About Books (Swedish)

A friend of mine, Martin, posted a meaningless tag-thingie about books. And I'm using the same tag-thingie to wake up before I go get breakfast. The tag is in Swedish though, and so will my answers be for that obvious reason. It's quite meaningless.

(to your right is a girl in a swimming suit, to add some extra meaning!)

Senast inköpta inbunda bok:

Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon
Saken är den att jag tycker mycket bättre om inbundna böcker än pocketböcker av många anledningar, och prisskillnaden på pocket och inbunden var inte så stor på adlibris. Dessutom trodde jag alltså att jag skulle få en bok i stort format.

Tji fick jag, när den var i presentboksformat. 1x1dm ungefär. Men väl inbunden!

Senast inköpta pocketbok:
Iain M. Banks - Excession

eBay är din vän.

Favoritgenre:
För ett par år sedan hade jag svarat 'fantasy och facklitteratur', men då var jag isolerad och med enbart Sorseles bibliotek som kompis - nu läser jag mestadels Science Fiction och klassiker, samt böcker som har med tecknande att göra (Dreamscapes, Mechanika, 50 Robots to draw and paint och Digital Character Painting Using Photoshop CS3 et cetera in absurdum - roliga böcker).

Facklitteratur har fått stå tillbaka för tillfället.

Ultimata längden på en bok:
De flesta författare är inte bra nog för att hålla en bok intressant i mer än trehundra sidor, så jag skulle opta för max 250... men med det sagt så gillar jag Iain M. Banks trots att han skriver på tok för långa böcker - oftast lyckas han nämligen hålla dem just så intressanta som andra författare verkar ha problem med. Oftast.

Favoritbokhandel:
Det finns ett antikvariat här i stan som är riktigt sött, men där har jag bara varit en gång och jag har väl några rosaluddiga minnen av det... men nja. Adlibris, där jag faktiskt handlar. Amazon tycker jag om eftersom det är internets motsvarighet på en riktig bokhandel - där man går för att bläddra lite i böcker (främst de där det grafiska innehållet är viktigt - se länkarna i genrefrågan) men inte köper någonting.

Favoritbibliotek:

Det i Luleå ser riktigt sjysst ut, och jag har ett lånekort där... men det i Sorsele behövde jag aldrig visa lånekort på.

Jag hoppas på att trivas bra på det i Uppsala... hemmavid har biblioteket stängt för extremrenovering.

Favoritplats att läsa (i hemmet):
Det senaste halvåret har jag stängt in mig på mitt rum, därför säger jag sängen.

Favoritplats att läsa (utanför hemmet):
Ho Hum. Det brukade vara bussen, sedan började jag bli åksjuk.

Utomhus när det är soligt men inte varmt antar jag.

Fem författare du alltid köper i inbundet format:
Jag vill inte ha ordböcker och lexikon i pocketformat, men jag brukar inte köpa böcker så aktivt. Om man tittar i min bokhylla kan man tro att det är Royal Academy of Arts, György Fehér, David Eddings och J. R. R. Tolkien som köps inbundet, men sanningen är lite annan. Royal Academy of Arts-böckerna har jag fått av mormor, och David Eddings av mamma och andra släktingar - främst då under den tiden min optiker inte lät mig ha glasögon, och då var pocket inte värt att bläddra i ens. Tolkien är också något jag fått av mamma, som hon köpte på sjuttiotalet någon gång, när hon var liten. Fehérs bok är bara massiv, och ser imponerande ut.

Inbundet är dyrt, men de böcker jag brytt mig om att köpa inbundet har varit de två sista Harry Potterböckerna på engelska, eftersom den engelska utgåvan är så liten att jag är rädd att den ska gå sönder i pocketformat - och, förstås, för att dem ville jag läsa så fort de kom ut. Detsamma gäller den elfte Wheel of Time-boken, den är inbunden eftersom den köptes första veckan boken fanns till salu - men jag har inte läst den än...

Bästa lässnackset:
Ölkorv, mackor? Godis? Det spekar inte så stor roll. Jag gillar att äta snacks samtidigt som jag läser, men jag vill inte äta popcorn eller chips eftersom man blir kladdig om fingrarna av det. För et par år sedan brukade jag och mamma sitta med varsin bok vid matbordet, och då skällde övriga familjemedlemmar på oss båda - så jag antar att mitt officiella svar på det här blir kött och potatis.

Just det. Kött och potatis.

Bästa läsdrycken:
Varmt te.

Bästa bakgrundsljudet vid läsning:
Jag har lite svårt att koncentrera mig om det är knäpptyst, så jag föredrar att ha musik på i bakgrunden. Kanske ändrar jag mig när jag blir gammal och gaggig ;)

Närhelst på dygnet läser du helst?
'Närhelst på dygnet läser du helst?' ?? Kul formulering.

Jag läser när jag får tid, men oftast när jag inte har något annat att göra - dvs, när jag är för trött för att rita eller på dagen om jag lämnas ensam och uttråkad alldeles för länge.

Bästa kollektivtrafikläsningen:
Jag spelar hellre Tetris på bussen.

Colouring Excercise

I'm trying out a colouring technique that's maybe not new, but at least not how I usually do things. I ran out of ideas on people to draw after I failed to draw Kolya, the cartoony red mercenary, and this is thus only a call for ideas on characters (mine or others, but not any I don't already know) to draw. No promises.

Brave New Approach

I’ve tried to review books I read, but I never seem to get the motivation to do it somehow. I have other personal writing projects apart from this blAg that take up my energy (a personal, daily diary to mention one thing) and my energy pool for writing-related things is more easily depleted than I’d like. Instead, I figured I’d write shortly about a few books at a time, comparing them/commenting on them all at the same time, and I’m still rather fond of that idea. For example, I could talk briefly about the differences of ‘Brave New World’ (Huxley, 1932), ‘1984’ (Orwell, 1948) and ‘Kallocain’ (Boye, 1944) in one post, something I’d very much like to do, or maybe just write collectively on my relationship with Iain M Banks’ books. Or Connie Willis’. Or, for that matter, David Eddings! … though on reflection, I’d rather skip that last one…

This post, however, deals with the first of those three – Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ – but isn’t to be regarded as a review. It’s merely a reflection on one particular thing about this book, probably the only one thing that I will take with me from reading it.

Recently, my main source of reading material is Snigel, and the following line from his own review of the book in question made me even more interested in this book:

“In my opinion, this is much scarier than any alternative […] In a sense of ignorant bliss, people in a brave new world would never break away from their tethers, would never smash the invisible walls surrounding them.”

- Olle Linge

Brave New World is, for the unfamiliar, a 1932 novel based on the ideals of futurism, a sort of ‘negative utopia’ in Huxley’s own words, inspired largely by the writings of H. G. Wells, and more specifically written (in part at least) as a parody of Well’s book “Men Like Gods”. It tells the story of a society who has fully embraced the idea of genetic engineering and operant conditioning to build a perfect society where everybody is happy and everybody serves a purpose. Happiness is the ideal, and they praise Ford (largely for inventing the assembly line) almost as a sort of deity, substituting ‘Lord’ with ‘Ford’ in daily conversation (‘Dear Ford!’). Because of this conditioning and genetic engineering done, it might be said to be true what Snigel says – this is so much worse than the societies portrayed in 1984 or similar novels, because this one won’t collapse under it’s own weight. Nobody is being oppressed. Everybody is content. And happy. And the severity didn’t strike me until I remembered a video I saw a week or so ago on TED.com, and you can find it here:

It’s rather lengthy, but I think it’s worth a watch. It deals with the origins of happiness… and also, the authenticity of the feeling of happiness.

To me, truth is very important, and while reading this book the feeling of a big lie was of course ominously present – as always when reading about societies like these, that make their own truth (or disregard it altogether), the feeling of it all being a big, fragile charade is difficult to shake (and in some cases, this is indeed part of the point) – but it wasn’t until I considered what really is ‘true’ when it comes to happiness (the ideal the entire society is built upon) that this novel stirred something inside of me. It is a rather plain and simple novel; I’m not very impressed by it and I don’t think as highly of it as my friend Snigel does, but I was shaken by it when I had given it some thought, and considering how little I thought of the novel while I was reading it, this did surprise me quite a lot. It took a day or two to sink in, and that doesn’t usually happen with me.

I’m sorry I didn’t have time to sketch something up specifically for this post, but this novel doesn’t inspire me. Instead, have a re-run of a mad scientist to go with the genetic engineering discussed above:

Back from Stockholm

Although my going away was brief, I am now back from Stockholm and from a crash course in magazine writing and illustration with Signaler från Sverok, the Swedish gaming association's own quarterly internal magazine. It was in Stockholm, I stayed with my friend Minne and ~DrGraevling also made an appearance so I was in pretty good hands (Minne's, that is, you shouldn't trust Graevling).

The course itself was very nice, nothing completely new under the sun but a lot of things spelled out that needed be spelled out, and I got a chance to see =croaky and bother her half to death with non-stop talking for two days. Poor sod. Anyway, we were the only girls at the course, except for the 'teacher' Janetta (who does the layout job for the magazine), which was pretty unfortunate seeing as a lot more girls were invited (and I happen to know who a few of them were, and would have liked to see them there).

I also have a new store added to my top ten list of stores in Stockholm I love/like to visit: HIGHLIGHT. It's a punkrock (Minne and the guys inside say it's hiphop but I DON'T BELIEVE THAT OH NO) store for graffiti artists who sell sharpies (only place in Sweden that I know of that does sell sharpies, though I'm sure it's just me who's ignorant here), copic marker (and copic ciao marker) sets, touch markers (cheap!) and drawing pads that works well with them and then of course graffiti spray cans and caps. I was out to get some spray primer for miniature painting, and one can of black spray primer sells for 88SEK at the largest science fiction book store (sf-bokhandeln, it's a phenomenon, a nerd heaven! I almost wasted my food money on a little tin of Zelda breath mints inside a little box shaped like the Hylian Shield...) but a guy who works together with one of Minne's friends and who once painted miniatures professionally dragged us along to Highlight to get some 'better, cheaper stuff'. I got one big black can and one smaller white can for 85SEK altogether, and had I bought a special cap too (I was tempted) it would have been 88SEK total. That would have been cooler. I just tried them out on the piece of wood I use for a table when painting the miniatures, and they're awesome! Almost makes me want to go use them for real... but I won't. I don't know any graffiti boards around here.

I'm not down with the scene.

Although I must admit I was a bit inspired by some of the art they had on display... so... when I'm rich and famous, I'll get back there and get a cool drawing pad, some sharpies and touch markers and be a cool graffiti punkrock artist too. Yep. I refuse to acknowledge the hip hop-ness of the store. The store clerks had too nice beards for that, especially the blond one. Yep yep.

So. What else. I've had a really hard time sleeping this weekend, even on the train up after a rather intense weekend if I do say so myself. It's going to be soo sweet to get to sleep in my own bed now though, and that might happen sooner than I'd like seeing as I woke up at five this morning after maybe four hours sleep - the most I've managed to sleep since wednesday. I don't have anything planned for today (except maybe play some more Fullmetal Alchemist on my DS, it's not a very good game but it's OK, though right now I'd rather play an old Castlevania game with Simon Bellmont to be completely honest) so I guess I could just go sleep whenever i want to... but trying to keep a sensible schedule would be so much better, so yeah.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the second part of the course (which won't begin until the end of June, and the evaluation meeting will be in September) and to some breakfast. I won't have breakfast until tomorrow though, but at least it's closer than June

Now: The morning news! Later!

PS. I can't figure out what to post for a sketch this time. So you don't get any. Neener neener neener.

It's Summer Now

It's summer now, oh yeah. And here's the proof:



I haven't really wanted ice cream since forever, but now I just felt like it, and guess what?

It. Was. Awesome.

... except that I'm beginning to realise that I really can't handle lactose. Oow ow ow ow!

Motivationally disabled.

It was so long ago I just felt sad that I had almost forgotten the feeling.

I don't know why this is, but I feel unmotivated and without anything to do, even though I have a million things I should or could be doing. In my desperation (if I'm allowed one mild exaggeration) I bought some carbonated soda with a lot of sugar and caffeine in it (Trocadero) and am currently waiting for it to be cold and ready for drinking.

Yes. I am drowning my sorrows. Let that sink in.

Anyway, to make this blAg entry have some substance at all: The exhibition ended this sunday, and I turned the SF book store down for exhibition time this summer. Instead, I'll get time later in the autumn, after I've moved down south, and although I'm a bit sad at missing out on the summer opportunity... well, let's just say that it'll go a million times more smooth if I do it when I only live an hour away instead of a night.

This weekend I'm going to Stockholm for a crash course in magazine illustration with Sverok and I'll take the time to check out the SF book store to see where the exhibition area actually IS (I've been there many times before but I couldn't understand from the e-mail which wall she was talking about, maybe I just didn't read it very well but it will be good to go and check it out for myself anyway), and get some spray primer for some miniatures I'm painting. And then try to take pictures of the miniatures when they're done (I have to do this, they're for someone who needs to approve them) but it's hard taking pictures of small things. It would be easier if they weren't so... small 8)

Right now I'm listening a lot to BBC world news, SR's Ekot and am also looking to find a good, American news podcast as well as an Australian one, but good american news have proven to be a bit oxymoronic, and I haven't managed to start searching for an Australian one. I guess I'm lazy.
When I'm not listening to podcasts or doodling (drawing is proving too complicated for some reason, or I just don't feel motivated since I've got nothing important to do meanwhile) I'm reading Paradise Lost by John Milton - or rather, I'm reading the endless introduction to Paradise Lost. Mr. John Leonard sure do have a lot to say about it that he seems convinced I should read before I get to the actual text. Oh well.

I'm also working on one of those 101 in 1001-lists, but it's going so-so, and really, I'm mostly wasting my time waiting for thursday evening when the train leaves for Stockholm. I should be working on that highly profitable commission, but it's so boring I can't seem to get to it, and I've watched all the good documentaries (and some awful) I could get my hands on plus four seasons of Penn & Teller's Bullshit! and a pretty good 'Miniature Painting for Extreme Dummies'-movie by Privateer Press. I think I'll watch it again to get something to do...

Oh yes. I almost forgot. This is a SketchblAg. Better show you some sketches then eh.

A Woman's World

I promised a new journal entry today, so I guess I’ll write one. And just because I can, let's post it on the blAg too.
I have to warn you, though - this blAg entry contains girl-talk.
Let’s see, what have I done that’s interesting lately? … well, I did my laundry and rearranged some things in my embarrassingly small wardrobe? No? Ah well… I visited my father and watched his wife and my sister order some good-for-your-face-stuff from a catalogue of some sorts, and when I expressed puzzlement over the things they were talking about, my father’s wife, from here on called Katri since that is her name, hastily made sure I promised not to leave the house without a bunch of good-for-your-face-stuff she was going to reorder anyway so she might as well give me what she had left of her old stuff. And some other things she had laying around.
The only thing even vaguely similar to these that I have encountered before is this:

and that is only because my sister owns one. When Katri then tossed this at me:

I recognised the bottle and said something along the lines of ‘oh, isn’t this almost like the one you have, with the blackhead something…’ upon which Katri fetched this:

Some sort of blackhead cleanser thing that she had bought for my brothers, but that only my brother’s girlfriend was using anyway. I don’t know exactly what it does that the ‘exfoliating wash’ does not, but anyway…
And then she figured I would need a moisturising cream too, so she gave me one! How kind. It only lasted two days since the bottle was almost empty, so I (actually determined to give this a try) bought another one from the pharmacy last week.

I’m not sure what good it will do, since it says on the bottle that it should be used both during the day AND night and that sounds a bit fishy since it’s some sort of cream. I know intellectually that it’s supposed to be good for some reason, and moisturise I guess, but it feels strange to say that smearing your face in something 24/7 is GOOD for it. Ah well.
She also gave me some sort of… face water?

It says it’s a tonic, but the Swedish word translates directly to ’face water’. I have NO idea what it’s good for. It doesn’t even say on the bottle! The internet have told me it’s ‘refreshing’ but… what? Why pay for refreshment when you can get that from NORMAL water?
Oh the strangeness of the world. Anyway, as you might have realised I am not very well-versed in things cosmetic (and this doesn’t look like cosmetics as much as ‘if regular soap doesn’t cut it – here’s how to make your face not look like a disaster area!’ and I approve of that), but… heck, they were for free. These are the stuff I’ve got, and none other, and my hope is that if I use these for a while as advised on the bottles (but I might be doing something wrong, I DON’T KNOW :XD:) Awesome will happen and my face will look less like… well, a disaster area. But I don’t know.
She also gave me some napkins you’re supposed to wipe your face with, and they’re scented with lavender or something, but I have not figured out WHY I would need extra-special napkins if I get dirt in the face. For serious. She couldn’t really tell me, she just said I should try them and that I was sure to like them if I gave them a shot.

If you are as confused as I am, then please say so. If you think you know more than me about these things and why they’re good for you, well, then please say so too. I have no idea what I’m doing. I had to ask around the internet for help, and in the end Minne took pity on me and told me what to do. Although some of the things she told me didn’t match the little information that was on the bottles.
GNNTARRHHGGGHHH I’M NOT GOOD AT BEING A GIRL. Why can’t I just grow a beard to hide all the face so I won’t have to deal with things like this?!