Weblog | I don't like the word blog, it's ugly. Anyway, new content happens here. (Swedish dito)

About me and the site | Twenty-something male who likes text. Obsessed with things such as books, reality, communication, and one or two tv-shows.

Archives | Things written here since... well, 2001. Some of it is good, some is utter shait.

Books | Books read, not books written. So far I've struggled to maintain unpublished.

Photo | I like my camera and it likes me.

Links | Outwards, away, flee.

e-mail | J. Nicklas Andersson

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Non-label music for sale

While surfing around on CD-wow — they might be cheap but it’s expensive in the long run for me — and came across the unsigned category. It’s a brilliant idea. A net-retailer who sells CDs with smaller bands not on any label is a good thing in my book. It demands a bit more of the quality than your average local band’s demo. It is a step in the right direction, but as usual there are some smaller (and bigger) flaws of course — only payable by cheque being one of them. Still, neat idea.

That thing shouldn't produce smoke

Without any warning — because hey, it wanted to follow the old beaten path of tradition — my network interface card started to spread a smoke-like odour. At first, when I saw the smell I was worried that it could have been the CPU. But it wasn’t, thank God. Everything inside was pretty cool except for the NIC. Which smelled even worse than it did from the outside.

I don’t like when my electronic toys begin to smoke for no reason. It makes me uneasy. They shouldn’t do that.

In other unrelated news, Plank is a very nice man who knows what to offer persons in Buffy-withdrawal. (Eh? Nothing of that sort, it just involved a couple of cds.) Very nice. Send him gifts.

Photo fix-ups

I spent an hour or two fixing things that had gone wrong with the previous (almost unused) photolog. Beside the galleries that consisted of pictures taken during a specific event, I added three categories for continuous updates.

I think it is a step in the right direction. I know there isn’t a way to comment the photos, but that’s a side effect of the fact that I update it — Shock! Horror! — by hand. I didn’t see any reason to use a clumpsy CMS to manage something I still need to resize and whatnots.

Fantastika 2003

I’m still a bit wired from this weekends sf-con. I have things to write, as I’ve promised Sten that I’ll write about the etymological dictionary I snatched up as it slipped by his otherwise preying gaze in my next fanzine. Since he hadn’t seen it in the first place, I could see nothing faulty in my behaviour. It is about words that have their origins as names. (Did you know that pamphlet comes from the main character in a 12th Century poem about a pimp? Fitting, yes?)

The con was a lot of fun, although the ad hoc power struggles between different parts of the building that housed the con did its best to wound it mortally with bizarre policies — it did succeed to make it bleed towards the evening when it became hard to enter the building after 18:00.

I sat down mostly and managed to ignore more of the programme than ever before. Two panel discussions I had to attend as I was in the panel — no way out there. But I can’t really complain though. One was about the silly mainstream vs genre literature. I see them as literature only, and try to find good books period, no matter what marketing gimmick it says on the spine. The other panel was about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

However, I have had serious thoughts about one of the other things I went and saw as a passive audience: the fan guest of honour interview. I don’t think it is a part of the programme, so I shouldn’t feel guilty that I was there and watched it. Not that I do, but still, sort of. Anyway, some (but not much) beer and whisky was drunk, and food eaten. Meet nice people too.

Best in Show - at last and a bit late

I lied of course when I said that I would write about Best in Show yesterday. I’ll write about it today instead. And make no mistake, this is just a cover-up as I had forgotten all about it until now.

It was good. No, better than good. A delightful comedy made with a lot of warmth instead of the usual sniperesque “laugh at these pathetic people everyone”. Another good thing is that it grows on you. The first time I saw it, it was good. The second, I laughed even more. And on the third time I was floored. I liked the fact that Parker Posey had bracers. You couldn’t see them most of the time, but they were there. (Does she like to do things with her teeth? In Josey and the Pussycats she had the imperfection-transformation at the end where they gave her a gap between the front teeth.) The small things made everything much better as a whole and everyone seemed to do what was right for the part instead of just be there and look their best.

Go see it if you have missed it. Same goes for every other Guest-movie.