I got a pair of virtually new climbing shoes off eBay - LaSportiva Mythos (women's):



I had actually never tried this model on before, so it was a bit of a gamble. But through extensive Internet research I came to the conclusion that this model in this size (37 1/2) should be good for my feet (quite narrow, perfect 38).

And I was RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

They will expand a bit as you break them in, and in my pair, there is plenty of margin for expansion, because the laces can be drawn a lot tighter than I need to right now.
The only possible problem so far is what is also mentioned by the reviewer Bev at OutdoorReview.com - they make a bit of an "embarrassing farting noise" when I wiggle with my feet in a certain way (so, unfortunately, this problem was not eliminated in the women's version, as Bev had hoped). But that's not really a problem, anyway ...

Yes, yes yes, I'm so happy!! Flakbunker Kegel, T-hall - here I come!

Jag börjar undra så smått om Bild & Bubbla 2/2006 överhuvudtaget ska komma ut under år 2006.
Nu i slutet av oktober känns det jävligt onödigt att ha skyndat sig med material till nämnda nummer i juni, just veckan innan min hund blev sjuk och dog.

Okej för att jag inte kunde veta att hon skulle dö just då.
Men ibland hatar jag mig själv för att jag inte gick på långa promenader med henne så ofta som möjligt under den där sista veckan när hon fortfarande mådde rätt bra, utan satt och gjorde nån jävla seriekrönika istället.

Och det är Bild&Bubbla-redaktionens fel att jag hatar mig själv, för det var helt i onödan. Det är fan november snart och det numret har fortfarande inte kommit ut.

The new Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was actively advocating for the meaningless terror and bloodshed that is the Iraq war.

"To overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime is the only road to peace. The nearest weeks are likely to be the beginning of the end of decades of war for the peoples in Iraq and for the region", Bildt is quoted to have said just before the White House started its campaign.

Whether this was his honest, insane opinion, or just some disgusting propaganda, is left unanswered in the following article in Aftonbladet.se, which in some detail exposes his work with the European branch of the organisation with the pathetic name of "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq":

http://aftonbladet.se/vss/kultur/story/0,2789,918495,00.html

Even if you don't understand Swedish you can take a look at it. Except for Robert Fisk, each person whose name is written in bold in that article needs a good fuck and a lot of love. (Robert Fisk, on the other hand, *deserves* it.)

One of them is the journalist Christopher Hitchens. As it happens, I'm right now translating his foreword to the Swedish edition of "Safe Area Gorazde" by Joe Sacco. I am seriously considering manipulating my translation a bit to make him look even more like an idiot than his own words already do ...

Im Spiegel Online gibt es eine Reportage über die moskauer Metro, mit lustigen Metrofahrern und von Statuen beängstigten Kölner Touristen ...

http://www.spiegel.de/videoplayer/0,6298,13846,00.html

Der Artikel dazu: "Moskauer Metro - Survival-Training im Untergrund"

I just watched this wonderful film ...

Here's a Guardian article about it.

For fun (in order to make my brain relax a bit after studying too much Judith Butler), I played around with an astrological compatibility chart widget yesterday.

I don't usually take astrology very seriously - most of the 'everyday' astrology one gets exposed to in 'daily forecasts' and the like is usually pretty much bullshit anyway. But this was somehow quite accurate in pointing out the few strengths and the many weaknesses in the relationship I've had most recently.
"Competition rather than cooperation", "violent conflicts and disagreements", "rational vs. emotional communication problems", "emotional clashes and arguments", "a very strong sexual attraction but a lack of real emotional compatibility and mutual consideration", "important differences in approaches to personal action, professional ambition, and business affairs, where any attempts for one or the other to be in charge and order the other around will meet with resistance and conflict", "general instability" - but also "a sense of responsibility towards each other", "mutual discipline to get through troubled times", and, not least: "You may become adventurous traveling companions" - something that was present in no less than 4 of the 25 different aspects. Basically, it didn't show much or any favour at all for any romantic relationship - the few positive aspects were all more or less for a (not very stable) non-romantic partnership (mostly, as mentioned, in traveling).

Suspicious about the strangely accurate results, I tested the charts on a couple of other relationships I've had earlier, and those were just as weirdly accurate.

Well, I find it on one hand a bit sad that I didn't do this while I was still in that relationship, because it might have helped me to see many of our conflicts from a different point of view, and maybe some things would have turned out much less painful.
On the other hand it's extremely relieving, because this shows that it wasn't really something that has to be entirely blamed on us, for not being good enough to make the relationship work, but rather that we "just weren't compatible". (Yeah, blame it on the stars!)

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Recently I've noticed the comics by Yuki Yoshihara, which are all more or less "lighthearted sex comedies". What caught my attention is that all heroines so far seem to have sex drives that almost rival my own. In most of the manga I've read, even if it's drawn by women, the stereotypes of the helpless girl who has to be saved from bad guys/rapists, and/or seduced by the hero because she has no libido, are far too common, so this was quite refreshing.

It's also somehow quite soothing to read mindless but sweet-hearted comics like this, where relationship problems that in real life might become inflamed and traumatizing issues, haunting you for the rest of your life no matter what you try, are easily solved within the few pages of an episode or two.

Yoshihara Yuki on Baka-Updates - if you follow the links to the individual titles at the bottom of the page, you'll find links to the scanlation groups that are working on them.
Most of them are IRC-based, though, and if you, like me, are too lazy to find out how that works, here are a few links to some non-IRC-based scanlations:

¤ "Itadakimasu" at condensation.us - Naeko is a young divorcee who works in a bridal salon beneath her ex-husband who wants nothing more than for her to forgive his cheating and get back together with him, while she wants nothing more to do with him. But by chance she runs into Shouji's hot younger brother Ouji ... (The zipped volumes can be grabbed from here.) 4 volumes, completed.

¤ "Sheherazade" at condensation.us - Youko just started working as an office lady at a new company. According to the gossip, Shinogami, her boss, is cursed and any girl who gets involved with him will die. After a lively welcome party, a drunken Youko wakes up in Shinogami's bed. What will become of her?! (This zip can also be grabbed from here.) One-shot, completed.

¤ "Aisuru hito" - Sakiko is madly in love with her law school professor, and although he doesn't return her affections, she tries her hardest, forcing him to accept her as his 'mistress'. However, into Sakiko's life comes this hot guy Natsuo, who turns out to be her teacher's younger brother ... Love-triangle ensues! (Scanlation was previously done by Nekohana, later in cooperation with Eden, and these chapters can still be found in the Nekohana yahoo group (under "Links"/"Nekohana scans"). Now, Utopian Dream has taken over, and you can find the latest chapter on their page. Their releases are also mirrored by Alissa.) 4 volumes, in progress.

Below: a porcine page from "Itadakimasu" vol. 4 - Ouji, 18-year old high school student, had an important exam, and Naeko went to check the result lists to see how he did. She is shocked to find out that he failed, and now wonders if her attempts at cheering him on didn't quite have the desired effect ...
(Tonkatsu is Japanese breaded deep-fried pork cutlet.)



(Scanlation by condensation.us)

When I got up early this morning, I got an urge to let my piggies take my place in my bed. Maybe I wished I could go back to sleep, or maybe it was a subliminal message brought by the unusually porky colour scheme of my sheets ...
From left to right: Serpieri, Serilda, Severiina, Sergei Jr.



It seems Severiina woke up from the flash ...

I came across an article that, for a change, presented neither Kadyrov nor Putin as the ultimatly responsible for Politkovskaya's assassination, but the 'liberal' opposition in Russia. According to the author, she was the perfect victim for them to start an anti-Putin campaign in order to change the Russian regime, Ukraine-style.

I've summarised the article in my other blog. It's probably full of russicisms, but what the hell.

In my course on Publishing, we are currently immersing ourselves in the legal aspects of book publishing.

One of the course books is on general copyright laws ("Upphovsrätt i reklam och media" by Thomas Carlén-Wendels), and has a chapter about copyright laws on the Internet. There, one can read a fascinating paragraph about how, since the changes in the Swedish copyright law in 2005 (which were mostly supposed to crack down on piracy and illegal filesharing), any links leading to copyrighted material are technically illegal.

That means not only "direct linking" to an image, movie, music file etc. that someone else has made available on the net (which is generally already considered somewhat bad manners - accepted procedure is, rather, to link to the web page where the file is embedded, or where the originator has a link to it). But it also means any *page* with copyrighted text, images, film, music, layout, etc. that has "inventive step"/"non-obviousness".
And by making a link to that page, you "make it available for the general public", an action that is usually the same as "publishing", but turns a bit tricky when it comes to the Internet. If you don't have explicit permission by the originator to make the page available for the general public, you're breaking the law.
Since the Internet is pretty much built on the very principle of links without explicit permission, this is kind of funny.

The paragraph ends with the slightly sarcastic note that "there might be reason to not shut down the Internet until the new link issues have been tried in court ..."

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(I'm not breaking the law with my link to Wikipedia in this entry. That publication is under the GNU Free Documentation Licence ... %)

I made a video of the film clips of her that I hadn't yet used. I couldn't decide for a song, so I took three in one:



(19 Mb, 7.19 min, wmv - right click and save link as!)