I finally got my camera today. I ordered it last week, but the shop by mistake sent it to my billing address in Kävlinge, instead of to my shipping address in Lund, so it took a while before I got the slip.

I'm so used to my Zenit and Mihai's Nikon D70 that this little thing feels like a toy, and I can't quite believe (yet) that it actually can make decent pictures.

Today, while trying to learn how to use it, I was mostly just making silly pictures of myself.



Otherwise, the day was really weird. As mentioned, I had to go to Kävlinge. I went there by bus, but when I wanted to go back home, there weren't any buses until an hour or so later, so I decided to hitchhike. I went to the usual street where I've always hitched rides from Kävlinge to Lund, and started sticking my thumb out. It's never easy to get a ride there, partly because the place where I start is still inside town, and most people aren't actually going to Lund, and partly because people don't *want* to pick up any hitchhikers.

So, guess who the only person was who stopped before I had walked all the way up to the motorway was?
Well, it was a guy I was about 90% sure I had already encountered.

Last November, when I was going to a hospital in Lund to have a lump in my boob examined, the train I was going to take was cancelled, and I would miss my appointment, unless I could make it there some other way.
I went to stand by the roadside for 30-46 minutes, until this one guy finally stopped his car. He said he could take me to Lund, so I got in. Then he said that he wasn't actually going there originally, but ... and then he mumbled something I had to ask him to repeat several times until I finally understood what he was saying: "I'll drive you if you ... massage me ... *here*."
I stared at him in disgust, told him that he must be completely insane, and got out. I gave him the finger when he drove away, while frustratedly wishing I had castrated him, written down his number plate, or at least kicked in one of the back lights on his car ...
I didn't feel like hitchhiking anymore, so I went home and called the hospital. And it was no problem for me to come an hour or two later.

Back to the future. I was standing in about the same spot, and this guy stopped his car. When I saw him I instantly thought I recognised him - dirty-brown hair, metal frame glasses, moustache, pot-belly, red face, in a dark grey car, somehow reminding a bit of the dad in the Belgian film La Promesse (played by Olivier Gourmet) - and when he asked where I was going, I quickly answered, "To Lund - but I'm not going with you! Good-BYE!" He just said "oh, I see", looking a bit confused, and drove off. (And I forgot about the number plate again ... though I'm actually only *90*% sure it was the same guy.)

Well, I kept on trying to hitch a ride, and worked my way all the way to the motorway. There, two (!) buses on their way to Lund passed me by (the railroad between Lund and Kävlinge is closed over the summer, and there's always one or two buses as replacement for every train), and I hated myself for not staying at the station and waiting for a damn bus.
I had already almost given up when a completely nice and decent young man in a turquoise VW Polo (much like the one of my arts teacher in Urjala) suddenly stopped and gave me a ride to Lund.

...

As for this morning, the delivery of Sydsvenskan (which constitutes about 130 of the 150-160 newspapers and magazines I distribute each morning) was three hours late, so I earned some extra money. (We get compensated for the time we have to wait for the newspapers.)

...

In any case, I'm happy, because I now have a cool camera, and because I can listen to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Eat World.

... where men are sex objects in speedos and women are fully dressed and heavily armed, jealously guarding their spouses against those nasty Arabs.



(At least that's the impression I get from this photograph, by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters, scanned from Svenska Dagbladet 26/7 2005.)

I just deleted a dozen spam comments in this blog. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how to blog through SMS when you are in Sweden and don't have any too fancy phone.

See, I'd like to participate in Blogathon 2005 and blog a comic for the sake of Vier Pfoten or some similar organisation, but I realised that I'm gone for work about three hours every morning.

So far, results have been crushing. The main problem is that I need a blogging service that is based in Sweden, so I'll send the message to the right number. But no such thing seems to exist! webblogg.se should have exactly the same functions as webblogg.no, but I can't find any information about anything on the Swedish site. Gaargh ...

Maybe I'll have to force Mihai to blog in my place every half hour from 2:30 to 5:30 AM ...

Waah, I just finished watching the 51st episode of Full Metal Alchemist. (Of course, I was crying my eyes out.)

But what will I do NOW?! Maybe I should read the manga. If I can find it anywhere, that is (Toriyama's World has discontinued and taken it down already ...).



*Edit* I just found the manga on Online Manga Viewer ("providing free manga to the masses") at fullmetal-alchemist.com. Yay, coming home after work has become meaningful again!! ^o^

Last time I was visiting my mother, I got an irresistible impulse: Make a pig! Make a pig! Make a pig!
Within a couple of hours, I had produced the most recent addition to my dysfunctional pig family. His name is Serpieri, after the Italian artist who has drawn classical "erotic" comics like Druuna.





He has now joined my two other pigs - Severiina, rescued from a second hand shop, and Sergei Jr., sewn by myself.



Mihai thought he looked really retarded, and wanted to play with him. Okay, so he was throwing Serpieri in the air, letting Serpieri "jump" through a ring (a chewing ring for dogs that he found somewhere in Austria), and then he started talking about how Serpieri probably wanted to fly a bit. Since Serpieri spends all his days on my bookshelf, gazing through the window over the streets and houses outside, he probably wished he could fly.

I assumed that Mihai was just trying to provoke me to wrestle with him, so I didn't take his suggestions too seriously.
Until Serpieri took off. Through the window.

I looked down at the street, and Serpieri's first flying lesson hadn't gone so well ... he had landed on the sidewalk four floors below. (Luckily, he didn't hit anyone ...) I rushed out to rescue him, and while I was making my way down the never ending stairs, Mihai watched a couple pick him up, talk and laugh at him, and place him in the wrought iron decorations on the side of the house (to the right in the picture below). Mihai says that if they'd have attempted to kidnap Serpieri, he would have thrown Severiina at them.



After a moment I had finally gotten down, and could bring him back home again ... But Serpieri still dreams of flying.



A pig's gotta fly ...

I just moved my old Hairy Survey to Mister Poll. I've changed it a bit, so everyone who has already taken the old version is welcome to take this new version! (Yes, I changed it so I couldn't be bothered with entering the old results from the old poll ... I'm too lazy and too busy.)

http://www.misterpoll.com/319425346.html

You can also comment and discuss the poll. Yay!

One of the joys of working as a newspaper distributor is that you are awake at a time when only you, security guards, policemen and crazy (i.e. drunk, usually) people roam the empty streets.

Today, as I was biking through central Lund towards my district in the north, someone threw something at me from a car. I just felt something bounce against my hand, and heard the loud laughing of a woman from the car that had just passed me by. I have no idea what it was they threw at me, and it didn’t hurt or scare me anyway, so the woman was really laughing for no reason ... Ho hum.

Another joy is that you're one of the first people who get to read the newspapers. Today I read about how the demonstrators in Netivot, protesting against the pullout from the Gaza Strip, have chosen orange as their colour, 'inspired' by Yuschenko’s movement in Ukraine. It made me laugh out loud in the elevator. Orange seems to be the new colour of choice for anyone who wants to create the impression that they are fighting for 'freedom', 'justice' and other empty clichés.

Other Israelis are protesting against the protests by not buying orange clothes, although the colour is fashionable this summer ... Read the full article at Haaretz.

I was Shellie, who in Sin City is a barmaid, harrassed by her ex-boyfriend and his gang. In the comic (and the film) she is saved by her new boyfriend Dwight, who in a memorable scene says he’s "out of his mind". In my dream, however, I/Shellie didn’t need any new boyfriend, because I was quite able to kick their asses by myself.
It was all somehow set in my family’s old apartment in Hannover, which had been redecorated to suit the atmosphere better. A particularly interesting sequence from the fight was when I took out my bloody tampon, grabbed the head of my ex, stuffed the tampon into his mouth and tied up his jaw so he couldn’t spit it out ...

When I woke up I had just gotten my period.

I am Kung Fu Master. I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible. What Video Game Character Are You?

I have to confess I've never played kung fu video games. But my second highest score was for this:

I am a Scorched Earth Tank. When I have a mission, it consumes me; I will not be satisfied until the job is done. I have a strong sense of duty, and a strong sense of direction. Changes in the tide don't phase me - I always know which way the wind blows, and I know how to compensate for it. I get on poorly with people like myself. What Video Game Character Are You?

And yes, I have played that game. A lot ...

On Sunday, when I was on my much too short visit with mum and the hairy children, we put on our yukatas and went strolling around on Stenungsund's seaside promenade with Mitsu.

This is how cool we were looking.



Or, if the root folder is annoying, check out the Flickr set ...