape on the dragon (in the book it's Harry's). But I miss Ravenclaw Tower. I hate how Harry's whole talk with Helena Ravenclaw turned out in the film.

But on the whole I actually like the film much more than the others. DH part 1 and 2 are the best Harry Potter films since Chamber of Secrets. Prisoner of Azkban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince are all blasphemous.

I'm not all that sad that it's over anymore. From the interviews I've seen Rowling seems to be having a hard time saying goodbye to Harry as well. Now I have Pottermore, and thanks to Pottermore it feels like it'll never end.

We're the Harry Potter generation

Reminiscing about my school days

2011-08-13T18:31:00.002+02:00

Yesterday before I fell asleep I started reminiscing and suddenly I understood why I'm usually in such a foul mood when I'm back in my hometown and why I was in such a hurry to get away from there. It all has to do with my secondary school (13-15). Thinking back on my time in secondary school I realise that I have hardly any good memories from it at all. It all comes down to me being miserable, sad and depressed. I remember fleeting moments of joy, especially when we got back tests in almost whatever subject and I had beat the rest of the class to it. Those moments exist mostly in Social Studies and English, where I was always the top of my class.

Reminiscing I realise that a part of my unhappiness may come from the fact that I was gravely unstimulated. I never had any homework. I only studied for tests the day before test day. I finished all class assignments halfway through class, finished off my homework during class and still had time left. How I hardly ever got below a B shows either the tardiness or the stupidity of my class, or both. I finished secondary school with only A's and B's, mostly A's, and I remember that the only feeling I had on graduation day was relief. Relief that it was over. I would never ever have to see these people again. I cried that day, not because I was sad to go, but because I was so happy that it was over.

I started sixth form (16-18) in a new town, as did almost everyone in my hometown since we had no school for sixth form there. I promised myself that that would be a new beginning. True to myself I told my mentor my whole story. She was the first living person I actually told everything to. My parents didn't (don't) know. I think my best friend have gotten the whole story throughout the years. The only other person I've actually told the whole story is my current boyfriend.

Secondary school also has a lot to do with my sexuality. Before sixth form I had pretty much no sexualilty, because those people had made me totally convinced that no boy would ever look my way twice. But then of course I had to fall in love. Which at first made me totally terrified, since I was certain I would get rejected. Now that didn't happen and all of sixth form was basically a huge boost of my self-confidence.

Still, all of my remaining insecurities begun in secondary school. And in my head my mind keeps telling me that I'm never good enough. I'm always doing something wrong. I'm trying to fight those feelings away.

How come it's always twice as hard to grow accustomed to good things as to bad things?

Anyway, I should stop doing these posts. Everytime I reminisce i end up being depressing and that's not who I want to be anymore.

Here are some older posts I've made, reminiscing about those days:

That's just the way I work. Started out as a thing about school shootings, and ended up in being about me.
The ugly duckling and her pet. Started out as a fashion thing after watching ANTM.
Stop hiding. Let go. About how I'm trying to free myself from myself.
The Tomboy and Fashion. About how I never really was a girl in the common sense of the word.
Stage fright. One long-term effect from years of bullying. This is my biggest problem.

"Racism explained to my daughter"

2011-08-11T23:11:00.003+02:00

I just finished reading a book we were assigned in French last semester. I didn't read it then, cause I was busy studying for my exams and I thought that that one book wouldn't matter that much. Turned out it did, so I bought it and read it along with my books for next semester. I thought it would be in the same boring genre as the other books we read that semester (Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Émmanuel Carrère, Annie Ernaux), but it turned out that it was real great!

It's called "Le racisme expliqué à ma fille" and it's by Tahar Ben Jelloun. Basically it's about the author himself and his daughter. In the introduction he explains that when he and his daughter was at a manifestation against racism when she was ten years old she asked him a lot of questions and that's where this book comes from. It's really genius cause the simplicty and truth of children's answers are well worth considering when we as blundering, blabbering adults go through our world.

It tells the obvious stories that we've all heard before that humour is a big part in conquereing and defeating racism, and that fear is a big part in why racism even exists. But it also tells us that our hope in defeating racism lies with the children, that children are unbiased and unprejudiced, and that they can be taught not to become biased and prejudiced. Prejudices are taught by biased adults, and it's the duty of unbiased adults to show the children that there's no reason to have any prejudices at all.

Some of my favourite quotations and their translations:

"Il a peur de l'étranger, celui qu'il ne connaît pas, surtout si cet étranger est plus pauvre que lui. Il se méfiera plus d'un ouvrier africain que d'un milliardaire américain. Ou mieux encore, quand un émir d'Arabie vient passer des vacances sur la Côte d'Azur, il est accueilli à bras ouverts, parce que celui qu'on accueille, ce n'est pas l'Arabe, mais l'homme riche venu dépenser de l'argent."

He is afraid of strangers, of those he doesn't know, especially if this stranger is poorer that he is. He is more misstrusting towards an Africain worker than towards and American billionaire. Or even better, when an emir from Arabia comes to pass his vacation at Côte d'Azur, he is recieved with open arms, because the one they recieve is no the Arab, but a rich man coming to spend his money.

"On est toujours l'étranger de quelqu'un, c'est-à-dire qu'on est toujours perçu comme quelqu'un d'étrange par celui qui n'est pas de notre culture."

One is always a stranger to someone, meaning that one is always percieved as someone from the unknown by those who aren't from our culture.

"Si j'ai bien compris, le raciste a peur de l'étranger parce qu'il est ignorant, croit qu'il existe plusieurs races et considère la sienne comme la meilleure?"

If I've understood correctly, the racist is afraid of strangers because he is ignorant, thinking that there are many races and considers his own to be the best?

"Le racisme existe partout où vivent les hommes. Il n'y a pas un seul pays qui puisse prétendre qu'il n'y a pas de racisme chez lui. Le racisme fait partie de l'histoire des hommes. C'est comme une maladie. Il vaut mieux le savoir et apprendre à le rejeter, à le refuser. Il faut se contrôler et se dire "si j'ai peur de l'étranger, lui aussi aura peur de moi". On est toujours l'étranger de quelqu'un, Apprendre à vivre ensemble, c'est cela lutter contre le racisme."

Racism exists everywhere people lives. There is not a single country that can pretend that there's no racism there. Racism is part of human history. It's like a disease. It would be good to know it and to reject it, to refuse it. One has to control oneself and to say to oneself "if I'm afraid of strangers, they will also be afraid of me". One is always a stranger to someone. Learning how to live together, that's how to fight against racisme.

"Les enfants, au contraire, peuvent changer. L'école est faite pour cela, pour leur apprendre que les hommes naissent et demeurent égaux en droit et différents, pour leur enseigner que la diversité humaine est une richesse, pas un handicap."

Children, on the other hand, can change. School is made for that, to teach them that men are born and stay equal in rights and differences, to educate them that the human diversity is a richness, not a disabillity.

I recommend this book to everyone who wants to read it. It's translated into several languages. Find it in the language that suits you best!

And I'm sorry if my spelling is a little off... I've been reading and writing in French all day and it seems as if my English as stopped working correctly in the process...

Book harvest

2011-08-09T23:12:00.002+02:00

This semester's book harvest is quite something. These are my compulsory books:

"La cantatrice chauve", Eugène Ionesco

"En attendant Godot", Samuel Beckett

"Le Père Goriot", Balzac

"Mondo et autres histoires", J.M.G Le Clézio

"Thérèse Desqueyroux", François Mauriac

"L'argumentation", Christian Plantin

"La guerre des langues et les politiques linguistiques", Louis-Jean Calvet

"Phonétisme et prononciations du français", Pierre R. Léon

"Apprendre les langues: Où, quand, comment?", Annick Comblain & Jean Adolphe Rondal

"Sur la France: Vive la Différence!", Andrew Jack

The first five ones are books to be read for literary history. The others are for oral presentation, discussion, phonetics, French linguistics, composition and translation.

I feel strangely positive about studying French again this semester. I feel excited and as if I want to stay on top of my game and study my brains out every afternoon after class. Wonder how long that'll last? I'd say about a month... But I'll try to keep it up. The more I study the easier the exams will be, right?

Full day in Malmö

2011-08-09T00:09:00.003+02:00

We have this week off, so I and Love decided to spend this entire day in Malmö. Which resulted in me being about 2000 SEK (€205) poorer and me getting a sunrash all over my chest (and possibly on my scalp). But it's been a cosy day, even better that it ended in heavy rain and a thunderstorm.

To begin with we took the bus to Spångatan and then walked from there to Möllevångstorget. I've talked about those Asian food stores there and I wanted to show Love. The biggest one isn't very fresh, actually it smells kind of iffy. The second one is much, much better. Everytime I walk into those stores I wish I knew more than three words in Chinese. I wish I could surprise them by talking to them in their own language. That's always fun! Anyway, these two visits ended with us having four different tastes of Pocky (chocolate, strawberry, chocobanana and milk) and two different tastes of Colon (chocolate and strawberry). Then we ventured further to Södervärn to have lunch at China Box. An awesome place where you get to pick two Chinese dishes, rice or noodles and a sauce for only 59 SEK (€6)/box.

After lunch we continued to a shop called Taboo. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's a shop for sex toys, and although I rarely find something useful in there it's pretty fascinating just being there. Love had never been there and I just had to show him, though admittedly I think he was the one who wanted to go the most after I told him about the place. The place isn't like you'd imagine a sex shop. Instead of a sleazy old man behind the counter there are usually only female staff members, lower middle age, knowledgeable, and not that uncomfortable to ask for advice etc about a subject that many would find uncomfortable to speak of. And no, they are not dressed in maid uniforms.

Next stop was Shock. The store where I buy loads of clothes, but online. I can do some recon there, but I hardly ever buy anything from the physical shop. Love had to ask for some advice on his pair of Dr. Marten's that he had gotten as a Christmas present from his father 1½ years ago. Then we continued to the Science Fiction Bookstore. A place full of geekyness. I'm usually not as interested in the books as I am in everything else. Love bought himself a Cthulhu T-shirt. Whereas I finally bough this cardgame that I've been considering for ages, and I also found this wonderful book that'll probably teach me loads!

The journey continued to a place in central Malmö, commonly known only as The Pier (Bryggan). We bought ourselves a soft ice each and then went down to sit on the pier. It was a clear sky and really warm sitting there, and loving water as much as I do, I took of my shoes and soaked my feet in the canal water. I mean, they're my feet. I walk on them. They probably get the most "beating" of any of my body parts, so no, I don't care if I soak them in dirty water. The water felt freezing at first, but after a while it was actually quite pleasant. We sat there for a while, in the small half-quiet oasis in central Malmö and played with our feet in the water. (How do you take pictures of your feet without your calves being huge?)

Later we picked up our stuff and put our shoes back on again to walk the final bit down to the mall called Entré. The only place in Malmö that hosts the store New Yorker. When we arrived we discovered to our convenience that there was a sale going on! This sale ended in me going home with a new pair of jeans, three T-shirts and a bra.

While in town we had recieved a message from Love's dad that the people we stayed with in London had arrived to Lund. (The man is originally Swedish and his wife is Brazilian Japanese and they both live in England xD) Of course we wanted to meet up with them at least once during the week they're here (so perfectly matched with the week we have off) so we met up with them down at the English pub in Lund's city centre after we dumped the bags in our flat and changed clothes. By now the wind had gotten really strong and storm clouds were gathering up in the sky. We went indoors from the pub's open-air café and pretty soon after we went inside the sky fell down. Rain was pouring down, still we managed to get som take away sushi to his Love's father's place and thus we had to get there through the pouring rain. Seven wet people later we arrived at his place and had some sushi and talked for some time. About 8pm Love and I decided that it was time to go back home. We left and the weather was still grey, but with no rain. Unfortunately it had turned really chilly. There was no bus coming any time soon so we decided to walk home. Halfway there the heavens opened up again. We stood under a roof for some time, watching the rain, until it kind of faded and we took the chance to get home.

One year anniversary

2011-08-04T11:57:00.001+02:00

It's me and Love's one year anniversary today. For me it's the first time I've ever managed to stay in a relationship for this long, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. So here's a song I dedicate to him, because he puts up with me and because I love him dearly for it.

I can be an asshole of the grandest kind

I can withhold like it's going out of style

I can be the moodiest baby and you've never met anyone

who's as negative as I am sometimes

I am the wisest woman that you've ever met

I am the kindest soul with whom you've connected

I have the bravest heart that you've ever seen

And you've never met anyone

who's as positive as I am sometimes

You see everything, you see every part

You see all my light and you love my dark

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed

There's not anything to which you can't relate

and you're still here

I blame everyone else, not my own partaking

My passive-aggressiveness can be devastating

I'm terrified and mistrusting

and you've never met anyone who's as

as closed down as I am sometimes

You see everything, you see every part

You see all my light and you love my dark

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed

There's not anything to which you can't relate

and you're still here

What I resist, persists, and speaks louder than I know

What I resist, you love, no matter how low or high I go

I'm the funniest woman that you've ever known

I am the dullest woman that you've ever known

I'm the most gorgeous woman that you've ever known

and you've never met anyone as everything as I am sometimes

You see everything, you see every part

You see all my light and you love my dark

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed

There's not anything to which you can't relate

and you're still here

And you're still here

Hateful summer

2011-08-03T23:11:00.001+02:00

Today's been one of the worst days thus far this summer. I actually got up and thought it a pleasant day. It looked nice from indoors, it was even a little windy. I dressed in canvas pants and a vest and got out to run some errands. It was a nice walk to the bus stop, it was a little too hot to stand still and wait, but walking around sufficed to keep me cooled down. I picked up my ordered items at the "post office" and then got on the bus to get to the pet store. I even bought something cold to drink while changing buses. Thus far, all good. When I got off the bus outside the pet store the heat had gotten really bad (around 12.30pm). I bought what I needed for my pet rabbit and then got on the bus back to the city centre. There I had an about 20 minute walk home. Those 20 minutes were some of the worst of my life. The pressuring heat, sweating, and for the last 10 minutes I just wanted to drop everything I was carrying and sit down at the road side and cry my heart out, I was so exhausted. I got home and dropped everything in the hallway and fell into bed. My heart pounding without me being out of breath, my pillowcase soon soaked with sweat and a few tears and my clothes sticky. After about 10 minutes I got up showered my head and face in cold water, had some water to drink and something to eat and I felt somewhat better.

Love and I were supposed to help out at his father's festival today and got there immediately after this to help carrying and putting stuff into place. Turned out to be more activities in the heat. After we finished we had a break during which we went to buy ice cream and got back home for about 45 minutes. Once again I showered my head and face in cold water (this would be much more effective if my hair didn't dry up in 20 minutes...). When we got back down there it was about 5pm and the sun was a little lower, the heat was slowly fading. But not until 8pm I actually thought it was a pleasant day again.

Aren't the body supposed to release endorfines when you've done some body work and/or exercising? I just feel miserable being hot, exhausted and sweaty. The misery slowly fades, but in my case it's not replaced by a feeling of having done a good job and being pleased with myself. It's replaced by a feeling of relief that it's over. There's a reason the only exercising I enjoy is walking. Unfortunately summer makes me feel like I'm doing some heavy exercising 24/7.

Les Misérables and Pottermore

2011-08-02T18:43:00.004+02:00

Last Sunday, the day after our party (which was a success btw, we'll be doing that more times), I went home to Kajsa to watch Les Misérables in Concert at the O2 25th Anniversary with her and Tiffany. It was my first time seeing this musical since I'm not that fond of musicals. I usually find that they're either great at singing and suck at acting, or they're great at acting and suck at singing. It's not very often that they're brilliant at both. This kind of proved me wrong and Tiffany assured me that West End really is brilliant at everything =P

However since this was "in concert" it meant that there wasn't much acting around and that may be the reason why I really liked it. At this moment I'm actually downloading both the show and the soundtrack. I'm gonna let Love watch it, I'm sure he'll like it. I loved little Cosette, too bad she's only in it for about 15 minutes, and then she becomes a whimp. I'm fascinated by how much Lea Salonga actually can open her mouth O.o And I thought the girl who played Éponine was gorgeous, however I though her character was pretty pathetic - like every other female character in the show (I can tell the story was written 150 years ago), the only female that wasn't pathetic was the wife of the Master of the House, and instead she was an idiot. My favourite character by far was Gavroche.

I disliked all the love scenes and I loved all the scenes that showed their everyday life, like "Lovely Ladies", "Master of the House" and when Gavroche sings that everyone comes to him. I also like the intro "Look Down".

Yesterday I signed up for Pottermore! I figured out the clue. I was head over heels with excitement after I found the Magical Quill and made it fly. And now my nick is FelicisGoblet :) You better remember it, if you're going to register ;) Now my friends are asking me for help registering, turns out the pocedure is different every day. Pretty cool actually. It's not just a new clue, but also a new procedure.

I read on about Pottermore while I was waiting for the new clue to show up today. Turns out that when it opens to everyone in October it will start at Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and it's pretty obvious when you sign in after you've registered - you're at Privet Drive and you see a wizard standing at the edge of the street. This is gonna be awesome! ^^ I'll blog more about it as I slowly gain access to the site in a few weeks :)

Youthful

2011-07-31T20:04:00.003+02:00

I've had this song on my head for a while and I like the message it carries.

And here's what they sing:

Youth is about never stopping

to trying to fall in love

Youth is about letting your feelings flow out

and not holding them back

Look, that guy is famous

That girl is beautiful and rich

Their envious lives

Lives that other people often look at

No more complaints

No more worries

The dreams still have more more more more to go

The 20s and 30s still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

Hope still has more more more more to go

Big brother and big sister still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

Youth is about comparing

that girl's boyfriend

Youth is about wanting to slim down

and not holding it in

Look, the news are also getting interesting

I don't understand those difficult things

The things the people on TV are saying

are they all true?

Well, let's recieve it

with my antenna

The dreams still have more more more more to go

The 40's and 50's still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

The future still has more more more more to go

Father and Mother still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

The dreams still have more more more more to go

The 60's and 70's still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

The future still has more more more more to go

Grandpa and grandma still have more more more more to go

More, more

Don't give up

And don't pretend those "mada mada mada madayade" don't get stuck in your head!

YouTube-ing!

2011-07-29T16:33:00.003+02:00

A few times now I and some friends have been going through funny YouTube-clips and I just wanna share a few with y'all.

So we'll start with this:

And then the classic:

Most awesome version of Dragostea din Tei (all you need to know in Japanese is that "noma" kind of means "to drink"):

Epic Sax Guy:

Hating on people

2011-07-27T19:16:00.002+02:00

(old work pictures to the left to make you understand what it is I'm talking about)

Parental behaviour. I've noticed that it's when I work that I hate the most about people (it happens otherwise too, but mostly when I work) and the people I hate the most on are parents. Especially parents of small children, but also bigger children. Sometimes when a family is buying four strips (always special offer on four) they ask their children what kind they want. Then when the kid say something like Sour Apple or Bubblegum the parents say that "You don't like that let's take Strawberry instead". Even my dad dislikes that. If the child is not going to get to choose in the first place, then don't ask the child what he/she wants! I know it all comes down to that the parent doesn't want to be stuck eating something that he/she doesn't like cause the child didn't finish it. But if you don't trust your child's taste, then don't ask in the first place!

Also teach your child to look with their eyes and not with their hands. It pisses me off when ten-year-olds come to the stand and have to touch everything at least twice before they leave. Either they're there alone or their parents don't say a word about it. I mean, come on, when I was ten I had learned to look with my eyes. Even more so, sometimes they don't even tell their four-year-olds to not look with their mouths. But they are usually very quick with telling their two-year-olds that they can't just grab a balloon and/or a wheel-stick and run off with them. So it's wrong to "steal" but not to put other people's things in your mouth? Is it only me who thinks that teaching a two-year-old the definition of stealing is a little bit of an overkill instead of teaching the child that you shouldn't put other people's things in your mouth?

I also encountered very interesting parental behaviour when I worked in a summer kiosk four summers in a row, last year being 2 years ago. For examples they bought an ice cream cone with two or three balls of ice cream on to their 5-year-old, then they let said 5-year-old run around on the playground with the ice cream in hand and then it's my fault when a ball falls off? Apparantly it was my fault cause I didn't put on the ball good enough. Seriously?! Or when a child comes and orders a tray of chips (fries) and asks for loads of BBQ spice on it. I pour it on asking the child to say stop when he/she thinks it's enough. Five minutes later I'm getting chewed out by the mother who blames me for putting too much spice on the chips and now her child can't eat it. Seriously?! Or when the parents give their three-year-old a few small coins and send him/her to the kiosk. The child obviously wants something big, but with those small coins he/she can only afford a few small pieces of sweets. Why send off a child on its own when it obviously doesn't understand the value of money? An even more (in)famous meeting with parental behaviour was one day at closing time a girl asks for a cup of slush ice. I put it on the counter as she speaks with her friend. She turns around and her big inflated bathing toy turns the cup over. She asks for more. I say that no, I turned off the machine after her cup cause I'm closing down. Five minutes later I'm being yelled at by her father who says that it's very ill-mannered of me not to fill up her cup again when I had been the one to turn it over. Excuse me?!

Thing is that children tell lies to parents that are already convinced that their little angel(s) can't do anything wrong. It's ridiculous to blame your own or your child's mistakes on anyone else. You made a mistake. Deal with it. Don't go blameing it on somebody else.

I also dislike it when people don't decide what they want before they approach the stand and demand my attention. Then I stand there with them taking ages to decide (cause it's a life-depending decision whether they choose Strawberry or Melon, or if they're even having strips or if they're having popcorn) while I watch the queue getting longer and longer and longer.

Tourists. I especially dislike tourists from other parts of Sweden. Swedish summer tourists are a pain. I believe Gotland and Öland experience this as much as I do in Skåne. There's also a cultural somewhat vicious circle going on down here in southern Sweden. We talk differently, we have a pretty distinct dialect that all other Swedes either hates or loves. I've mostly encountered people who hate it. Other Swedes think that our dialect make us sound stupid, while we think that the Stockholm and central Sweden dialects make them sound kind of stupid. So when the Stockholmers and central Swedes are down here, they act like they're much better than we are. Actually, the only nice tourists I meet down here are people from other countries. Danes, Germans, Finnish, Norwegian and even the French are much nicer than other Swedes.

Why do tourists have to take up unnecessarily much space on the bus or train? Apparantly suitcases are a very big obstacle to put at a place where they don't take up half the aisle. Funny, I didn't have that problem at the overcrowded underground in Tokyo. How can you have that problem at the, even during rush hour, only moderately crowded buses and trains? Why do all tourists seem to leave their brains at home when they go on vacation? How hard can it be to not stand in the way in the escalators?

Baby carriages. They simply shouldn't be allowed. They take up too much room at buses and trains. Parents walking with baby carriages walk extremely slow and at the same time they take up the entire pavement so there's no way you can overtake that baby carriage without walking on the street. In Tokyo I saw one baby carriage in four months. One! And that was because she had twins. In Tokyo people carry their babies in baby slings. When the child is four years old and start pre-school it stands up on its own in the underground. I've seen five-year-olds being on the underground themselves, all alone. Their mothers meeting them at their home stations, but not following them all the way to school. On the other hand... Can you imagine trying to squeeze a baby carriage into the overcrowded underground? Don't think so. So why should they do it here? Buses tend to sometimes get overcrowded here as well. We could do without those baby carriages. And why, oh why, do they try to fit yet another baby carriage on a bus that already holds two of them? There's only room for two! Get off it!

On another note that fits on both baby carriages and parental behaviour are parents that ignore their children crying their heads off at the bus. It annoys everyone else. So do something about it. Today I watched as a mother forced her three or four-year-old son into his stroller, while he tried his hardest to stand up in it so that he could look out through the window while the bus was driving. He got furious at his mother and screamed so load that it hurt my ears, but the mother still wouldn't let him look out the window. What harm would that do? Honestly. I can understand if you can't keep a small baby quiet, but a toddler? A toddler shouldn't be that difficult. Give it a toy or a dummy, or friggin' let it look out through the window. Just something that takes its mind off of screaming.

Teenagers. Yes, I know. It's not that long ago since I was one. But to quote Cristina from Grey's Anatomy: "I didn't speak Teenage Girl even when I was a teenage girl." I don't understand this adolescent "trying my arse off to be cool"-thing. I don't understand why they have to play loud music on their mobiles, when their mobiles have really bad speakers and it bothers everyone else. I don't understand why girls have to dress like tramps, destroy their hair, put on fake tan and have white lips. I don't understand why boys have to have their pants down by their knees, their caps on the side, talk in slow-motion and just lean against everything they see so that they look cool. I don't understand hair-bands around the legs. I don't understand why they have to brag about that weekend's party and how drunk they were all the way 'til Wednesday and on Thursday start planning the next weekend. I don't understand why it's an accomplishment to have sex early. I don't understand how it can be cool to not understand things. I couldn't understand any of this when I was 14 and I still don't. When I was 14 I dragged myself to school knowing that I'd hate it. Knowing that on every question asked I would know the answer. Knowing that I would get taunted for being a crammer, while I actually didn't study anything at all at home, the others were just plain slow. So yes, adolescent "trying my arse off to be cool" teenagers bother me. When will they all realise that you're so much cooler when you're not trying?

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I'm done being misanthropic for today.