Monday 27 July 2015

5 Morning Musume songs that I really disliked before they grew on me

1. Seishun Kozou ga Naiteru


2. Toki wo Koe Sora wo Koe


3. Pyoco Pyoco Ultra


4. Onna ga Medatte Naze Ikenai


5. Kimagure Princess

Thursday 23 July 2015

What I've been up to lately (games, music, books, work)

It occurs to me that I haven't really been blogging about what I've been up to lately. Last post about that is from over a month ago. So let's see if I can remember what's happened since then! :)

17-18th June were my last days at the day centre. I felt a little sad about that because I felt like I really got to know them during my month there, and no matter how infuriating they might get sometimes your heart still warms when they smile or laugh or want to hold your hand. I'm still not sure if a job in caring is really something I want. It really has its perks ofc, most jobs do, but I do remember the horror I felt when I apparantly had done something wrong according to them, but I had no means to figure out what it was. That was definitely heartbreaking.

19-30th June were Midsummer and then one of my few free weeks this summer (except on the 29th when I worked for a few hours). I spent it reading (By Blood We Live & Dragon Age comics) and gaming (Civ V, Clash of Heroes & HoMM V), like any proper nerd would. Except on Midsummer when we had some people over for partying.

1-6th July I was working at the tourist agency. Getting up at 6.30 am every morning was no easy adjustment after a year of waking up past noon. But I really like this job. I feel like I'm good at it, and that's the best feeling in the world. The 3rd July was also the day that I went to my third Alice Cooper concert and loved every moment of it.

7-12th July I was in Malmö with Toni, visiting my parents and going to the local annual festival. I'm pretty sure it was my 15th consecutive year there :) The only festival where local (ish) bands like Perikles, Joddla med Siv, Danne Stråhed, Hasse Andersson, and Timbuktu are more popular than national artists like Måns and Ola Salo xD (and Hardcore Superstar, which we saw for the second time this summer). Toni and I also went to see Jurassic World (finally!), which I loved. I adored all the references to the first movie in it :3 We also took a trip to the local Sci-Fi book shop and I got two new books (the vampire novel and a pirate novel) and two of my favourite Classic Who stories on DVD (The Mind Robber and The Daemons). I also read four books while I was there. (Inmurade, Hollow City, Creepypasta, and Catching Fire)

13-16th July I was once again working at the tourist agency. I also started up a new playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition because Sera Was Never showed up on my iPod and gave me the itch to play it again. My favourite tavern tune from the game. I once again play as a Dalish elf (I love my elves), but this time I was a mage, and while I had originally planned on romancing Sera this time around, I just couldn't. I got to the first kiss and it just weirded me out. Not because it was a lesbian romance - don't think that - but because it was Sera, my best friend Sera in all my other playthroughs, so much my best friend that I've permanently friend-zoned her and thinking of her as anything other than a friend weirds me out. So instead I got it on with Bull, but his romance didn't fit with an elf imo, so I changed to Cullen. Cullen in Inquisition is like Alistair in Origins or Fenris in 2. No matter how hard I try not to, I always feel like I'm cheating on them if I romance someone else in a different playthrough.

On the 17th I had one of my few days off for the rest of the summer. And during this day we bought new computer chairs, and also got around to do some serious grocery shopping. So much for a nice quiet day at home, huh xD

18th-today I've been working on the tourist agency. It's been going well. Yesterday my parents arrived in Stockholm for a mini-holiday, and we took the opportunity to have dinner with them. It was very nice :) My mum always had a way of collecting every single brochure she could find when we went on holidays when my sister and I were little, so I saved her the trouble this time and gave her one of each from work. They laughed a while at that, but seemed to appreciate it xD Today they came and visited me at work, while I was hiding from the rain under the folded-up trunk-hatch in the mini-car I work from some days.

Sunday 19 July 2015

Books, a lot of books!

Last time I posted anything about books was when I had read Stjärnklart by Lars Wilderäng (unless you count the Dragon Age comics as a book) and I thought it was about time I blogged about something. Since my life nowadays is mostly work and computer games I decided to make a book post! Since Stjärnklart in in the middle of June I've read five books :)

By Blood We Live is a short story anthology of vampire stories by various writers. The only reason I bought this anthology was because it said Neil Gaiman on the cover. Normally it takes a long time for me to read anthologies, but this one I finished in a week. You know when you read anthologies and there are always, always some stories that you love and some stories that you just want to end because you just don't like them? This wasn't true for this anthology. I loved every single story in this book! But, of course, I have a few favourites among them anyway.
Snow, Glass, Apples, by Neil Gaiman. A dark take on Snow White. I love his twists on classic fairy tales. The Sleeper and the Spindle is his most recent, but this was amazing as well. Turning Snow White into the villain and the Evil Queen into the victim.
The Master of Rampling Gate, by Anne Rice. Of course the queen of vampire stories put forth a master piece. A classic gothic vampire tale. Loved every bit of it.
Under St. Peter's, by Harry Turtledove. So blasphemous. Absolutely wonderful.
Child of an Ancient City, by Tad Williams. An Arabian take on the vampire legend. Different, but definitely amazing!
Endless Night, by Barabara Roden. Another classic version of vampires, which in my mind had a sort of Lovecraftian feel to it. But that could be just because this tale and At the Mountains of Madness take place in Antarctica.
The Vechi Barbat, by Nancy Kilpatrick. A tale that makes you wonder. I'm still not sure what really happened in this story or who's actually the vampire, but the ambiguousity of the story makes it one of the best ones in the book.
Blood Gothic, by Nancy Holder. A tale where the vampire is just a figment of imagination, but still so very real to the main character.
Sunrise on Running Water, by Barbara Hambly. Vampires can't cross running water, but this one gets on the Titanic.
Necros, by Brian Lumley. There's a twist, and it's a good one. Modern vampire tale, but with a sort of classic bogeyman take on the vampire.
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky, by John Langan. The only pure horror story of the lot with a military twist. It was strange, but extremely captivating.
One for the Road, by Stephen King. Since it's King this was also a kind of horror-ish story, and also a side story to Salem's Lot. Felt like it had some of American Gods in it, but maybe it's the other way around :P

Inmurade by Lena Ollmark is a Swedish children's horror novel. I expected plain, easy-to-understand, and predictable characters. I didn't get any of it. I liked this a lot. It was simple and explicit at the same time, and it reminded me of those Swedish horror story anthologies I used to read when I was little. Ghosts of children and a sad tale of a blizzard that took lives just after the end of World War I. Can't wait for the next part, this one ended in a cliffhanger!

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs is the second book in Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children. It wasn't as good as the first one (sequel's never are), but that twist at the end had my eyes falling out. It was perfect! And so unexpected! And I loved it! And I can't wait to see what happens in the next book!

Creepypasta by Jack Werner is... I'm not sure whether to call it a non-fiction volume since it collects a bunch of tales from the Internet and presents them so that even people who don't spend all their free time online will understand their circumstances, or if it's a horror story anthology... In any case it's a book filled with urban horror stories from Creepypasta and they are collected into a book, in Swedish, by a Swedish journalist. I had read a few of these before. Like the stories about Slender Man, JVKN66Z.ESP, the Rugrats one, The Soviet Sleep Experiments, and SCP-173, and they weren't as scary the second time. The one that really got to me however was Anansi's Goat Man Story. It scared the hell out of me! (Probably wasn't a good idea to read it in the middle of the night) I rushed through the dark hallway to the bathroom afterwards, scared to look into any of the open doorways on the way, terrified that I'd see a slack-jawed, passive face staring back at me. Actually, the entire Goat Man chapter was hell on my nerves and I'm surprised I was able to sleep without nightmares that night.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second part in The Hunger Games trilogy. I read the first book last year and was pleasantly surprised, so I decided to continue the series and bought the second book. I only got around to reading it now, but damn! Loved it. I see what people love about this series. Now I really want to get my hands on the third book and find out how everything ends! This is it! I'm a fan!

Right now I'm reading Mortal Coil, by Derek Landy. It's the fifth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series! I'll get back to you on that one :)

Saturday 4 July 2015

Alice Cooper #3

Yesterday I saw Alice Cooper live for the third time :) First time was in 2011 and second time was last year on Sweden Rock Festival.

I had been looking forward to the 3rd of July since the beginning of this year. This was a big deal and a big day! I worked in the morning and then afterwards I met up with Toni and went to Gröna Lund, the same place where I saw Cooper in 2011. We spent the afternoon riding every single roller-coaster there, then we had some dinner, ice cream and drinks before we went to the stage with a bunch of friends (though we lost the friends in the crowd). To begin with we were standing a little to the side, but the crowd was so tight and most of the time I couldn't even see the backdrop, sometimes I caught a glimpse of it. So I pushed us through the crowd to stand basically in the middle (where the pressure from people was less) where I could see a lot better. I was so excited!

The show started at exactly 8pm. Not a minute late. The Underture and Hello Hooray first which I hadn't heard live before. Then we went through
Lots of classics, both newer (90's and forward) and old (70's-80's). I was basically jumping around excitedly when I heard the first note for Feed My Frankenstein because I adore the theatrical scenography that always accompanies that song!
 Mad Scientist Alice performs an experiment. He enters this box and something goes wrong, out comes this big-ass dude that sings the rest of the song

I adored Hey Stoopid and Welcome to My Nightmare. Then when Ballad of Dwight Fry started playing I was almost in tears. I love that song so much. During it the girl who played Nurse Rozetta licked his face and I said "Can I lick his face too?"

The second to last song was Poison. I recognised it immediately along with about a fourth of the audience and we started cheering like crazy. Then the music really kicked in and the rest of the crowd noticed what song it was. I said "You so slow people!" out loud :P Then they left the stage, people continued cheering and they came back on singing School's Out with Another Brick in the Wall in the bridge.

Other than Alice there was someone else who caught my eyes on that stage - his new guitarist Nita Strauss. Damn, that girl can play! She was frickin amazing. She needs some amazing credit. The fact that she was lying down on the stage and still playing... and the fact that she delivered the best solo I've heard in a while.

This time was so much better than at SRF. He had a lot more energy this time and it was great, he was amazing. At the end he shouted "See you with Mötley Crüe!" making it almost worth it to buy tickets to the Mötley Crüe concert in November if Alice is gonna be there.


Been listening to Ballad of Dwight Fry the whole day