I was shocked this morning when I realised that I have the same model of glasses as foreign minister and motherfuck€r Carl Bildt. (Yes, I'm too tired to criticise him in a more intellectual way than using two different swearwords.)

Carl Bildt's glasses on the left, and a hot reporter with exciting eyebrows on the right:



My glasses:



They are cheap glasses from glasögondirekt.com, so I think it's a bit unfair that Bildt, who "has made himself rich on weapons and porn" (Aftonbladet.se, Nov. 10th 2006), should embarrass me like this ...

(Actually, he had them already back in 2003, so it was me who was happily unaware of this partner-look when I bought my glasses a year ago. Well, then it should be about time he exchanged them for a different model! I can't afford to change mine - at least not for such a stupid reason ...)

 

At the age of fourteen Proust was given an English album - "confessions: an album to record thoughts, feelings". Seven years later he published this questionnaire. In the literary salons in nineteenth century Paris, this parlour game was a popular amusement.

I got it from designboom.com, where the photographer Oliviero Toscani has answered it.


The main traits of my character.
Rootless cosmopolitan.

A quality I desire in a man.
Trustworthiness.

A quality I desire in a woman.
Strength of character, independence.

What I appreciate most among my friends.
Their sense of humour and their respect.

My principal defect.
I hate small talk (is that a defect?). Okay, I'm not always very good at handling stress, either.
Another fault might be that I always tend to blame myself when anything goes wrong. It might not really be a fault, but it's not always constructive, as many people, lacking responsibility, tend to prefer to agree with me.

My favourite occupation.
Drawing comics, playing 'hiding the sausage'.

My dream of happiness.
Being able to draw comics and play 'hiding the sausage' to my heart's content in total harmony with the rest of nature, growing my own food and not harming the ecosystem.

What would for me be the biggest misfortune.
That something would happen that would leave me alive but prevent me from drawing comics, such as my right hand being fatally injured, or me being incarcerated with not even toilet paper to use after comic books would have been banned by a fascist regime.

Whom I would like to be.
An even stronger, even more confident and even more compassionate version of myself.

Where I would like to live.
In an Anarchist utopia of direct democracy, small-scale agriculture and technologically advanced but still small-scale manufacture, close to the sea.

The colour I prefer.
Blue.

The flower I love.
I can't really think of any. Well, borages taste very good. (in Swedish they're called 'cucumber herb' because of their yummy cucumbrous taste ... :op)

The bird I prefer.
I especially like corvidae, not least rooks and ravens. Vultures are cool, as well.

My favourite authors.
Joyce, Hesse, Dostoyevsky, Viktor Pelevin, Harry Martinson, Tove Jansson.

My favourite poets.
Edith Södergran, Bob Dylan, Harry Martinson, Blok.

My heroes in fiction.
Manji and Magatsu in "Blade of the Immortal" by Hiroaki Samura, Sergeant Sirota in "The living and the dead" by Konstantin Simonov, Chubaty in "Still flows the Don" by Mikhail Sholokhov, Andryusha in "Mother" by Maxim Gorky.

My heroines in fiction.
Fee in "Planetes" by Makoto Yukimura, Hyakurin in "Blade of the Immortal" by Hiroaki Samura, Punk-Nana in "Nana" by Ai Yazawa, Idgie in "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café" by Fannie Flagg, Sonja in "Sonja O. was here" by Anja Kauranen.

My favourite composers.
Splin, Tchaikovsky, Viikate, My Dying Bride.

My favourite artists.
Gipi, Jaime Hernandez, Tove Jansson, Repin, Vrubel', Bilibin, William Morris.

My heroes in real life.
Sergei.

My heroines in history.
Himitsu von Nobara-ken.

My favourite names.
Last names: Sartorius, Kaban (the latter is likely to become mine next time I have to renew my passport ...). First names: Sergei.

What I hate most.
Opportunists, people who lack in compassion and responsibility and only care about themselves.
Also, when I myself unconsciously am doing things that used to hurt me when other people did them to me.

The historic characters I dislike most.
People who needed to compensate their lack of penis size (or lack of love and affection) with ideas of "greatness".

The military enterprise I like the most.
None.

The reform I appreciate the most.
A voluntary reform of the mind ... or something.

Nature's gift I would like to have.
A physical disposition more prone to growing strong, enduring muscles ... And the ability to pronounce a rolling 'r'.

How I would like to die.
At peace and content with my life.

My soul's present condition.
Transition. I've stayed too long in a no-good place, and the roots I grew are rotting. Soon I'll fall and roll somewhere else ...

The faults I can bear.
Difficult question ... I guess I might have some problems with that ...

My motto.
Don't waste time talking - just do it.

"Hälsningar från den dystra hårda provinsen" ligger uppe på Komika Magasin, Sveriges kanske bästa nätbaserade magasin om inte minst europeiska tecknade serier ... (Inte för att det skulle finnas alltför många konkurrenter om den platsen.)

Jag hade gärna velat göra en personlig intervju med Gipi, men han var iväg på festivalen i Lucca. Det hade också känts lite onödigt att fråga om "allmänna" saker, och påträngande att fråga om mer "intima" detaljer. I de intervjuer jag har läst med honom har han för det mesta varit rätt undvikande i fråga om sin personliga bakgrund, så det är kanske hur som helst mer illuminerande att läsa hans serier om man vill veta mer om honom.

http://www.dn.se/content/1/c6/52/61/17/nemi_20060920.gif

När jag fick veta vem min f.d. pojkväns nya flickvän är blev jag väldigt glad och lättad, eftersom hon så vitt jag minns är både snygg och smart. Om hon hade varit ful och korkad och jobbat på Telia hade det ju fått mig att se dålig ut!

Fast vänta nu ... Cyans skräckbild påminner ju lite om mig: "en felfri underklädesmodell som pratar sju språk flytande och ger blowjobs medan hon tillreder gourmet-mat med den ena handen och skriver ut checkar till föräldralösa barn med den andra!" Okej, jag är inte underklädesmodell, jag talar bara fem språk flytande, och de tre sista sakerna brukar jag inte göra samtidigt ...
Fast å andra sidan kan jag inte uttala ett rullande "r".

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.