1 ½ years!

Translated from Japanese by me:

The change in seasons has come

and it's gotten a little chilly

so I wear your really big sweater

When we fight I somewhat pathetically pretend 

I'd be alright by myself

More than any sweater 

You're the one who keeps me warm

I've always been looking to feel completely at ease

To be wrapped by love in your arms

Hold me tighter and never let go

I'm not usually that meek

but with you I don't know what to do

now I'm spoiled by your love

I couldn't always be by your side

So when we'd meet I'd blush

When you'd move my heart would skip a beat

No fair

This is happiness

I won't forget that

I always adored you and I want to be cute

in front of you

I want to be even cuter

I'm clumsy but what I wanted to do

was to cling to you tightly

and be spoiled by your love

I've always been looking to feel completely at ease

To be wrapped by love in your arms

Hold me tighter and never let go

I'm not usually that meek

but with you I don't know what to do

but with you I don't know what to do

now I'm spoiled by your love

季節の変わり目が来て、少し肌寒くなって、ブカブカのあなたのシャツ着て。ケンカするたび一人で大丈夫と強がるあたしはなんだか可哀相。どんなうわぎよりもあなたが一番あったかいよ。ずっと探してたおっきくて安らげる。愛に包まれてるあなたの腕の中。もっと強く抱きしめて、もう離さないで、素直じゃないあたしはどうしようもなく。今甘えんぼ。いつもそばに居れるわけじゃないから、会えた時は頬赤らめる。ドキっとするあなたの仕草になんだか舞い上がってしまう。狡いよ。幸せだなあってこと、忘れないよ、忘れない。ずっと憧れてた。可愛くなりたくて。あなたの前でもっと可愛いあたしになりたい。不器用だけどあたしがしたかったこと、ぎゅっとしがみ付いて。あたしあなたに甘えんぼ。ずっと探してたおっきくて安らげる。愛に包まれてるあなたの腕の中。もっと強く抱きしめて、もう離さないで、素直じゃないあたしはどうしようもなく。どうしようもなく。今甘えんぼ。

Rock n' Roll

Let them know that we're still rock n' roll.

I don't care about my make-up

I like it better with my jeans all ripped up

Don't know how to keep my mouth shut

You say so what?

I don't care if I'm a misfit

I like it better than the hipster bullshit

I am the motherfucking princess

You still love it

Some, some how

It's a little different when I'm with you

You know what I really am all about

You know how it really goes

Some, some way

We'll be getting out of this town one day

You're the only one that I want with me

You know how the story goes

When it's you and me

We don't need no one to tell us who to be

We'll keep turning up the radio

What if you and I just put up a middle finger to the sky

Let them know that we're still rock n' roll

Call it a bad attitude, dude

I am never gonna cover up that tattoo

I might have a couple of issues

You say me too

Don't care about reputation

Must be living in the wrong generation

This is your invitation

Let's get wasted

Some, some how

It's a little different when I'm with you

You know what I really am all about

You know how the story goes

When it's you and me

We don't need no one to tell us who to be

We'll keep turning up the radio

What if you and I just put up a middle finger to the sky

Let them know that we're still rock n' roll

- "Rock n' Roll", Avril Lavigne, 2013

Really don't like the video, but the song is kick-ass!

Current gaming obsessions

Everyone who knows me knows that I've been obsessing about Skyrim for a really long time. It's still my favourite in the Elder Scrolls saga out of the ones I've played. I finished Oblivion a couple of weeks ago and started on Morrowind a couple of days later. I liked Oblivion, but the Oblivion gates soon became a real nuisance and I quickly finished off the main quest line to get them out of the way. The main quest finale was quite cool though and I tried to spam the screen cap button on Steam while it was happening cause it was so friggin cool, even with the old graphics! *_* The graphics of Oblivion really weren't that bad, except for when it came to the faces of people, and their colours. In Skyrim Dunmer (dark elves) have greyish/greenish skin and purple or red eyes. I like Dunmer and I wanted to play Dunmer in Oblivion too. I couldn't stop laughing about the fact that they are blue in Oblivion. Blue! Hello, I'm a smurf! Then, when I started Morrowind I realised just how much the graphics had improved in Oblivion. When people walk in Morrowind they all look like they just pooped their pants. It's hilarious! And I can't stop laughing every time I see an Argonian cause they look like some mix of lizard-rooster-peacock xD I do like the classic RPG interface of Morrowind, though, but it drives me crazy not to have a quest marker showing me which way to go so that I have to bring up the map all the friggin' time! :/ #gamerproblem

Pictures from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. From top left to bottom right: 1) Horizon from the ship in the quest "An Unexpected Journey", 2) Akatosh in the main quest finale, 3) the ghost of a knight in the questline of the DLC Knights of the Nine, 4) the night sky of Mania in the DLC Shivering Isles

Some days after I started playing Morrowind I went inside a Game store and I just had to buy The Elder Scrolls Anthology. I know Arena and Daggerfall can be downloaded for free from their webpage, but they're for MS-DOS and I'd need DOS-box to make it work. I've never ever been able to make DOS-box work. On the discs for Arena and Daggerfall in Anthology it says PC-DVD, and since they didn't have DVDs back in the day of MS-DOS I figure that that means they're modified to work on modern PCs. I also think I'll put the map of Tamriel in a frame and hang it on the wall above my computer screen :3 Oh, and I also signed up as beta tester for Elder Scrolls Online :) I'm not a fan of MMOs but I'm really looking forward to TESO :D

Some weeks ago I got a craving for watching Pokémon from the very beginning, and as I did I also became obsessed with Pokémon again. I booted up a new game of SoulSilver along with my PokéWalker on my DS and now I'm trying to get my Pokémon up to level 40 so that I can beat the last Gym and get my 8th badge, before going into the Dragon's Den and then going to the Whirlpool Islands so that I can capture Lugia. I'll probably be able to catch Ho-Oh, Suicune, Entei and Raikou after that too. Legendary Pokémon ftw! :D Then I'll move from Johto to Kanto for the second part of the game :D I'm looking forward to all of that, it's just that I'm terrible at grinding and I quickly lose interest when I have to grind. I want to catch five Eevees so that I can get one of each of the Eeveelutions available in the 2nd gen: Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Umbreon and Espeon. I'm focusing a lot more on filling my PokéDex this time around. 

Eeveelution

I've also started playing a bit on my family in The Sims 2. My fourth generation is almost all grown up and they have started having babies so my fifth generation is on the way. Some time ago I talked about creating a new family, the Takahashi family, but it turned out I wasn't up for starting anew with a new family so I had the two adults split up and divorcing. The wife kept the kids and the cat, and the husband moved out and into a flat. Now I've had Anthony marry the wife, and Jenna has married the husband. So I've incorporated my new family with my really big family. I'm also out of werewolves and I'll need to fix that. I can't really decide who'll get to be my new werewolf...

The current family tree

Then there's finally BioShock. I loved the first game. It was absolutely brilliant. Then I played the second game and I loved that too. Originally I was very nervous about the Big Sisters, but they turned out not to be so hard. I'm both dreading and looking forward to Infinite. I want to play it cause it's BioShock and almost bound to be awesome, but I'm gonna miss not being in Rapture. It'll feel wrong somehow. At the same time I really, really want to finish Infinite before the new DLC, Burial at Sea, cause then it'll be in Rapture again! ^^ In the first game it was interesting to dress up as a Big Daddy towards the end. In the second game I loved that I was playing as a Big Daddy (not the same character though) and how I came to play as a Little Sister for a short while. It was a lot of fun crawling through vents as one of them :D And it felt badass to fight alongside a Big Sister :3 I still love that one kind of Big Daddy is called Rosie. It's so cute! ^_^

My current desktop wallpaper :)

TV-series I'm currently following

I've missed a lot during these past two weeks, but there are so many TV-series going on right now!

Siberia just ended with a bang. It started out kind of slow, getting to know the characters, and then a lot of things happen. When the season finale ended I was gaping. If there isn't a second season I will be so sad!!! Cause things just got awesome. Realy, really awesome and really, really weird.

Downton Abbey's fourth season has just begun and although I've only seen the season premiere it's obvious that a lot of things will be happening this season. After the first episode I found myself shipping Mary with Tom, although I really can't see how that would work out. A lot of things will happen with Edith this season and I'm hoping that Rose will get a bigger role. I loved her past rebelliousness. I'm also wondering how far into the 20's this season will take us. It begins in 1922, and we all know about the Wall Street crash in 1929. That probably won't happen this season, though, 7 years is a bit of a stretch. I'm also starting to wonder when Violet will pass away. In a past season she talked about how they did things in the 60's (the 1860's that is) and if she remembers that, then she must soon be really, very old.

America's Next Top Model is on again and it's cycle 20. Both guys and girls and I'm loving it! Cory is my favourite and I'm hoping for a guy to win this cycle. I'm also hoping that this isn't going to be a one-time thing but that featuring guys in the competition will become something permanent.

The Walking Dead starts again this Sunday and I'm interested to know what happened to the Governor, how Carl will handle all the new people at the prison, and how Maggie's and Glen's wedding turn out.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started on Swedish TV last week and it's interesting, although I thought the first episode contained way too little superpowers/superheroes/supervillains. I hope there will be more of that in the future. Other than that - I love Skye.

Under the Dome also started on Swedish TV last week. It's produced by Stephen King, which is good enough for me, and I have a feeling I'll really like this series. I don't have a favourite yet, but I find mysef yearning for the reporter's hair every time I see her.

We have started to rewatch Heroes again and every time I do that I'm amazed by how awesome the first season is. I've missed Heroes and that series deserve at least one go-through a year! I actually think Claire is my favourite character for a whole lot of reasons. I also love Hiro and Micah.

We finished Doctor Who in August and now I'm excitedly waiting for the 50th Anniversary special. I also considering watching Classic Who, but I may wait a bit with that until I don't have a whole bunch of series. The last episode of season 7 gave so many hints to the 50th anniversary and I can't wait to know how the Mystery Doctor is. All I know is that 10th and Rose will be in it (yay!) along with 11th and Clara.

We're also watching the third season of Game of Thrones. Way too late, I know, but there was a bunch of other stuff :P Tyrion and Arya are my favourites, but I'm getting attached to Brianne too and I'm shipping her with Jaime ^_^

We haven't yet finished with the 6th season of The Big Bang Theory, cause other things got in the way (like Doctor Who), but now that the 7th season has started and we only had three episodes left from the 6th, I think we will soon.

Writings

So lately I've been in a sort of writing hype.

First of all I've been writing on my pirate story. The story is coming along nicely and it's still evolving in my head. As of right now it has evolved from being a stand-alone novel into a series. I don't know how many books it will contain but there will be a continuation of the story I have in mind right now. I think I'm more than halfway right now actually, but I'll have to see how the story turns out to really know. There are still a lot of details I'll have to add.

Secondly I've re-entered a universe that I created when I was 17. It's about a Japanese teenage girl that moves from Tokyo to Sweden and starts going to school there. The school is a bit special and during the school year there are strange things going on and this girl finds herself in the middle of it. This is also thought to be a series, but rather than having this girl as the main character of the series, the school is going to be the main ingredient. All the characters of the books will attend this school and all things happening will take place at that school. As of right now I have 5 books in mind, but the number may change. However I'm getting a pretty clear picture of the story of this Japanese girl. What I'm not sure about is whether I should make her story the first book or the last book, since the other stories in the series will take place before hers.

Thirdly I had a dream one night. A dream about a guy and a girl and this dream evolved into a story in my mind. It's pretty interesting cause this story is thus far general fiction. I've never written anything without a slight fantasy element to it. I don't yet know if this short story will evolve from general fiction into fantasy or if it even will evolve from a short story into a novel. Time will tell.

Fourthly I've started on a fan fiction. I've been spending way too much time on fanfiction.net and I finally gave in and started writing my own. It's in the Potterverse and it's a love story between Snape and Hermione, my current favourite couple. I don't like fan fictions where Hermione and Snape date during her time as a student, so most of those I read take place when Hermione is out of Hogwarts. They haven't met for years and they have a random encounter and start to talk about things in a neutral manner as two adults. And then things evolve from there.

Fiftly I'm considering to re-enter and re-use and re-write one of the fantasy worlds I created as a teenager. This one would be almost entirely epic fantasy in a closed world. Something I've never really done before cause I find it hard to create an entire world and at the same time make it believeable.

Rowling in general fiction and crime

When summer ended so did my marathon of Gaiman books. Instead I started out on J.K. Rowlings two latest books: The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo's Calling (the last one published under the pseudonyme of Robert Galbraith).

The Casual Vacancy is an adult novel in general fiction. I hardly ever read general fiction. General fiction usually fails to catch my attention. This was not true for The Casual Vacancy, however. Sure it was a bit tedious to really get into the story. And I don't think the book really took off until after Barry's funeral, which takes place around page 145. But despite the book not really taking off I found it hard to put down. It didn't catch my interest as much as it caught my curiousity. I found myself wanting to know more about the characters, wanting to know what they would do and how they would handle certain situations. I found myself relating to Sukhvinder, pitying Samantha, hating Fats and being compassionate towards Krystal. The characters drew me in, more so than the story itself. When I finished the book I found myself pleasantly surprised by it, and I figured that I actually liked it - much more than I thought I would. I also found myself thinking about the characters and contemplating their reactions for a long time after I put the book down. So it definitely matched the criteria of "book hangover", which means that I was unable to start reading a new book cause I was still caught in the last book.

The Cuckoo's Calling is a crime novel. I'm not a fan of crime, not one bit. I used to read crime a bit some years ago, but it seemed like they all worked the same way and it got tedious reading practically the same book over and over. I was not impressed by The Cuckoo's Calling for a really long while and I actually stopped reading it for a couple of weeks before picking it up again. There was something about Cormoran Strike that I liked, something about his character that made him feel real. However, I felt the exact opposite towards Robin. To me she seemed too unreal, her behaviour seemed to me like a character I would have created when I was a teenager. She pulled talent after talent from her sleeve and she could hardly do anything wrong. She seemed like this superwoman: unreal and a bit too perfect. The Cuckoo's Calling was only mildly entertaining until about 300 pages in, when Strike reveals to Robin that he knows who the murderer is and all he needs is evidence. That's when the story started to become a bit more fast paced. I started to go through all the previous investigations in my head and I couldn't figure it out. With most crime novels I usually have a hunch who the murderer is before it is revealed, in this book however I had no clue. I have to give Rowling that - being able to keep the suspense until the last minute. But when the murderer was revealed I felt a little stupid and everything suddenly seemed so blatantly obvious. So the revelation of the murderer was a bit of a slap in the face. In my opinion The Cuckoo's Calling was a somewhat mediocre book, with an ending like a facepunch. I found myself smiling when the book ended and I think I would consider reading another book about Cormoran and Robin.

Now I'm reading Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft. Autumn and winter is the season of horror, and there's a lot of horror in my bookcase waiting to be read.

Teen years versus twenties.

Teen years:

Sometimes this house feels like a prison that I just can't leave behind. There's so many rules I gotta follow cause you can't let go. I don't wanna hear it and I just can't believe it, all the stupid things you say. But one day I won't take this anymore. One day I'll be old enough to do what I want to. And I won't have to run away and you won't be there to say I'm not allowed to. One day. Sometimes I wonder if you know me or if you just pretend to care. So tell me are you on a mission to bring me down? I don't wanna hear it and I just can't believe it, all the stupid things you say. But one day I won't take this anymore. One day I'll be old enough to do what I want to. And I won't have to run away and you won't be there to say I'm not allowed to. One day. Go away. Don't look at me. Cause we're not the same and you can't do nothing. You can say that it's not OK. But I'm not OK and you can't do nothing. One day I won't take this anymore. I'll be old enough to do what I want to. And I won't have to run away and you won't be there to say I'm not allowed to. One day.

Twenties:

Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs with the boombox blaring as we're falling in love. Got a bottle of whatever but let's get in this truck singing here's to never growing up. Call up all our friends. Go hard this weekend for no damn reason. I don't think we'll ever change. Meet you at the spot half past ten o'clock. We don't ever stop and we're never gonna change. Say - won't you say forever. Stay - if you stay forever. Hey - we can stay forever young. Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs with the boombox blaring as we're falling in love. Got a bottle of whatever but let's get in this truck singing here's to never growing up. We'll be running down the street yelling kiss my ass. I'm like yeah whatever we're still living like that. When the sun's going down we'll be raising our cups singing here's to never growing up. We live like rockstars, dance on every bar, this is who we are. I don't think we'll ever change. They say just grow up. But they don't know us. We don't give a fuck and we're never gonna change. Say - won't you say forever. Stay - if you stay forever. Hey - we can stay forever young. Singing Radiohead at the top of our lungs with the boombox blaring as we're falling in love. Got a bottle of whatever but let's get in this truck singing here's to never growing up. We'll be running down the street yelling kiss my ass. I'm like yeah whatever we're still living like that. When the sun's going down we'll be raising our cups singing here's to never growing up.

Simply, when you're a teen all you want is to grow up and move out and not having your parents telling you what to do (they still try). When you're in your twenties all you care about is not growing up. Funny how that works. 

Morning Musume is amazing! / モーニング娘。最高！

Everyone who knows me knows that I've been fangirling Morning Musume since I first discovered them in early 2006, when I was 15. One of the special traits of MoMusu that spoke to me was that they changed members regularly. Old members would graduate and new members would win auditions and gain their place. This created a steady flow of new faces bringing something new to the group, meaning the group would never be boring. The concept of releasing lots of singles before the actual album was also new to me, since Western groups mostly release an album and then singles to promote said album. This was the other way around completely and I loved that it was new and fresh - to me. There was also no knowing of how the next single would sound as singles changed genre and beat with every new release. The videos were just as intriguing as the music since each video would sport a new dance, a new member in centre, and new costumes. I loved it. I still do. Morning Musume started in 1997 and then new members would arrive in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007, while old ones graduated. But between 2007 and 2011 no new members were added and during this time hardly anyone graduated making the permanent group to Takahashi Ai, Niigaki Risa, Kamei Eri, Michishige Sayumi, Tanaka Reina, Kusumi Koharu, Mitsui Aika, Junjun and Linlin. In 2010 an audition for new members was announced and I was so excited to see new members arrive. Since 2011 9th, 10th and 11th generations have been added and writing this all from the previously known group but Michishige have graduated. But I was right to be excited. The new additions have rejuvenated MoMusu and I love their new sound. I have an almost constant medley of their three latest singles in my head.

So let me share the rejuvenated MoMusu with you.

Maji desu ka ska!

First single: 9th gen - Fukumura Mizuki, Ikuta Erina, Sayashi Riho, Suzuki Kanon

I loved this single. Mostly because it reminded me somewhat of "Koko ni Iruzee!", an old single from 2002, and because it was a nice change from the previously sort of sad, slow and adult songs MoMusu would sing. It was young, new, fresh, and happy. 

Only You

I hated this single to begin with, but now I like it a lot. To begin with I didn't approve of the sudden changes in beat and style within the song and I thought that this song would lead the way back to the sad and slow adult songs from previous MoMusu. However as I started to understand the lyrics I began to like it more and more, being the lyricholic that I am :)

Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatteirun da yo! / Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai!

Last single: 5th gen - Takahashi Ai (2001-2011)

I was so busy loving "Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai" that I somewhat forgot about "Kono Chikyuu no Heiwa wo Honki de Negatteirun da yo!", but the second song is more appealing than the first. And I didn't like that they made one long video for both songs rather than two separate videos. But I can live with that. The only thing that strikes me really hard is just how beautiful Michishige is in the first video. 

Pyocopyoco Ultra

First single: 10th gen - Iikubo Haruna, Ishida Ayumi, Sato Masaki, Kudo Haruka

Hated it from the first view. It's ridiculous. And bad. So so bad. It didn't even grow on me when they used the song as opening for their new TV-drama "Suugaku Joshi Gakuen" and I had to hear it for all 12 episodes. 

Renai Hunter

Last single: 5th gen - Niigaki Risa (2001-2012), 8th gen - Mitsui Aika (2007 - 2012)

Up until recently this was my favourite new song of Morning Musume and I've listened to it so many times that I've memorised the lyrics xD This was the first time dubstep entered a MoMusu single and I wasn't at all sure at first. But now I love it!

One Two Three / The Matenrou Show

 

I thought "One Two Three" was too much of everything when I first heard it, and still being stuck on "Renai Hunter" I didn't listen to it anymore. "The Matenrou Show" I completely forgot existed until it showed up on their album "12, Smart". But "One Two Three" has grown on me and "The Matenrou Show" isn't bad either.

Wakuteka Take a Chance

Still can't stand this single. The only thing that makes it worth listening to are the somewhat catchy "check it out" and the only thing worth watching is Reina wearing cat ears :3

Help Me!!

First single: 11th gen - Oda Sakura

Sakura-chaaaaaan! Honestly I love this song, the dance, the outfits, the lyrics... Everything is perfect, and Sakura's singing is the major hightlight of the song. She immediately became one of my favourite members, and this song immediately became one of my favourite songs. "Help Me!!" also gained MoMusu a well-deserved #1 in the Oricon top weekly for the first time since 2009, and it sold gold for the first time since 2004. And also: Reina looks amazing!

Brainstorming / Kimi Sae Ireba Nani mo Iranai

 

Last single: 6th gen - Tanaka Reina (2003-2013)

"Brainstorming" came along and stole the position of best new song from "Renai Hunter". Can't get enough of it. The beat and the lyrics just make me want to dance, jump and skip around a room. Once again: Sakura-chaaaaaan! "Kimi Sae Ireba Nani mo Iranai" is almost as catchy as "Brainstorming" and I love it almost as much. This single also ranked #1 in the Oricon top weekly, giving MoMusu two consecutive #1, which hasn't happened since 2001. It also sold gold. Two consecutive gold singles hasn't happened since 2004.

Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke / Ai no Gundan

 

This single will release on the 28th but as good as these songs are I expect it to be another #1. "Wagamama Ki no Mama Ai no Joke" is extremely catchy with its "aisaretai aisaretai" and the trumpet (?) sounds of Ai no Gundan is so goddamn catchy that I can't get either out of my head. 

I'm actually expecting to see MoMusu at Kohaku Uta Gassen this year, which is the New Year show in Japan where all successful musical acts of the year participate. MoMusu have been there 10 times before. And, if I'm not mistaken, it was 10 years in a row. But seeing as they don't seem to come close to selling a million any time soon they will probably never move past their two most known songs: Love Machine and Renai Revolution 21. 

You need more proof that MoMusu is amazing? How about this quote from Wikipedia:

Morning Musume, sometimes referred to as MoMusu, is one of the most successful Japanese pop idol groups , holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an amount of 50, and they have sold over 18 million copies in Japan alone.

If you bothered to listen to all the songs then you'll notice that some things have changed since "my" first new single: 

And if you wonder about my favourite members they are in generational order (with a link to latest solo song):

1. Nakazawa Yuko 
2. Yaguchi Mari
3. Tsuji Nozomi
4. Konno Asami
5. Tanaka Reina
6. Mitsui Aika
7. Ikuta Erina
8. Kudo Haruka
9. Oda Sakura

I'm not expecting to convert anyone here. But due to the medley in my head I just had to share some MoMusu goodness to the world :3

Van Helsing, BioShock, Faerie Solitaire, Empire: Total War, Neil Gaiman goodness, and writing

It's summer, I have lots of free time and I'm going through games and books like crazy.

I finished The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing last week. I missed a whole bunch of Achievements cause I didn't explore all the areas thoroughly so I might do another playthrough later. As with Dishonored for which I recieved all the DLCs in a spontaneous gift, so another playthrough of Dishonored may come around soon. The final boss in Van Helsing was interesting. At first I didn't get it. I thought I had to destroy all the towers in order to destroy the boss, but it turned out I just ruined and Achievement and that it would be possible to just kill him as is. I thought the lower blue bar was mana and I had to destroy the towers in order to destroy his mana feed and then depleet his health. Guess I was wrong, but I know that now xD All in all I really liked the game. It was fun and easy to play and Katarina always commented everything in a funny way. Van Helsing has no sense of humour. I like Katarina :3

When I finished Van Helsing I started up the first game of the series in BioShock. I was quite nervous since I'm not good with shooters. I don't move enough and I always forget to reload. But I manage quite well. Right now I'm running around Fort Frolic and it's not until now that I've found the game creepy. All those statues that Sander Cohen makes everywhere, they creep me out. The first one I found was a three-piece in a flooded bathroom with bad blinking lights. Stuff of nightmares.

Especially that one but pretty much all of them have scared me shitless every time I've run into them. Cause I always imagine them moving if I turn around and I don't want to back out of the room cause then there'll probably be a splicer right behind me when I finally turn around and it'll give me another jumpscare. But except for those statues and the occasional jumpscare I don't find the game creepy. I actually like the slightly dark and twisted atmosphere and the 40's music - it's cosy. AND I LOVE THAT ONE VERSION OF BIG DADDY IS CALLED ROSIE!!!! :3 >w<
In the beginning of the game I was also very interested in Dr. Steinman's bloody messages:

You can watch me play some BioShock on my new YouTube channel. First part here. Second part here.

Anyway, I'm still playing BioShock, but it doesn't really work when you're tired so towards the end of the evening I always played some rounds of Faerie Solitaire. I've finished the Adventure mode now and all that's left for me to gain all the Achievements is to complete all the challenges. And I may do that at one point just to collect all the pets :3

Yesterday I only played Empire: Total War all day. It's been a while but I quite enjoyed it and I think I'll be able to win this time around. I'm still playing as the UK, but yesterday I wiped out the US \^o^/ I have pretty much all of the West Coast in North America and I've just moved to start taking over India. I'm gonna be the supreme ruler of all! :D

When it comes to books. I finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane in two days. Although it wasn't very long it still was a book that I found hard to put down. It emitted lots of emotions and the world felt empty and dull once I finished it. Really amazing story. A childhood story. The magical and adventurous childhood that many kids wish they could have - me among them. After I finished the book I moved to the second volume of Sandman. I love that comic. It never ceases to amaze me, which is great. I love how every story is stand-alone, but still has a slight connection to each other. A couple of days ago I finished the comic and moved on to Neverwhere. I've only just finished the prologue and almost the first chapter, but it seems just as interesting, spell-binding and exciting as all other Gaiman books :D Once I've read the book I'll also watch the TV-series.

All this reading got me into writing again and I've been on a roll. I've got lots of things that show up in my head out of nowhere and then I have to somehow fit them into my story. My story is coming along nicely and I'm approaching a turning-point. My goal is to have it finished before this year ends. You think I'll manage?

Scribblenauts, The Walking Dead: 400 Days, Dishonored, Unnatural Creatures, and Van Helsing

In the days after London I finished Scribblenauts Unlimited completely. All the stages, all the starites, all the shards, all the achievements - everything. It was a childish yet fun game and sometimes hard enough that I had to cheat to figure out what the hell the game wanted. I think the fact that English isn't my mothertongue may have contributed to that. Anyway I love the strange things you can do in the game. In one of the underwater stages Cthulhu lies sleeping at the bottom and you get a shard if you waken him xD Also in another underwater stage you have to help Shoggoth xD I think one or several of the creators of Scribblenauts is an H.P. Lovecraft fan!

After that I downloaded and played through The Walking Dead: 400 Days on my Xbox 360. I liked it although it felt too short and as if the game never took off properly. My favourite story is Bonnie's, although I think my favourite character is Becca. I also like the Easter eggs present in 400 Days which refer to stuff that happened in the original game.

Then I installed The Walking Dead on my computer and played through the game a second time. I made sure to make some choices different from what I had done in my first playthrough since the game adapts to the choices the player makes. I went to save Shawn instead of Duck on Hershel's farm. I saved Doug instead of Carley. I sided with Lilly instead of Kenny in as much as possible. I didn't leave Lilly by the road after she shot Doug. I didn't save Ben in the clocktower. However I still didn't steal from the abandoned car, I still shot Duck instead of having his parents do it, and I still showed the bite to the group, and I still had Clementine shoot Lee in the end instead of just leaving him

When we got to Toni's and I finished The Walking Dead I started playing Dishonored. Toni had recommended it to me after he played it last autumn, but it wasn't until a couple of days ago that I felt like trying it out. I played on easy cause I'm an amateur player and I still had some trouble with the tallboys. I played on high chaos all throughout the game and played more of a hack n' slash than stealth game xD In the end I got the bad ending. I may do another playthrough some other time and go for stealth and not killing and getting the good ending, but not right now. Anyway I finished the game in 15 hours and I really liked it. I loved the scenery and general steampunk feel to it :) However I wasn't very good at getting all the runes and discover all the blueprints etc when I was at a place. Especially in areas including tallboys where I mostly wanted to get the hell out of there to the next area before I was killed by those things.

I also finally finished the book Unnatural Creatures. I had it with me to Metaltown, but I didn't read on the train. I had it with me to London but I hardly read on the plane. Anyway it was a lot of fun to read. In the end of the book was annotations to whom had written the short story and when it was first published. Most
of them were recent or from the 60's and 70's, but the oldest one was from the 1880's!

1. 1885 - The Griffin and the Minor Canon" by Frank R. Stockton
2. 1900 - "The Cockatoucan" by Edith Nesbit
3. 1909 - "Gabriel-Ernest" by Saki
4. 1942 - "The Compleat Werewolf" by Anthony Boucher
5. 1958 - "Or All the Seas with Oysters" by Avram Davidson
6. 1963 - "Come Lady Death" by Peter S. Beagle
7. 1969 - "Flight of the Horse" by Larry Niven
8. 1972 - "-----*----¤---*-----" by Gahan Wilson  (the name is just a blob in the book, I tried to recreate the shape of the blob)
9. 1977 - "Prismatica" by Samuel R. Delany
10. 1982 - "The Sage of Theare" by Diana Wynne Jones
11. 2004 - "The Smile on the Face" by Nalo Hopkinson
12. 2005 - "Sunbird" by Neil Gaiman
13. 2011 - "The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees" by E. Lily Yu
14. 2013 - "Moveable Beast" by Maria Dahvana Headley
15. 2013 - "The Manticore, The Mermaid. and Me" by Megan Kurashige
16. 2013 - "Ozioma the Wicked" by Nnedi Okorafor

My favourite short story was by far the one without a name you can pronounce by Gahan Wilson. It was also the first story of the book and it reached into the fields of psychological horror, which completely took me in! I also really loved The Cockatoucan, Gabriel-Ernest, Or All the Seas with Oysters, Come Lady Death, Flight of the Horse, The Sage of Theare, The Manticore, The Mermaid and Me, and Ozioma the Wicked. The Cockatoucan is brilliant and old and presented as a classical children's tale as you'd imagined Peter Pan to be. I don't know why I stopped reading Nesbit at all. She's brilliant - or was I guess. Gabriel-Ernest is a fantastic mash-up between Mowgli and a werewolf :P Or All the Seas with Oysters also played on the border of psychological horror. Something seen but not tangible. Come Lady Death feels like a Victorian vampire story despite the fact that it's really about Death herself. Flight of the Horse is really a sci-fi story that gets mixed up with fantasy due to timetravel. It's hilarious and exciting at the same time! The Sage of Theare is more of a classical fantasy tale from the author who gave us Howl's Moving Castle. There's a little Hercules over it all, but still amazing and year's ahead of Disney's Hercules, albeit centuries after the original Hercules tale. The Manticore, The Mermaid and Me started out as a sort of teen story which quickly turned strange and then into pure horror. Amazingly executed story. I like Ozioma the Wicked mostly because it has that African feel to it of the image the Western world used to have of Africa before it was all poor and after it was all racism. Somewhere in-between there. You know that picture? The picture of an ancient culture and tribes converted into towns? This story has all that as well as an element of urban fantasy. 

Then there are the other stories that didn't exactly speak to me. The Griffin and the Minor Canon felt like a classic fable turned into a longer story and without rhymes. The Compleat Werewolf was just long. Really, really long. Prismatica was interesting at first but turned boring about halfway through. The Smile on the Face was more like a classic high school drama except for a small magical element that only happened for a short while. Forgettable. I had read Sunbird before but it didn't strike me as great the first time I read it either. I liked it but it wasn't amazing. The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees was interesting, but written in a kind of boring way. Moveable Beast I completely forgot about as soon as I had finished reading it. 

It's been quite a trip reading all those stories and for the most part I really enjoyed it. Now I'm off to more Gaiman. I think I'll start with his newest book The Ocean at the End of the Lane and then there may be more Sandman :)

After I finished Dishonored I decided to start up The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. A game I bought during Steam Summer Sale. I've only played it for 1½ hours yet, but it has me intrigued. It looks and works like Diablo, but without the online element which makes it waaaaay better in my eyes, since I don't want to play with a whole lot of other people all over the place. It would be like reading a book with someone hovering over your shoulder - completely annoying. Anyway, this far the story is really interesting and the fighting style is really hack n' slash, which suits me perfectly. And now I'm off to play it! 

Toodles!

London day 3 - Going home

Check out time was at 11am and our flight didn't leave until 7pm so we had a lot of time to kill after checking out. We started by going to Piccadilly Circus to eat brunch at KFC and then we took a trip down Chinatown and Soho, before reaching Oxford Street.

At Oxford Street we went to HMV and I ended up buying three games for Nintendo DS. They don't sell any good games for the DS in Sweden anymore - only games for the 3DS so this was very refreshing! :D The games I found were Mystery Stories: Curse of the Ancient Spirits, Chronicles of Mystery: The Secret Tree of Life, and Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy. They all seem to be adventure games and could all be a lot of fun :) And except for the fact that Britain hasn't invented air conditioning yet, it was 30 degrees outside and no air inside, I really enjoyed being at an HMV again :) After HMV we went to the tube station and went to Green Park. Originally I thought we could check out Buckingham Palace before we left but we ended up just falling to the ground in the shadow of some trees and resting there away from the scorching sun.

After resting there for a good long while we decided to go to the airport and except for going to the wrong Terminal at first everything went smoothly as soon as we got to the right Terminal :P We checked in, dropped off our bag, went through security and went to look at the tax free shops. While talking about how fun it would be to have seen a real TARDIS, we happened upon a Doctor Who stunt in the middle of the airport! A TARDIS, a Dalek and a place to take pictures as the Doctor and Clara. The inside of the TARDIS had a green screen and it was supposed to take a picture of you and share it to your Facebook, but it didn't work. Neither of us could log on to our Facebook accounts :/

After all the Whovianism we decided to have sushi for dinner. Then we looked around in shops and waited for our gate to be announced. The flight was 15 minutes delayed even before it was announced -.- When the gate was announced we went there and that's when it was announced that the flight was 30 minutes late due to being late from its last destination -.- But when the plane finally arrived and we could get on we had the luxury of having a completely cloud free flight :D

Back in Copenhagen everything went smoothly until baggage reclaim. Our bag was very slow to arrive and I started to get nervous that it had gotten lost, but then it finally showed up! We got on the train back to Malmö and the bus home. It was kind of nice coming home, but at the same time I miss London. I've always liked London a lot!

London day 2 - Going all over town! (and more on what happened on day 1)

I was so excited after the Studio Tourlast night that I completely forgot to write about getting here and then some stuff happened after that blog post too.

Anyway, same day we were going we packed our stuff and on our way to the bus I realise that I've forgotten my printed booking confirmation that I was supposed to bring to the Studio Tour and exchanged for tickets. Had to run all the way back and then all the way to the bus (almost), but we made it. Making room for margins is a really good thing! At the airport we realised that we couldn't check in ourselves before-hand without the booking reference - which was on Toni's mail. Since the airport was in Copenhagen (which is abroad but still the closest one) we couldn't have the mobile's own internet on so I had to pay for the airport's Wi-Fi so we could find the booking reference number, check-in and drop off the bag without having to wait for the check-in desks to open. Kind of annoying :/ Then we spent some time in the tax free shop, had some food and hung around waiting for our gate to be announced. That's when it turned out that our flight was delayed and I had to mail our hostel telling them that we might be later than our previously stated arrival time. When the flight finally arrived and we could board we all sat there waiting, cause for some reason the workers couldn't load the plane's cargo properly (summer workers?!) and our flight ended thusly up being 2 hours late. Arriving at Heathrow we picked up our bag got Oyster cards and got on the tube for Hammersmith. The hostel was placed really close to the tube station and after only one wrong turn we found our way :) Once again I was asked for a booking reference that I didn't have cause it was on the phone and I had no internet (recurring theme), but by saying what name the booking was in we could check-in and get to our room. Well there I changed from jeans into shorts cause London was hot even after dark, then we went outside again to look around and maybe find a Tesco to buy breakfast for the next day. We found a Tesco right next to the tube station inside the mall that surrounded it. In one of the shops I also found this sign which I found really funny:

The next day was The Studio Tour.

After the Studio Tour we met up with Tiffany at Piccadilly Circus and had dinner at a small Japanese restaurant. I could eat tonkatsu again for the first time in over three years!!!! :D:D:D:D After dinner we split up again and Toni and I decided to have a walk around nearby. In an Asian shop right next to the restaurant I bought some lovely Calpis Water and four different flavours of Puccho :D

Then we picked a direction and started walking. Turned out we walked along Regent Street and gawked at all the fancy shops until I caught a glimpse of Hamley's and decided to go inside. Inside Hamley's I always turn 7 years old again. All the toys flying through the air does that to you :P I immediately found the Harry Potter department, but since I had already bought lots of stuff at the Studio Tour I decided against buying anything. That is until we found a Doctor Who 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and decided to get it. Just cause it would look great in a frame. We also found this Power Ranger made out of Power Ranger action figures. After that we looked up the closest tube station and went back to the hostel. On the way we bought breakfast at Tesco.

The next day we woke up early to shower and then we took the tube to Camden Town and walked all over the place. I love the decorations on the house walls at that place! Why can't they be like that everywhere?!

I finally bought a pocket watch there since the salesman offered me half-price (=£5) We also found a fun comic book store but didn't buy anything since the prices were about the same as in Sweden :) After Camden we went to King's Cross. I had already been there to take a picture at Platform 9 3/4, but since the store opened they had made a big thing out of it and people queued to have their picture taken. You could buy it later but there was no need to since you were allowed to have someone on the side taking a picture of you :) After it was my turn we had a look in the store, which was miniscule.

 After having another Harry Potter moment on this trip we went to 221b Baker Street. Didn't Baker Street tube station use to look all steampunk-ish? Or which station was that on the Metropolitan line? Anyway the queue to the Sherlock Holmes museum was huge! So we decided to only take pictures of the front and then we had a quick look in a rock store opposite.

We had sushi for lunch and then we went to see Big Ben. After taking pictures we decided to go and see Tower Bridge and doing that by walking along River Thames all the way there. It's a really long way especially if it's 30 degrees out xD But the walks along the Thames are all filled with fun people and street performers and amazing buildings so at least I had a lot of fun on the way there.

On the way we also walked past Shakespeare's Globe. Last time I didn't really care but this time it holds a special place due to the Doctor Who episode with Shakespeare :)

After seeing Tower Bridge we got on the tube and went back to Hammersmith. We bought alcohol at Tesco and then we sat on the porch of the hostel and had drinks out of mugs :P We only had mugs given to us at the rooms, the kitchens didn't have any glasses and we forgot to buy plastic cups xD

Good night! :)