Always Look at the Bright Side of Life

If it's raining when you go out running, people can't see how much you sweat!

Blue

"Name something edible that is naturally blue."

Ever had this conversation? Blueberries will be mentioned rather quickly, quickly countered by some smart-ass trying to claim that blueberries are in fact purple (lies!). Blue cheese might come up after some thinking, but "that's really more of a greyish turquoise sort of color". Grapes are usually purple with a red tint, like eggplant, but there are rather blue grapes as well.


Even while putting the nitpicking over where to draw the line for blue aside, the list usually ends there. Aside from the sky and the sea, blue is simply not a common color in nature. Most people forget, or don't know about, the potatoes! There are several variations that are blue. (Fine, purple!) In Sweden, Blue Almond is somewhat common. It has purple skin but white flesh. It makes for some excellent lilac mashed potatoes. Blue Kongo is a bit more rare around here but is deliciously blue all the way through.

Blue Kongo, eggs, spinach and salmon. AKA yesterday's dinner.


Google helped me find some other edible blue things that I had never heard of before.

Blue Corn. Like corn but blue.
Decaisnea fargesii, also known as Blue Sausage Fruit or Dead Man's Fingers. Contains seeds and a jelly-like pulp. Supposedly sweet but a bit bland.
Borage. An edible flower. Supposedly tastes a bit like cucumber and is said to be effective against PMS. I definitely need to start growing these as a remedy for bitchy female friends.

Know of anything else for my list?

Strawberries

Strawberries are awesome. If it's one thing I don't like about Japan it is how expensive fruits and berries are. (That, and the lack of liquorice.) Then again, I consider Swedish strawberries quite expensive as well, even during high season.

My family has always preferred doing things privately instead of hiring workers or buying finished products. We put up our own wallpapers, painted our own fence, built our own garage, grew our own potatoes, hunted our own elk and chopped our own wood. For my parents I think this do-it-yourself mentality wasn't just a way to save money, it was also how they were raised. My mother learned baking, sewing, knitting and other "women's arts" from her mother. My father came from a family of farmers and is himself a woodsman and a hunter. They in turn passed this tradition on to me and my siblings. My brother is almost finished renovating his apartment from the floor up, and my sister recently built herself a new bed and redecorated her room in all goth and emo.

As for me, ever the student, my living situation doesn't really permit for large scale projects. I did however gain a strong and rather inconvenient aversion to throwing things away (this piece of cardboard might be useful later, you never know...). Rather than going to a noisy and expensive coffee shop I much prefer buying a bag of cinnamon rolls and pigging out at home or in a park. I also can't stop myself from penny-crunching when I go shopping and, having picked bucket upon bucket upon bucket full of strawberries each summer, I just can't bring myself to buy those tiny packages at the store, "cheap" as they may be.

Since I moved out 7 years ago I've gone to visit my parents every summer. Unfortunately I always end up going in August, just after the strawberry season is over. This year I made sure to go a month earlier. Just for the strawberries.

The proper way to eat strawberries; covered in sugar and swimming in milk.

Gardening

My gardening projects are going well. The roses are in full bloom and the "torrents" I seeded are looking happy. They're getting pretty big now, so I opened up my homemade greenhouses today. Hopefully they'll survive the climate shift.


From left to right: Grenades (pomegranate), Kiwi, Bell Pepper, Passion Fruit/Flower. 2 more grenades and a passion at the bottom. In the middle are either two tiny tiny pineapples or (more likely) weeds.


The Kalanchoë sprung roots in midair so I cut that branch off and gave it a pot of its own.


A friend gave me a milk bush for Christmas. It's survivability is amazing. I forgot it at my brother's place when I moved and it was left without care and practically no water for 3 months. When I got it back it was looking very sad, but still clung to life in its dried out ball of dirt. I gave it a new pot and it's been growing happily ever since. Today I cut off top and put it in a separate pot. Hopefully it will root itself. In the background you can see the left over stump. That's how the plant looked when it back from my brother. Notice how much bigger the leaves are on the "happy" cut off in the front. In the small pot in the back are 2 orange sprouts. ^-^


The avocados are growing extremely slow. The first one is finally about big enough to be properly planted. The second one is just about to send out a root and the last one is showing no signs of life.


I went by school again. The teacher said that everyone who wanted to grab free books had probably done so already, so I should just go ahead and grab what was left. "遠慮なく。" I couldn't be bothered with all of it but I did get the remaining novels and a few other random books. It still took me three trips back and forth. This is the pile after I distributed some of it to Anna, Fasmin and Kuma-kun.

Summer

It's time for an update. I got the results from the exams; top grades on all of them! I usually don't brag about my grades but I'm pretty proud of these. I can honestly say that I worked hard for them and it's nice to see that it payed off. It feels great to be able to end the final Japanese course on a high note.

However, the Japanese studies continue. I've decided to take the Japanese Proficiency Test this year in order to have a goal to work towards. The highest level requires you to know all 2000 common kanji and about 10000 words. It's hard to say exactly, but I'm guessing I have about 600 kanji and 3-4000 words to cram before December. I'm trying to get as much as possible done before my new courses start in September. So my days are now spent cramming vocabulary, reading Japanese books, watching anime and eating rice. ;)

Speaking of reading, I brought back a rather sizable "library" from Japan. It was supposed to last me a couple of years, until I can go to Japan again. Unfortunately I underestimated myself and mostly brought manga and simple books. The only "real" books were the 12 Kingdoms novels. I've been going through it pretty fast, especially since classes ended, and was beginning to get worried of running out of reading material. Luckily the problem solved itself. The Japanese Department at school is being moved to another building and they can't be bothered bringing everything with them. They decided to give away some old books. 3 bookcases worth. I filled two bags, thinking that maybe I was being a bit too greedy, but was promptly told to come back again the next day for more. I didn't need to be asked twice.


There were all kinds of books to choose from but I went for the paperback novels. They look a bit small because Japanese is more compact than English, and a bit boring because they've lost their outer covers, but they're all regular size novels on all kinds of subjects. I think there's even a couple of sci-fi and fantasy in there. One thing is for sure, I won't run out of reading material for a while!

Great Success

I've been through the grinder today. Got up at dawn, did some last minute kanji reviews while drinking copious amounts of coffee, prepared a lunch box and then hurried off to the exams, starting 9 am.

The vocabulary test was a breeze. I can't believe I actually managed to cram all those words, but the last week really payed off. I have this great flashcard program called Anki that's been very helpful to me.

The exam in translation was bigger than expected, but went really well and I had time to spare. First there was a small unknown text to translate using our dictionaries, then 3 paragraphs without aids, from the texts we've used in class (being diligent in doing my translation homework paid off here), and finally there were some general questions related to the texts we've read.

Hardest was the exam in essay writing. It had two writing assignments (in Japanese of course). The first was to write a summary of a short article, the second to write a page analyzing and drawing conclusions from a set of diagrams. It was the kind of exam than can be difficult in your mother tongue, let alone in a foreign language. As it is, I think I managed to get all the essentials down but didn't have enough time to turn it into a "good" text.

I still have both a Bachelor's and a Master's Thesis to write, so I'm not quite done with Japanese yet, but there are no more courses and no more classes for me to take. Regardless of the results in the exams, I'm personally very satisfied with my efforts and feel that this is a good end to my academic studies of Japanese. I can move forward without regrets. Seeing as all the literature used in higher education is in English and that English is also my language of choice when writing, the translation course ended up being great not only for learning Japanese but also for recalling my Swedish. I should take more care not to forget it.

Coming home from the exams I was happy to discover that the passion fruit/flowers have also started to sprout now, and after only 1 day in water the new pineapple is already showing signs of rooting, so I might finally have a success. I must say I'm surprised at how well this little project of mine is going. I put down a lot of seeds hoping that at least one of them would sprout, but it seems plants love my window. I'm going to try growing some apple and cherry seeds too. You need to trick them into thinking that winter has passed by stratifying them in the fridge for 3 months before planting. That sure sounds like a challenge from Mother Nature, and oh baby, it's ON!

The Code

A weird thing happened to me this morning. I woke up while I was still dreaming. Or rather, my dream ended but my mind stayed active.

My brain was doing it's regular data compression, cleanup and defragging - the stuff that brains tend to do while your sleeping - all the while keeping my mind busy with those pretty images called dreams. Then suddenly the dream ended. The movie was snipped halfway through. But my brain kept on working and, suddenly, my mind could see what actually goes on behind the dream.

It was like a big wall of code, with letters somethings changing shape or shifting around. I wasn't dreaming anymore, in fact I was wide awake. I opened my eyes and could see my room around me. Yet at the same time I could still see the code rattling around just behind my eyes. It was as if I could see the binary code of the computer that is my brain. Now, here's the shocker; it was written in kanji!

Only computer geeks will get this, but imagine a computer that operates not on binary, base of 10 or even in hex, but in Base 2000+! It would be crazily fast and efficient.

Maybe everyone's brains operate in kanji.

Maybe it's just me.

Maybe it's because I have studied both programming and Japanese.

Maybe I'm unique.

Maybe I'm a genius!

Or maybe I'm just going mental from too much kanji cramming and too little sleep...

Armed and Ready!

The first results of my potted plant pirating business have reared their green heads! First out are 3 very tiny pirate kiwis and 2 pomegranates. The Swedish name for pomegranate is "granatäpple", meaning "grenade apple", so I now have two very tiny pirate grenade plants growing in my window. Not only am I taking down the potted plant industry, I'm growing my own weapons for "la revolución". ;) One of the Avocados also look ready to sprout any day now. As for the pineapple, I've had two failed attempts (they both rotted) but I've already got a new one and it's looking very promising.

I aced the kanbun exam today! It was way too easy. Everyone finished in 20 minutes, with an hour to spare. The listening comprehension went well too, although I don't like when the test is more about catching the trick question than actually understanding what they're saying. Also, some questions are really stupid.

- The restaurant manager is explaining the work order to a trainee.

"When you arrive in the morning, start by cleaning the place. Make sure the tables are tidy and that there are salt and pepper shakers on all of them. As for your waitress uniform, put that on after the cleaning."

Test Question: Should you put the uniform on before or after checking the salt and pepper?

My Question: Does it matter?

Cramming for the Finals

It's that wonderful time of the year again. Finals exams. Listening comprehension and kanbun (Classical Chinese/Japanese) on Monday, vocabulary, translation and essay writing on Wednesday. I'm confident about most of it. I need to review the text we translated and work out some bits at the end, but it shouldn't be too bad. I've been a good boy and done my homework. For the most part.

The big problem is the vocabulary. "Why, oh why didn't I start a week earlier?!" I spent half a week reviewing the 4 chapters I had already studied. Now I have until Wednesday to cram the remaining 8 chapter, that I haven't even looked at yet. You know you're about to burn yourself out when you study non-stop four days straight, and your reward to yourself is taking a few minutes off to clean the room...

Vote Center!

At least they're efficient...

Pirate Party at 5.1%

The Swedish Pirate Party gets 5.1% in the first poll for the European parliamentary election. This is the first political poll conducted entirely after the verdict in the Pirate Bay trial and it shows a remarkable step up from the 1% scored in a political poll conducted mostly before the verdict. Granted, the polls are for different elections (European Parliament vs. Swedish Riksdag) and may not be directly comparable, but the party has obviously soared in popularity over the last few weeks.

It should be noted that this poll for the European parliamentary election is rather unreliable because of the low interest and participation in the election. Over half of the people interviewed did not know who to vote for. Other research shows that less than half of the people plan to vote and two out of three say they have small or no interest in the election. The same was true in the previous election, in 2004, in which less than 40% voted. While this would seem normal in some countries, Sweden has a tradition of high participation in national elections. Compared to the 80-90% participation common in the domestic elections, the low interest in the European parliamentary election is a democratic disaster. General belief is that the decisions in Brussels doesn't affect us up here in the north, but the truth is that the majority of decisions taken even at a municipal level are influenced by directives from the union.

Don't Copy That Kiwi!

Socialist Sweden keeps sailing blindly into the Corporatist Ocean, with the Leftwing Union and the Blue Alliance competing over whose ships will lead the charge. Meanwhile Captain Falconwing and his purple pirates are sailing against the tide but with a good wind at their back, attempting to ram the fleet hard enough to turn it in a new direction. They are supported by a growing group of sailors, surfers and general beach lovers who want the waves to remain free. Together they are attempting to fight back against the inbred nobility and the trade companies.

Some propose a full trade embargo, refusing to buy or even pirate any warez from the companies. Others instead suggest showing resistance by stepping up piracy. There are even those who propose to throw the warez overboard without looking at them but to keep pirating non-stop and hitting ship after ship, thus stealing as much as possible and ruining the trade companies.

Surgubben has decided to make his stand by illegal potato production. He has bought a couple of legitimate potatoes and are now using them as prototypes in a home copying facility set up in his backyard. His plan is to share the pirated potatoes with his friends and family, thus allowing them to make more that they in turn can share. If this spreads the potato companies will soon be out of business.

Anna got me the tree for my birthday. I think it counts as modern art.

I've decided to follow suit. Since I moved in I've been wanting more color in my room. I bought a couple of licensed plants but they are so expensive that I can't fill my window the legitimate way. Thanks to Surgubben's example I don't have to! I bought a pile of assorted fruit and spent an evening ripping the zipped plants from the fruit. I had no use for the fruit itself afterward, so I just cut it up and ate it with some vanilla sauce. Wish those round plastic discs were as easy and environment friendly to get rid of...

Pomegranate, kiwi, physalis, orange, mango, avocado, passion fruit - can you tell what plant is in what .zip?

I've already started unpacking most of the plants in pots on my windowsill, albeit slowly. The pineapple seems to be rared instead of zipped, so the process is a bit different for that one. I also wanted to pirate some banana plants, but bananas sold in stores seem to be DRM protected.

Remember to keep seeding!

Pirate Bay Retrial?

A week after the verdict in the Pirate Bay Trial, comes news that the judge may have had a conflict of interest. If this holds true, the case will go back to the District Court for a retrial, instead of moving on to the Court of Appeals. Quite a twist to start off the Spectrial season 2.

SR P3 reveals (english) that the judge, Tomas Norström, has several connections to the plaintiffs.

• He, as well as the three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, are all members of the Swedish Copyright Association (SFU), an association sponsored by several other associations and unions related to the media industry. Most notably, they are sponsored by IFPI, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
• He sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (SFIR), an organization dealing with patent issues and supporting stronger copyright protection.
• He and one of the lawyers are working as colleagues for Stiftelsen .SE, the Swedish top domain. He claims their relationship is strictly professional.

This is but the latest of several accusations that the process against the Pirate Bay has been influenced by American and international interests.

• The Prosecutor in charge of the case, Håkan Roswell, stated that the site could not be charged, because the site in itself was not illegal. The Swedish Justice Department was contacted by the USA and the MPAA and shortly thereafter the prosecutor ordered the servers confiscated. The Minister of Justice, Thomas Bodström, was accused of Ministerstyre (a member of parliament influencing the handling of an individual case, illegal in Sweden) but was cleared of the charges.
• One of the officers in charge of the investigation was given a job at Warner Brothers Entertainment, one of the plaintiffs, merely two months after the investigation was concluded.
• Before the trial, one of the laymen (nämndemän) set to rule in the case was revealed, by the defense, to be a member of a musicians' organization supporting copyright. Judge Nordström had the layman replaced, to avoid suspicions of a conflict of interest, yet he does not consider his own affiliations awkward.

Regardless of any relation to the lawyers of the prosecution, a judge should obviously not be a member of an organization sponsored by a plaintiff. It is now up to the Court of Appeals to decide if the case should be sent back to the District Court or not.


English Sources:
The Pirate Party, BBC News

Swedish Sources:
SvD, Aftonbladet, Sydsvenskan

Rick Falkvinge, Jan Lindgren

Mr. Madeleine

Yesterday Aftonbladet ran an article about grown people wanting "opposite sex names". Apparently the Swedish Tax Agency, the authority handling issues such as these, thinks a man should not be allowed to name himself Madeleine. According to the article, the law states that names that may be considered offensive or that may cause trouble for the owner shall not be allowed, but does not specifically mention that certain names should be limited to a specific gender. The court in Sundsvall rules that a man can indeed be called Madeleine, but the court in Gothenburg has ruled in favor of the Tax Agency in a similar case. In other words, the law has been applied differently in different parts of the country. This is primarily of concern for the transgendered, and the LGBT rights organization RFSL has requested that the law be clarified and modernized.

Several readers have posted comments to the article, upset that "male" and "female" are being mixed up. However, arguments such as "the purpose of a name is to tell if the person is a man or a woman" does not consider unisex names such as Kim and Robin. There are also names that are considered male in some countries and female in other, such as Maria and Ann. Isn't the purpose of a name simply to identify a person in daily speech and writing? In my opinion a person uncomfortable with his or her name should be allowed to change it to something they can identify with, regardless of gender.

The purpose of the law is twofold. It prevents parents from giving children names that can be harmful to the child, i.e. names they will get bullied for, such as Poop, or Douchebag. (I will never understand why Americans name their children Dick.) This is to protect the children. Grown ups can call themselves pretty much anything. For example, there are 10 women and 8 men in Sweden legally named Pung, Swedish for Scrotum. Secondly, the law prevents names that can be offensive to other people, such as "Nigger" or "Grannyfucker". But a word is either offensive or it isn't. How can it be a suitable name for some (one gender) but not for others (opposite gender)?

A man who identifies himself as Madeleine and is called Madeleine by his friends and family, should be allowed to sign papers with Madeleine. Being forced to have different names in different contexts goes against the very purpose of having names to begin with. In legal and formal contexts a national identification number (social security number) is always required anyway, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. Let Madeleine be Madeleine.

Instruction Manual for Life

I found this floating around the net. I want my cupboard blue with stars on the side.

Pirate Party Continues to Rise

The Swedish Pirate Party continues to attract new members. The party gained over 5000 new members this Friday, after the verdict in the Pirate Bay trial was announced. On Saturday over 4000 joined, and as of writing over 3000 new members have joined today Sunday. By midnight tonight it is likely that the party will have doubled in size compared to before the verdict. In the process it has passed two of the current government parties to become Sweden's 4th largest party, in terms of membership. It is now roughly half the size of the Centre Party and the Moderate Party, and 1/4th the size of the Social Democratic Party.

While a high membership rate does not automatically guarantee a high result in an election, members are a necessary resource to fill any positions won. Young supporters need to be educated within the party in order to form the politicians of tomorrow. Most of the established parties have long struggled with failing membership rates, accentuated by low support amongst the youth. The Pirate Party shows a stark contrast to this with its rapid growth and large support amongst citizens under the age of 25. The party's youth section is almost half of its total membership, and on its own bigger that two of the established parties.

Red: Left wing, Blue: Right wing, Purple: Pirate Party

See the Pirate Party's website for more thorough statistics

Spectrial: Season Final

The season final of the Spectrial, the Spectacular Trial against the Pirate Bay, was aired before noon today. The show which began airing February 16th, was eagerly awaited and became an instant success amongst domestic and international viewers alike.

The basic premise of the show is tried and worn; the big evil corporations go after the common guy. He fights back and ultimately justice prevails. However, the way in which the show is delivered to the public is both new and exciting. Most notably, no cameras were allowed inside "the courtroom"; the main stage of the show. Tickets were few and hard to come by, the price on the black market was steep. A live sound feed was broadcast by SVT24 but this was hard to follow due to the unconventional air time. As a result, fans were forced to discover new ways of following the show.

While cameras were not allowed inside "the courtroom", computers were. This inspired certain fans to write transcripts of the dialogue and post them online, live from inside the studio. In effect they too became supporting actors in the show. For those unable to listen in live, the sound feed was soon made available for download from The Pirate Bay, the website featured on the show. In order to follow it you were forced to participate in it. The Spectrial is probably the grandest example of Deltagarkultur - interactive, participatory culture - to date.

The creators behind the television series Lost have made several attempts to expand the one-way television medium into a more interactive experience, for example by creating fake advertisements and websites, an the alternate reality game The Lost Experience. However, this all pales compared to the amount of preparation and background work put into the Spectrial. Creating the Pirate Bay years in advance, promoting it to be one of the largest websites worldwide, delaying legal alternatives, lobbying governments in Sweden, Europe and internationally in order set the "right political climate", thus making the show believable as well as creating an interested fan base towards whom the show could be marketed - it all shows a tremendous amount of capital and effort invested in creating the most spectacular show ever created. Lost used advertisements and websites to create a fake back story. The Spectrial is all real, and the outcome will have a real influence on our future society.

The season final aired today, highly anticipated after the show left us with a cliffhanger before going on a 1½ months hiatus. I won't spoil it by telling you the verdict, it is already readily available all over the internet should you choose to look for it. Suffice is to say that a lot of fans are now looking forward to the 2nd season. The show is still open ended and in the spirit of deltagarkultur, everyone has the possibility to influence. If you enjoyed the Spectrial, make sure to make your voice heard! What do you want the future to look like?

Note that in Sweden the European Parliament Election is on 7 June.

A lot of people are voting for freedom and integrity. The Swedish Pirate Party has gained close to 5000 members today, surpassing the Liberal Party. At the time of writing their 19290 members make them the 5th largest political party in Sweden, bigger than 3 of the 7 parties currently represented in the government. The Pirate Party is running for the European Parliament in the election on 7 June this year, as well as aiming for the Swedish government next year. The Pirate Youth Party also gained some 1500 new members, making it the country's largest youth party. Rick Falkvinge says congratulations.

Spectrial @ Bambuser (interviews, thoughts on the trial etc.)

The following links are all in Swedish I'm afraid. SPOILER WARNING!

Pirate Party blogs about the Spectrial season final: opassande, Calandrella, Christian Engström, Piratpartisten.

Season final in the news: DN, Expressen, SvD, Aftonbladet.

projO amongst others have excellent transcripts of the early episodes.

Plans for the Future

I wrote this post mostly to get my own thoughts straightened out, sorry if it's a wall of text.

It's that magical time of the year again. Spring. The sun is shining, love is in the air, fresh leaves cover the trees and flowers are popping up faster than bird poo on a picnic table. Easter is just a couple of days away, and it's time to apply for the fall courses. It's time for me to finally decide what to do with my life. My Japanese course ends in a bit over a month, and then what? Search for a job is a given, but that's an ongoing process. Meanwhile I need to try to stitch my education into something that is useful and attractive on the job market, while at the same time interesting for future study, as I want the Japanese government to give me that scholarship for two years of sponsored research.

Lets see, what do I have to work with? A BS in Software Development and a (as yet unfinished) BA/MA in Japanese. The BS by itself is very strong actually, if I may say so myself. I've studied object oriented programming, graphics programming, AI, physics etc. and I've always been excellent at math and logic. I have no doubt I could work as a programmer - and be good at it. Unfortunately there are some downsides. It's been 4 years since I practiced, I have no work samples and getting a job in Japan without references and unable to show up for an interview would be hard to say the least. So I would have to spend time on brushing up and producing work samples, and the 3 years of studying Japanese would be a waste. Japanese and languages are what I'm really passionate about these days, so I'm not really prepared to give that up.

The BA is a requirement for getting the Research Scholarship, so first of all I need to spend a semester on miscellaneous courses to finished that up. Then a second semester to finish the MA. But just knowing Japanese won't get me very far, neither in Sweden nor in Japan. So, I need to specialize somehow. After scrutinizing the course catalog I've narrowed it down to 3 main career options. Teaching, translation and "language technology".

With 3 semesters I could take the basic courses to become a certified teacher in Sweden. I suppose I'd be qualified to teach Japanese and even programming. Could get me a job in Sweden but won't be very useful for getting a job in Japan, nor for the scholarship.

For translation there are 3 ways to go. Specializing in Japanese by taking Linguistics, broadening with other languages such as Chinese or Spanish (or Bulgarian, just because GU offers more courses in Bulgarian than in Swedish) or to specialize in translating. The actual translation programme is 1-2 years and requires me to take 1 year of English and 1 year of Spanish in advance, so that's not really an option.

Language technology is a broad subject that combines language and science. It includes using computers to study language, programming computers to understand human language, automated translations etc. This sounds potentially interesting, and would merge my two degrees into a single strong education. The programme is 3 years long, but I think I'd be allowed to skip most of it, with my background.

While language technology sounds like the ultimate way to go, I'm actually more interested in teaching at the moment. It's something I could really get into, I think. What I'm considering for this fall is taking courses in linguistics full time, as well as a course in teaching Swedish to foreigners half time. Linguistics will be useful whichever path I choose, and the Swedish course will open up the option of becoming a Swedish teacher either here at home, or abroad in Japan or other countries, like China, the US or Spain.

Brave Story: A Retelling of a Classic

I forgot my bag at a friends place last week, with the next 12 Kingdoms novel inside. It took me a couple of days to get it back, so meanwhile I decided to pick up a Brave Story: A Retelling of a Classic (ブレイブ・ストーリー～親切～), a manga I was only halfway through. Story by Miyuki Miyabe (宮部みゆき) and art by Yoichiro Ono (小野洋一郎). It's 20 volumes long and is actually based on Brave Story, a fantasy novel also by Miyuki Miyabe, hence the "Retelling of a Classic". There's also an anime movie adaption.


Wataru, a young boy, has a crush on Kaori, but she only has eyes for Mitsuru, the mysterious new boy at school. One day Wataru stumbles upon "The Gate of Essence", a doorway to the world of Vision. Somewhere in Vision stands the Tower of Fate where one can have a wish granted by the goddess. When his father leaves with his mistress, and his mother subsequently tries to commit suicide, Wataru decides to enter the gate and change the destiny of his family.


It feels a lot more like "standard fantasy" than 12 Kingdoms does, in my opinion. In fact, it feels like a typical RPG; Boy travels the world, gets power ups along the way, etc. Like most fantasy mangas and animes, it starts out really nice but end up being mostly battle upon battle towards the end. Still, it's a nice enough story.


The movie is quite different. I believe it is closer to the original novel than the manga is, but I haven't read the book so I can't say for sure. I saw the movie while in Japan and I loved it, that's why I bought the manga. Only cost about 150 SEK in total, so I consider it a good investment. God I miss Book Off. Anyhow, if you like movies, such as Mononoke Hime, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle etc., I recommend you give Brave Story a try. I think it's available with English subtitles by now.

Green Fingers

Before moving here I decided that this time around I wanted my room to be "fresh and spacious" instead of the "stuffy bohemian" I usually end up with. As a step in that direction, I wanted a lot of those green oxygen factory thingies, so on my first visit to the local store I picked up two potted plants. They had small flowers that looked like roses, although the label said something else. They had passed their prime and wouldn't last long, but were on a discount because of this and only set me back a dollar each.

As expected, the flowers didn't last long, but the plants themselves seem to have taken a liking to the greenhouse environment over my heater. One of them is now sporting this full fledged 7cm rose. It's almost 3 times as big as the original ones!


I still have room for more plants by the way. Preferably the type that don't die when you forget to give them water. ;) My birthday is in 3 weeks. *hint hint*

I actually think plants are great gifts. They're keepers (unlike chocolate, wine etc.), don't get stuffed in a drawer and forgotten (unlike that random toy that grew old after 10 minutes), and they're not tacky (unlike that art piece you thought your friend would reaaaally like). There's always the risk that they will die of course, but that's up to the recipient.

I still have the palm tree my friend Christopher gave me almost 4 years ago, because he didn't want to bring it with him when he moved. We hardly ever speak nowadays, and see each other even less. Still, I send him a small thought every time my eyes fall on that palm. It has moved down to the floor now, having grown too big for the windowsill. Some plants, like my roses, wither and die unless given constant attention and nourishment, others just keep on growing even if you forget to water them for a month or two. Friendships are much the same.

I treasure my palms.