Posts made by Skogstroll

@wolfwood:

Yes merry Swedish Christmas to you all. May your stockings be full of pork, herring and state-run television.

Today i've made a Christmas pizza, and my girlfriend made a Christmas cheesecake. Talk about breaking with food tradition.

… if I could I would slap you but my brother had actually sighed and said that he, too, would prefer to eat pizza or something else (just as scandalous) on christmas eve, just for the hell of it. That was before we went home to mother and saw that she had already made the christmas dinner without us since she'd woken up early.

Ouaaaa!

I just came to say that I had had a fantastic, dozy morning and that it's now christmas so GOD JUL (may all cancers be cureable and may the yule goat give you all the other presents you wish for) but I see that you're talking about norse mythology without me? Jeez, I really need to read this thread more often!

Wolfwood, you should be ashamed of yourself! Description of the gods but not mentioning that Heimdall has 9 mothers or that Frigga also sleeps with Odens brothers (which means she'd def be a dick if she and Oden didn't have this open relationship where they got to bang whoever they wanted)?

Yeah, wow, this is one of the biggest reveal chapters in the entire series and things make a lot more sense now… even with plotholes here and there. But I'm wondering - what's with all these family connections? Why does everyone have to be related? It's getting a bit silly.

My collection! Ta-daa! I started talking about figurines in another thread, started to look around my apartment and felt like I wanted to share some.
This is the only bookcase I have with figurines in it. It's in my living room so it's a lot more tidy than the others, and I intended only to have comics in it but a few books have slipped in here and there due to lack of space in the other ones (I need to replace them with other comics later). I’m proud of this bookcase. I don’t even need to read the comics, I can just stare at it all day. Unlike the others. IKEA ftw.

As you can see my figurine collection is really, really small but I don't need much either. There are actually not too many figurines left that I want (and I actually regret the Luffy/Law one, it's my least favourite - the SnK set is a prize from a contest so it's more like a trophy rather than a figurine and so it doesn’t count).
I want the POP version of Bon Clay, I want Bon Clay and Buggy in their prison uniforms and some other figurines from other franchises. I'll never get the nightmare version of Hatsune Miku or the garage kit of Vash from Trigun by Amie-Grand but one can dream. I have no idea where I'd put them all, I'll probably need to buy even more bookcases in the future. First of all, however, I need more cash to scrape together the things I actually can get a hold of. Since I’m not a super collector I know where to find POP Bon Clay but I don’t know where to get him for a price below £100, or if it’s possible to get him for below that price anywhere. That’s why it takes so long, it’s been easier with the new figurines.

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EDIT: forgot one

@Femme:

Niiice xD I'm so used to Canadian Amazon either not having what I want in stock or having it for double or triple the price, and I totally forgot you can probably find things in stock in their international domains. I guess falling prices of merch is one positive thing to come out of the Brexit o.o if I lived there I'd be so tempted to buy all the things.

Yeah, I've been pondering if I should finally get that Bon Clay figurine (the POP one from Megahouse) at last. It's still expensive though and I've already done a lot of things that cost money this month… and I also did a lot of expensive things last month, too. I want it badly, though, it's so wonderful. But expensive. I'd really like to get it under $100 but that's been impossible so far (I'm not a big collector, I only have a few figurines I really like and I'm not a pro when it comes to finding cheap, reliable sellers).

@Femme:

No problem! All I had to do was use a few search terms in French with the character names on the page you provided. Hope you find them for a good price! Amazon seems to be out of stock for all 3 volumes.

Smart! I didn't even notice that their names were on the page. Opsie. Well, I still wouldn't have been able to find the comic with the names, but still! Very smart of you.

And I already bought all 3 albums! I used Amazon UK since I live in Europe and Brexit has the £ lose a ton of value so they were cheap! I pondered about waiting for my next paycheck but decided I didn't want to take any chances.

… Wow. Yeah, it is. Wow. I always thought this forum was awesome but this is more than awesome! Thank you!

Ok, so… many years ago... I actually went to a comic artist school. In that school there was a library stuffed with comics from all over the world. One comic I remember from back then was a french one. We actually only had album nr 2, it was in french and when I asked my teacher where he had got it from he said he'd gotten it from some expo abroad. From what I came to understand the protagonist was a black haired man that would hang out with a blond (short hair) woman and some older dude and they were fighting vampires. There was also this other woman, a vampire with long blond hair and a huge scar that covered half her face, and she knew the protagonist from their childhood (as seen in the picture, it's a flashback). I liked it so much that I used it for an assignment, which is why I have a badly scanned copy of the comic. I erased the text I had written but it was impossible to erase everything.

Anyhow, I asked my classmates (who all remembered it) if they remembered the title (they didn't), and so I figured I would ask elsewhere. It's about time I actually dug it up from the depths of amazon to own it, even if I still barely understand the language it's written in. I know it's on amazon because I looked it up back in the days and it was there but I was a broke student so I couldn't afford it.

So. The comic is... more than 10 years old. And in colour. And it comes in hard cover. And there should be more than 2 volumes. Any ideas?

Worst? Raking gooey, rotten apples. They're not really leaves but kind of and you have to rake them up if you're late with taking care of them. Totally the worst.

Well, I can confirm - ministerstyre is a thing that exists. And is alive and well and thriving. I feel like I should go to work with a bulletproof vest tomorrow, because shots will be fired. Have been fired already, but so far with silencers. I'm going to need a lot of coffee for this.

EDIT: Just got the call from a colleague (head of the union I'm in, and I'm also a board member). There will be negotiations with our boss about the horrible situation we're in… tomorrow. At 7 in the morning. I just got home (after 21) from work and if I hit the sack now I still wont be able to catch enough sleep for the disaster that is tomorrow. And then there's actual work (I think I'll manage to push in an hour, tops, of work), and then I have to rush over for a funeral in the outskirts of nowhere. Well, I don't think tomorrow could get much worse. Oh yes, it could - the coffee shops open at 7, but that's 10 minutes too late. And I wont have time to have lunch. I shall have to aquire great amounts of alcohol after all of this is over.

Finally.

The event I've planned for months is finally over. It was a success (of course, since I organized it) but it's been stressfull, especially since I only work part time and this isn't what I primarily do in the organization. I need sleep. Why am I not in bed yet? I'm… working tomorrow as well. Urgh.

And oh, I scolded a senior colleague. Loudly. Sure, I had taken her into another room but she was trying to sabotage the entire thing and I was so pissed off. She tried to blame someone else and told some other colleagues that I only did it because I was stressed and she wouldn't let it get to her but I'm still mad at her and I'm going to tell our boss. Tomorrow.

@TonyTheChopper:

Allright. I'm not sure why im giving you this information, especially since im not really that active on this forum anymore. But tonight i felt what its like to be truly heartbroken for the first time ever. I dont know if i am gonna go into details in a later post, but i just felt that i had to write this somewhere and get some anger out before i break something.

Well, sharing/ranting/raging tends to help a lot. And we're good… err... readers?

Anyway, I love meetings and all... but having 4 in 1 day is just stupid.
8.30-10.00 - meeting 1
10.00-10.30 - meeting 2
10.30-11.30 - meeting 3 (yes, I was late for meeting 2 and 3)
13.00-15.00 - meeting 4

There was also 1, really, really important meeting that I missed because it was squished in between meeting 2 and 3 (also super important).

meetings are so fulfilling but they also stress me out a lot. So much work, little to no time to actually get it done.

Hello everyone. It's been a while. What have I done today? Something that requires ranting. And whining. And pissing and moaning.Today has barely begun but it did so in a horrible way. I have a day off and wanted to sleep in but my cellphone is connected to the doorbell outside the apartement complex so if someone calls on that one they're connected to me… even if it's my roomate they're trying to get a hold of. He was supposed to get up early for a one day trip but overslept and then there was noise. A lot of noise. And there was suddenly noise outside of the house too because someone that shouldn't be allowed to drive trucks (even though it was small) was backing up on the yard and the warning noise was crazy loud for a crazy amount of time (it's a narrow passageway) and... to sum things up, I didn't get to sleep in. And it sucked.I just feel like sleeping. A lot. I've had one week off this summer already and I'm having 2 more weeks after this one but I should've taken like 5 in a row. Why didn't I? I have tons of vacation days left to spend and I can't spend them cause now it's late and I wont be able to find someone with proper security clerance to cover for me (because they're all gone). This was stupid. I'm gonna force it and take a 3 week vacation during christmas instead, or something, but I should've used it now.Hopefully the rest of the day will be better. PS: Anyone else having formatting issues? /end of rant

Joining #TeamHisoka.
Everything for my favourite psycho pervert.

Seriously, though, this chapter shocked me. Not only do I really think Kuroro is in desperate need of a shower and makeover (he's drawn really badly compared to how he was drawn before while Hisoka still looks like himself), I don't want either of these two characters to die.
And I too was surprised about the stolen ability - has he borrowed it from Shalnark or did something seriously wrong go down?
And why is Kuroro a floormaster? It makes no sense, given his personality. No one in his team knows where he dissapears to when the jobs are over but he's just… picking fights, being on national tv? A bit too OOC for my taste. I could understand if Hisoka just forced him to it but if he's a floormaster that seems unlikely.
And stuff.

I don't mind them jumping to the arena and a fight between Kuroro and Hisoka has been in the works for quite some time now but like this?

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I got a gigantic piece of leg for christmas from my sister (she moved to Spain and apparently dried ham legs are all the rage down there) and since I still haven't cleared a safe place to put it (I also got some kind of torture device to put it on) it's still strung up in my cieling… just in front of a door because it was the only place that has one of these hook-thingies. Stupid cat. Sometimes my life would be a lot easier without her. I've bumped into it three times already, once today. I should've gotten used to it by now but I got hit with a cold and I've been confused and miserable all day. This is getting out of hand. I need to fix it but I don't want to touch it with my sick fingers. Chances are I'll sneeze on it and then what? Urgh.

@Cyclone_Baroness:

Too young? Most are in their twenties or older. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper I think are the only ones that are still teens.

… You're making me feel old, now.

When you google it, this is the answer; After the timeskip Luffy: 19, Zoro, 21, Nami, 20, Usopp, 19, Sanji, 21, Chopper, 17, Robin, 30, Franky, 36, Brook, 90. So "in their twenties" is still… pretty young for me v.v; Ace was the exception, he was young but while he was still goofy he did have some mature qualities that I thought fit nicely with Smoker.
@FelRes:

But Robin goes with Zoro

No. Robin and Franky are the parents! And Brook is granddad! The others are the stupid kids that need to be taken care of! Shipping Robin with Zoro is too disturbing.

My one and only OTP in OP before Doffy was Smoker and Ace (because of their convinient fruits, the fact they were on the oposite side of the law and because they seemed to work well together during their time in Alabasta). See where that ship sailed, le sigh. I personally think the Strawhats are a bit too… young. For some reason. I'm just disturbed when I picture them together (except for mom and dad, Franky and Robin, ofc).

@Kaze:

Man that felt really good. xD I had to tell someone.

That sounds awesome! Keep up the good work! I, too, love it when I help someone but I've never been able to do something as big as that. Wow!

@Zar:

The lack of sunlight is starting to get me depressed. If there was snow it would at least be a little more cheerful, but nooo, all we get is wind. Horrible, horrible wind.

Same. Or rather, I become really sleepy. I'm normally dead tired but now it's worse than normal and I'm chugging D-vitamins like crazy too so everything is stressing me out and it gets annoying. And a bit depressing.
Especially since it got up to +9C today… I mean, wtf? That's just mean.

Some GOOD news, then. For my birthday my mother helped sponsor me buying a new bed, so I did... and it arrived earlier than expected. They said 6-8 weeks, it's been... 4? ish. It arrived today and boy does it dominate my bedroom. There's still plenty of space, it's actually very comfortable (especially since I also stuffed 2 bookcases, 1 bureau, 1 nighttable, 1 desk with 2 computer screens, 2 deskchairs (one that's only used by the cat as a bed) and 1 big computer in there), but when you enter the room the bed is all you can see. This is awesome. My apartement looks like a postapocalyptic warzone with all the trash lying around + my previous bed being left in pieces everywhere but the bed is good. Can't wait to sleep in it. I've tried it, it feels really comfortable, but sleeping in the thing is different.

When your hard work pays off.

I had a discussion with my boss about the yearly raise in salary today. I'm part of a trade union and I chose to negotiate my raise through them (instead of doing it myself, as I did last year and that set me back) and he said he'd categorized the raise increase in 3 different levels. Level 1 - you're doing your job, it's ok. Level 2 - you're doing better. Level 3 - you're a really hard worker and you're doing an exellent job. It's like the old grade system in school (here in Sweden) where you could get g, vg and mvg. I was hoping for a level 3 because I'd done a superb job but he said no. I'm getting a level 4 because I've gone well beyond what's expected of someone in my position. That's badass. I'm still tingling inside and can't stop smiling. Fuck yeah.

I visited the local Comic Con and for some strange reason I found a very reasonably priced copy of the Luffy figurine I've been looking for. Now I just need Buggy.

Ow, ow, ow. Ok, so no one posted after me but I have to let it out anyway:

The event was fantastic.
Awesome.
Magic.

All my colleagues said it was the best we've seen in years, we had a ton of visitors, all the things that happened were done to everyones satisfaction, everything looked awesome and things just went smoothly. It was a lot of work, I can barely stand anymore but it was amazing and we've made a ton of new connections that could help us do awesome things in the future.

I'll sleep like a log tonight.

I'm god damn exhausted.
For two days I've worked like crazy to do the last preparations for tomorrow's big event. Today I worked for about 10 hours on site. Urgh. I bloody well hope it's gonna be worth it. I hope it will be great. It should be great. If half the people that say they're going actually do go, it will be great. I actually hope there will be so many visitors we'll have to call in extra security guards. I bet it could happen. But maybe I'm delusional. I need to sleep. But first I need dinner and a shower.

So tired.

@Zar:

Thank you! Sometimes I surprise even myself with how ignorant I can be about comics I'll remember this.

Nah, I doubt you're ignorant. The only reason I know all of this is because the world of comics in Sweden is very small and a lot of these artists are on my friendlist on FB (since I've also attended a comic artist school here in Sweden and stuff and I've attended these events and parties and been introduced to the friends of my friends). I had no idea what SiS was before everyone basically decided we had to go to Stockholm and attend and the knowledge of everything else has been sort of punched into my brain through the years.

And grats Cap Ugly, good work!

Today I've let my cat in, given her a pat, wondered if I should sneak back into bed due to the rain outside before realizing I'm a responsible adult with responsibilities. And now I'm having breakfast before heading off to work.

@Zar:

So sorry to hear that I hope for the best.

–-

I'm a bit stumped.

Tomorrow and on Sunday Comic Con is going to be in Malmö. I don't have any tickets, but I'm wondering if I should do try to get my hands on one? I'm going to a shopping center next to it anyway, so I'll be as close as I could get.

The thing is, the focus seems to be more american comic and games, which isn't in my interest, and I'm afraid I would be overwhelmed by the mass of people. The one thing I'm interested in is a panel about Swedish Manga, but then again I don't even know if I want to go, maybe it's some odd pride but I like the fact that I'm not part of any Swedish comic community and has the chance to "stand outside". If that makes sense... I don't know. I have a lot of prejudice about the Swedish comic industry that needs to be hammered out.

But it could be fun to see the panel, I think we have only one group of people making manga/comic in this country, and It'd be great if they were there. On the other hand, I shouldn't go to a con just because it's famous either. I know we've had smaller, more japan-interested cons, problem is you never hear about them until they're over

What are you blubbering about? Only one group? You thinking about Nosebleed Studio, I persume? Granted, they're the biggest names and most of the few that have been published by publishing houses (big or small) but there are a few others. Lisa Medin is my favourite, I love Medley and have done for years (it's a comic in the post-manga era, super greatly influenced by the style but read from left-to-right etc)… we also have Åsa Ekström, Carolina Stålberg, Johanna Koljonen (finnish/swede) etc... but I totally agree, there isn't much and most isn't my kind of genre.

If you want to go to cons... well, Comic Con is going to Stockholm next, we have Närcon of course (that happens two times a year but if you dislike people I don't suggest you go there - I went with a friend this summer who freaked out, couldn't really enjoy herself and went home early due to the crazy amount of people), Stockholms Internationella Seriefestival (formerly known as SPX, now known as SiS... and it's not a con, it's a trade fair/expo/festival/something) in spring... and then a bunch of other convents. Try konvent.se for smaller stuff, most put up their events there.

If you want a moderate amount of people, a lot of great talks, free entrance and a lot of swedish artists trying to get noticed with their comics I suggest SiS. I go every year, have done since like 2007 and it just gets better all the time. It can be difficult to get to the after parties if you're not a part of the scene but if you check around there are a lot of them. Even publishing houses hold parties, like Galago for example (although not for every event). Bokmässan in Göteborg is the biggest shit that goes down in Sweden with a lot of great talks but comics is just a small part of it (and even though many artists go there, they also go to SiS for example... but the talks are great).

So, today has barely started here (I've just had breakfast and I'm off to work in a min) but yesterday was my day off. And on that day off I was supposed to do important things like laundry, enough dinner for lunchboxes for an entire week, study because I was stupid enough to agree to go an extra history course at the local university on wednseday evenings and we got 6 chapters to read before than and it was my only day off.

But while I did laundry and cooked dinner… I did not read my course litterature. Yay!

INSTEAD I watched the entire mini series of The Count of Monte Cristo. Because it's awesome and I wanted to. The acting from the tv series from 1998 is a bit stiff but the story is still brilliant, it still shows how problematic it is to take revenge and the consequenses. And Edmond deciding he wants to replace God? I wonder how big a statement that was in 1840sh when the book was published. It must've been huge. So brilliant, what a drama! Totally worth it. I'll read my litterature on the subway instead.

@wolfwood:

Yeah massage, better working position and if need be a good backcracking.

But it's supposedly pretty harmless. It's just blood that's been held up by the knot that rushes to my head when i crack or bend my neck.

Do you have friskvårdsbidrag? Because then you could easilly massage the hell out of that knot. Dizzyness is really annoying.

@ShinigamiKing:

The Count of Monte Cristo! I've heard of that. I'll check it out.

I think that TV series is french though, isn't it? I might check out the 2003 movie, also since reviews were mostly positive.

NOT THE MOVIE FROM 2003! No! It's bad. It changes things. Bad movie. Bad.
The tv series is french, yes, but that's what subtitles are for.

@wolfwood:

Seems to be some kind of muscle knot or something in my neck that's causing some kinda blockage.

Since i always get these dizzy spells when i'm cracking my neck or stretching it in a certain manner.

Ouch. Is it fixable with massage, stretching or something or would you need surgery?

@ShinigamiKing:

I've been trying to figure out where to go with my story. It's that of a fugitive escaping imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit.

Watching the movie "The Fugitive" and the anime "Monster" have helped me out a lot with ideas, but more maybe helpful.

Try reading (or watching, for that matter) The Count of Monte Cristo. The tv series from 1998 with Gérard Depardieu is actually good. And a classic. If you're writing anything about escaping prison for a crime he didn't commit, this is a must even if it isn't set in modern times (and yes, it focuses on revenge but it's good).

@Blissybelle:

For some reason i dont like this zoro…. I feel he doesnt look true to zoro

Yeah… is it the nose, maybe? It feels as though it's too long. And the mouth is a bit wierd, too.

@wolfwood:

I've been really dizzy today, on and off, just now i almost fell down when i went to the bathroom. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is due to

Low blood preassure(maybe you're low on bloodsugar, that could be the reason for low blood preassure?) maybe?

When I was around 13 my blood preassure was very low and for months I couldn't get out of bed or stand up from a chair without the world started spinning. I had several headaches per day (migraine doesn't like low blood preassure). I had problems with my balance and everything but a friend had it even worse, she almost fainted once =d It could be rather scary.

I also saw the movie a while ago. Or well, most of it. Although I would've liked to see less of it.

I liked the new setting with the post apocalyptic feel with old planes, bombs and buildings. But at the same time it brings up the question; "is that wall really the best thing you could achieve?". In the original world it's a wonder, a super achievement but if you already have a bunch of skyscrapers lying around a simple wall just makes you rise some eyebrows. That would've enabled you to do so much more and the reasoning to abandon technology is just stupid.

… and that's the best part. The best part still has flaws.

The worst part is Mikasa, that character is a train wreck from start to finish. I love her in the comics but I can't stand to watch her in the movie.

EDIT: Oh, yeah. I really did like the church scene even though it was predictable.

Urgh.

I'm happy I don't arrange events on a regular basis. So. Much. Work. Jeez.

People finding jobs is so awesome!

And in a bloody comic store. Gosh, I like my job but that would be like a dream come true.

We currently need more people who can fill in at the reception (as museum hosts we do different things – some of us just hang around in the reception and the store and handle security, some take care of social media, some take care of our tea house and garden, some take care of events, some help with creating exhibitions, some have guided tours etc… most of us do a combination of 2-5 things, some of us do way too much) when the regulars get sick (we call them timmisar in Swedish, which would roughly translate to… hourlies? because they're employed by the hour, there's no schedule or anything). The good ones we had (who could step in often, were good etc.) got hired to work on one of our new exhibitions as non-substitute thingies. Gosh, my English feels worse and worse. So we need new ones. And… how the fuck do we do that?
I think I’m supposed to help us do that. I’m not sure how, I don’t think I should just announce it on Facebook. We should basically recommend people we think would be good for the job, no slackers or people who wouldn’t fit in but that’s kind of hard.

And I dunno who would be good for the job (and who, at the same time, does not have one/only works part time/something similar). We need some new ones really soon as one of my colleagues just took a 4 week break to go and hang out in Japan. And not all of her days are covered. And then there are some other days that are not covered either. Which has made a few of us very nervous. Any suggestions?

And for TODAY I realized that it was the birthday of one of my closest friends (I had completely forgotten), so I rushed and bought a present before work and then I joined in at the party in the evening that I thought wasn’t supposed to be a birthday party because I thought it was yesterday and I couldn’t join in on it then. There was much confusion.

Today I did not go to the conference with Stephen Hawking about black holes at the Stockholm Waterfront Congress Centre. I didn't get tickets. Instead I'm watching, super jealous, as one of my friends uploads photos from the place ;_;

@Tyrano:

I defended a film called Edge of Tomorrow as he was calling it a racist hollywood trash.
I said as an Asian myself, not including any Asian characters in the film did not offend me a bit.
So he starts calling me a white supremacist only pretending to be an Asian online to defend my racist comments.
lol…

.<
Yeah, that's a bit extreme. It's called lack of racial diversity, not racism. It's still bad but it's diffrent.

Today was my first day off after getting back to work from my vacation (I worked over the weekend so tue-sun, 6 days). I spent the day doing laundry and playing Theme Hospital. At one point I went to the store and made a 10 min dinner (out of gorgonzola-sauce and pasta) and then I played some more Theme Hospital. That game is hard. And I can't stop. Urgh.

@Tyrano:

Never posted here before…

Got into a Internet argument against a troll who keeps calling me a white supremacist pretending to be an Asian online.

Am I doing it right?

Now how did that happen?

@Ekila:

Though I never had muffins with bacon before. I should try that one day.

Food muffins are great for picknicks. You don't need any cutelry or plates or anything, you can just eat them.
These ones also included (apart from bacon) agaricus mushrooms, rucola and goat cheese. I couldn't follow the recipe because I didn't have the exact flour theywanted me to use (so I improvised and took some other kinds of flours instead) and I really thought bacon would make things better(because it always does) and I was right.

As for my week - now I'm back at work. And despite the fact that we haven't had many visitors or anything I've done a lot because the events I and my colleague are organizing will soon take place and we don't have everything ready yet and while there's still time it's a scary part. Especially since the two of us only work part time (BUT we work in the culture sector for the state and it's not temporary gigs so we're not complaining too much about it) and we don't work side by side as often as we need to.

After work today I traveled to my mother (who has bought an apartement and moved to town, so now we can actually meet on a regular basis!) and had a lovely dinner with a fantastic desert… and for some strange reason I couldn't stop thinking about where to put the christmas tree in there because the corner of the living room I thought would fit nicely is now occupied by a chair and one of 'em chests on legs. It will work itself out. There are several months to christmas and we could most likely move that chair into one of the guest rooms even though it would get a bit crowded. Her place is much better for christmas celebrations than mine.

@Ekila:

I gotcha. What do you mean by her parents being idiots? Meaning they do nothing about it? Or is it something else? just curious

Ah, okay. Yeah, its the same in my area. Steak is usually expensive, and pork is cheap. But that's great that you got it when it was on sale! :3

Good luck on the muffins, and I think you will do well on them! Any specific flavor, or just the normal ones? And have fun on the picnic as well! :3

You really like to ask questions, don't you? Don't like to talk about yourself? You should.

As for my brother and her mother - no, they don't do anything. At least not anything that counts even though they're able to. Which… sucks.
And the muffins were good although there wasn't enough bacon. I should've had more bacon.

That's… very true. >.<

@Ekila:

What's entrecote by the way? I never heard of it before. And that's good that it was yummy! :3

And I gotcha about the social phobia. That does makes sense. I wonder if it was because of the bullies?

Yeah, most likely because of the bullies. Like, 90% sure. And then her parents are idiots too, which doesn't help (and yes, one of them is my brother but he's still an idiot).

An entrecote is a kind of steak. According to wikipedia;

In French, the word entrecôte (French pronunciation: ​[ɑ̃.tʁə.kot]) denotes a premium cut of beef used for steaks.

A traditional entrecôte comes from the rib area of the carcass, corresponding to the steaks known in different parts of the English-speaking world as rib, rib-eye, club,Scotch fillet, or Delmonico.
The term may also be used in France to denote the sirloin cut properly known as a contre-filet, being the portion of the sirloin on the opposite side of the bone from the filet, or tenderloin. In English, a steak cut from the contre-filet may be called a Porterhouse steak (as the term is understood in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), a sirloin steak, a strip steak, a striploin steak, a wing steak, a club steak, a Delmonico steak, or a New York strip steak. (As well, if the contre-filet is left on the bone with the filet, the entire steak is called a Porterhouse steak (as the term is understood in the United States and Canada) or a T-bone steak.)

It's… a classic in Sweden but it's normally expensive. We got a big steak-like chunk and cut our own slices which made it cheaper per kg when compared to the pork (pork is normally cheaper).

Today... I need to bake food muffins. Because I'm going out on a picnic with some friends and those things are exellent to bring along. I've never made food muffins before. Hopefully they'll turn out ok.

@Ekila:

Well, that's good that she liked them, and ate more than usual! (Pancakes and the food on the grill.) What kind of stuff did you all grilled? And does she have an eating disorder? Since she does not eat much at all. Or is it just because of her being really picky? (just curious)

And have fun hanging out with your friends and your niece! Hopefully, everything goes well too! :3

Yeah, I'm also happy about that. We grilled entrecote wrapped in bacon (we had planned on getting porkfilét but it was more expensive) and it was… pure awesomesauce. My mother, who is a doctor, does not believe she actually has an eating disorder but rather a social phobia or something that prevents her from being comfortable with eating together with people. According to my niece she doesn't eat with her family, she prefers to do it in her room. So. You just got to expose her to it, make her a part of the cooking process, make her relax and forget about the awkardness or something. And then she's picky about what she eats so double the trouble.

Anyhow.

Today was a game day. 12 of us bunched up in a small apartement and played several diffrent games all at once while eating a lot of unhealthy food and snacks and drinks and what not. For the entire day. It was awesome as per usual and my niece joined us. She loved it. She also joined my roleplaying band yesterday (the group I normally RP with), it was the first time she did pen and paper RP. She loved that too. The only downside to her mood is the fact that mother decided to start tutoring her in math and apparently that's no fun at all. But neccesary. It doesn't seem to give us any minus points, at least.

@Ekila:

You're welcome! :3

So, how did it go with the pancakes today with her? o:

She loved them! >=d Which is no surprise, because we're kickass pancake-masters. She only had two but apparently she normally only eats one (!!!) and taking another one is a huge thing so we're pleased. It's much more than she's eaten before, that's for sure (and it sounds rather sad when I think about it). Then we grilled this evening and she ate even more + stayed at the table until we were all finished, talked and seemed to enjoy herself. It was nice and a big improvement. We need to grill more but tomorrow and the day after we'll be roleplaying and playing board games with my friends and we'll see what happens. I've warned her, telling her that they're my age (25-35ish) and there will probably be drinking involved but they'll know she's underage and will hopefully behave themselves properly.

@Ekila:

I wish you the best of luck with this! Hopefully you will be able to help her out and all that! :3

Thanks! We'll need all help we can get, I think >.>

My mother invited my niece over to the city in which we live together with my youngest older brother (she and her father, my oldest brother, live further north) and we've been acting as tourist guides these past few days. She's a hyper 15 year old girl who is constantly talking about anything and everything and especially cosplay and it's kind of exhausting, but fortunately she gets tired during long walks so we skip the subway and stroll around as much as possible. Wear them out, that’s what you have to do. Best plan ever. And then she can spend hours on her phone so we call early evenings and let her have it. She seems to enjoy it. It works out.

The reason for the visit is rather diabolical, we have a plan and goal in mind.

She's had problems in school and her father isn't the most attentive + the overall schools in this town are so much better than the ones she's in so we're sort of… trying to plant the idea of her moving down here to live with mom (her grandma) to finish school because she's 15 and she's really not at the education-level where she should be and it's scary. She's 15 and she's restarting her 8th grade (she's been bullied and stuff and to avoid bullies she's also avoided learning things). It's… really bad. I’m not sure she’s good enough for her 8th grade even, to be honest. We went to her favourite store and they had a sale but she didn’t couldn't even figure out what the final price is if the item is 20% off (or what percentages mean). I mean, that’s… elementary, right? And she can’t spell properly. So yeah. It’s… really bad. And her father (and mother) isn’t really making things better. But she's sweet and I think that it could work if we get her to like the idea and her father to agree with it. My mother would see to it, for sure. She’s a soon-to-be retired doctor that’s super concerned for her grandchild and she would be the perfect tutor. We shall see.

I'm concerned about other matters too. She doesn't eat much. At all. She's extremly picky about what she eats (disliking a lot) but even when she says she likes something she doesn't eat much of it and then she says she's not hungry when we offer to give her something else.

Tomorrow we're making pancakes for lunch. She says she likes pancakes. Hopefully we'll be able to feed her properly then.

And then make her love this town. And make her move here. And fix her life. Yep, yep.

Lit the paddle on fire to signal for help!

=d I bet he has no fruit at all, just for the hell of it.

Finally!

3 weeks vacation!

Not long but if I take more time off I'll miss a festival I'm arranging with another colleague and I don't think that's the best thing to do. I still have plenty of days saved so I'll probably take some time off later this autumn but we'll see. I've already gone abroad twice this year so I've already had some vacation earlier.

And the festivals are really giving me a headache. One is actually a convention for East Asian popular culture and even though we got the world's smallest budget for it we (I and my colleague) want it to be huge. And she’s been on vacation these past few weeks, only coming back this weekend (and she's on another museum too so we've only been able to chat over the phone!) when I’m leaving so we’ve had no time at all to plan, discuss and make decisions about things.
It’s making me nervous.

At least I scribbled up a… surprisingly good looking logo for the convention yesterday when I had some time over at work. At work I don’t have access to a good designing program or my tablet which made things difficult. At first I drew tons of elaborate doodles and suggestions on paper, ignoring this problem (even though it’s my project I am not going to work from home without pay) but in the end I realized I had to do without pictures, if I wanted it to look good I could only use words. So I used the actual resources I had at the time and then it just… happened. And it’s good. Everyone likes it, even my brother who is really picky about these kind of things since he’s worked with designing webpages and stuff.
I made 7 versions (of course everyone has a favourite and they’re never the same one) with both big and small changes and we’re going to have a poll on our social media sites about which one we’ll use. Hopefully the one I like the most will win. We shall see.
After that we’ll have to vector the shit out of that logo somehow. There are plenty of computers at work with Illustrator that I should be able to steal for a while. Maybe.

So those were the good things. Now for the bad.

There’s a woman who regularly visits the museum where I work. I know her name, I know what she works with, I know what animals she owns. I know about her relatives. I consoled her about an upcoming operation she was worried about that she ended up not having because it turns out she has cancer (the doctors figured that out just before the operation and they had to focus on that instead) and I consoled her about that too. It does sound kind of bad and I am worried but it pleases her when I say I’m not because it’s reassuring. Anyhow. I know a lot about her because she comes around a lot and she likes to chat with us and it’s… nice. I don’t mind.

But then I told her I’d get 3 weeks off and when she asked if I had any plans I said I was staying in town (mostly, anyhow). So she asked me if I wanted to come over to her place and greet her pets and have a coffee. Or maybe meet at a café… and… no.

I rejected her by saying it’s against the museum policy to do things like that (there is no such thing) and I feel shitty about it.

Talking to her is part of my job. I don’t need to go as far as I’ve done and she’s nice but it’s still my job and I don’t want to meet her on my spare time. But she looked really sad when I said no and now I feel like an ass even though my colleagues (who had overheard) assured me it was the right thing to do because it was awkard. They wouldn't mind if I would join her at a café but we'd still have the same roles as we do now. I'd still be representing the museum. It's bad.

Oh well.

At least I got 3 weeks of no work. 3 weeks of where I’ll do my hardest not to peek at my work mail. It will be hard but I’ll totally do it. Yup yup.

@MDL:

We had to give our dog away yesterday, which upset us all very much.

Since he sometimes appeared in my youtube videos, I made a goodbye video for my subs.

D= I'm so sorry! He looks like a wonderful friend. Damn, now I'm crying, jeez. I had a dog too, many years ago, and she died of old age (and we all knew it was happening, she got so tired towards the end) but it still came as a shock and I cried like a baby. I hope you at least get to see him from time to time, maybe?

@Captain:

Lol at europeans thinking that 32C. is hot, come to Rio de Janeiro and you will face daily 40 C. T_T

Work: We still have to arrange the places of the exposition. I just can´t wait for the grand opening.

Life: New haircut and my vacation is almost near.

Urgh. If the temperature would rise to +40C I'd call in sick and stay down in the subway until the heat went away.

In my defence, though - I grew up in the northern parts of Sweden where -30C wasn't uncommon at all and the good thing about it was that we didn't need to have our PE outdoors anymore (and since everyone just brought outdoors equipment this basically meant that PE was cancelled). Sure, we were supposed to go inside at -15 but no one did. At -20… maybe. But we'd mostly just get a stare down from our PE teacher who'd tell us it was still fine and then force us to put on our ice skating equipment or whatever (it was, because we were used to the cold and dressed for it). -25C and below was a sure thing for cancelled outdoor PE activities, very nice, but that didn't stop you from having to shovel snow at home.

Until about a month ago my mother still lived up there and we used to spend winter holidays there. It was nice. I'll miss the cold, I prefer that before the heat.