Hello, blog. It's been a while.

So... It's snowing, It's awesome. Not that it'll stay, although I wish it would.

I love snow. I realized why today. It's because everything goes so quiet. It's the same reason why I'm such a night owl - night is quiet. In snow, everything i muted. And I suppose it also gives winter a sort of mystical aura.

So, I started planning for Christmas. I know, not yet Thanksgiving. But I don't really celebrate thanksgiving. I usually just eat a token turkey leg or something. But Christmas this year will hopefully be at least a bit fun. Okay, it's always a bit fun. I've planned all the food already. Even calculated the cost (about 1800 kr/£161/$200, for a total of 2-3 people. But the food will last for a couple of days).

Also, N7-day happened. I love Mass Effect. I love BioWare Games. Lots of fun. And lots of news and stuff from N7-day. However, still no real game play, and no release date. Boo! We'll see at the game awards at December 1.

Holding me over to ME:A will be Final Fantasy XV. I've just been waiting for like 11 years. But I can be patient. Really liked Brotherhood, the anime they released, and liked Kingsglaive, it was pretty and action packed. While Brotherhood is watchable for all anime fans, however, Kingsglaive.... is not. Not really. I think you really have to be a Final Fantasy fan, or even FFXV fan, to appreciate it.

I've decided to update this blog with all the Christmas-y stuff I (plan to) do on my Swedish blog. Pics and recipes and stuff. I count down to Christmas with pretty pictures. So here's today's pictures:

Laterz, ppl! I'm... burning chicken......

E3 2015: General reflections

Dull. With sprinkles of cool, interesting, overhype and FUCK YEAH!s. Sony won. There, I said it.

Ok, let's start from the top.

Bethesta's press conference was really one-note. Doom, Fallout 4, Doom, Fallout 4, Battlecry, Dishonored 2, Elder Scrolls Legends, Fallout 4, Fallout 4, The Sims: Fallout edition... eh... I mean.... Fallout 4.... Doom. That's about it. Boring as a press conference, but don't take me wrong, it was nice to see Bethestas new works, especially Dishonored 2.

Microsoft..... It was nice to see Microsoft give some time the the Indies. Backwards compability was also nice to see, might invest in an Xbox1 now. New controller.... nah.... still, if you're in to that... VR has never really interested me, so I wasn't all that impressed. It was more of a bore. The whole thing was a bit of a bore. Still, there were some games that I really wanted to looke closer at.

EAs press conference started on a highnote. I was absolutely hyped for that one. It was a quite even showing, some games I was curious about, some that I was not. But of course they showed sports. And lots of it. And for some reason, they spend 20 minutes talking to Pelé. About football/soccer. Not about games. Why?

Ubisoft knows how to put on a show, but the show is starting to get a little tired. I like Aisha Tyler, but man does she talk fast sometimes. Geez, lady, slow it down, you sound like you're about the miss the last train home. Anyway, it was nice to see Anno again.

Sony won. There, I said it again. Sony knows how to hype up a crowd, and for Square Enix to give Sony their best thing was... Odd, but I think it was strategic. The Sony Press Conference must have been bigger then SEs. Sony said they were going to break the internet. They succeeded.

Nintendo creeped me out! I never liked puppets of any kind, even as a kid. I can stand the Muppets, but only just and barely. Otherwise, not much of a showing, unfortunately. It feels a little like Nintendo has given up.

Square Enix was a bit of a repeat. They gave all their best to Sony, and therefore their own showing felt a bit thin. It was also the last press conference I watched, maybe I was starting to feel the toll of being awake two nights straight.

I shall go into detail about what I though about the games shown in seperate posts.

När automatiseringen är trasig...

Den otänkta tanken. Har du någon sådan? Jag gissar på att du har många. Automatiska. Automatiserade tankar och handlingar du gör varje dag. "Vaken", "gå upp", "åt frukost", "borsta tänderna", "kläder på". "Andas". Otänkta tankar, automatiska handlingar, små riter. Om varje person hade börjat dagen med 100 poäng att använda till allt som ska göras på en dag. så hade du inte använt mer än kanske 2 när du kommer utanför dörren på morgonen, på väg till jobbet. "Glöm inte att låsa". 3p.

Jag? Är väl uppe i 10-12, när vi båda står där, på varsitt håll, med nycklarna i handen. Du låser, nästan automagiskt, stoppar ned nycklarna och går. Jag stirrar på nycklarna. Låsa, var det ja. Låser. Känner metallens kyla mot mina fingrar, hör låset gnissla lite, klicka till. Stoppar nycklarna i fickan. Ytterligare två poäng "slösade". Medveten om det. Jag måste. Min automatisering är trasig. Hade jag inte varit medveten hade jag aldrig borstat tänderna, inte låst dörren. Kanske inte klätt mig heller, i alla fall inte i något vettigt. Kanske till och med gömt att andas. Inte lika medveten tanke, kroppen är finurlig, andas ändå. Men ibland glömmer jag, automatiseringen hänger sig.

Vad gör du mer automatiskt? Tar med dig den där boken som ska stå i bokhyllan i sovrummet, men du har legat på soffan och läst? Helt automatiskt, utan att egentligen tänka? Ställer tillbaka, lägger rätt, plockar undan? Äter när du är hungrig? Sover när du är trött, och "får" sova? Grattis, det funkar. Din automatisering fungerar. Vill du titta in i mitt bombnedslag?

Nu, exakt den här sekunden, ska jag..... Det var för flera timmar sedan. Men NU ska jag..... för en halvtimme sedan. NU. För en kvart sen. Men nu tusan ska jag i alla fall. 

Kommer inte hända. Jag har ingen startknapp. Eller, om jag har en så är den i någon annan dimension eller så.

Måste göra.... Jag ska, nu. Upptäcker att timmar har gått timmar senare. Vad jag gjort under tiden? Ungen aning. Kanske spelat, kanske suttit på FL, kanske stirrat in i väggen, tankarna någon annanstans. Skulle skriva lite. Den tanken fick jag för flera veckor sedan, har fortfarande inte gjort något åt det. Ska städa i sovrummet. Lovar på morgonen. När kvällen kommer är ingenting gjort. Lat? Nej. Inte alls, men jag har ingen startknapp, ingen som jag själv kan trycka på. Någon annan måste trycka, då ordnar det sig. Trycka, och hålla intryckt. Jag städar gärna, men du måste hålla mig sällskap, då måste trycka på knappen och du måste hålla den intryckt tills jag är klar. Jag skriver gärna, men du måste finnas i närheten, du måste trycka på knappen, annars riskerar jag att tänka mer än jag skriver.
Tänka. Tänka tusen tankar. Tankar som inte får plats, tankar så tränger bort de otänkta tankarna. Tankar som förstör automatiseringen, tankar som blockerar startknappen. 

Jag hoppas att i alla fall du fungerar. Att du är lite lagom normalstörd, och inte helknäpp, som jag...

Throwing in some writing

As always, it's been forever. I don't care. I'm just going to throw in some writing.

“Do you know the most important skill of an amber-cobalt mage?”

                Jayden Iston, mage adept, Sensitive, twin-born and foster son to the Queens Alchemist, chewed his lower lip thoughtfully, brown eyes thoughtful.

“Calling familiars”, he ventured.

                His foster father Sori Asaton shook his head. Wrong. What then?

“Not flooding the apartment”, Jayden’s sister Ella chimed in with a giggle.

                Sori turned on her.

“So eager to get a lecture of your own, mage adept”, he asked.

                She made a comical face, drawing a giggle from her brother.  Sori rubbed his temples.

“:10-yearolds:”, he Mind-spoke to his domestic partner.

“:Need help, ashke:”, Nathan asked, humour in his mind-voice.

                Sori didn’t reply.

“Jayden”, he prompted instead.

“I don’t know”, the 10-yearold whispered, sounding rather ashamed.

“Jayden”, said Sori gently. “Why do you feel shame for not knowing?”

“You asked me. I should know.”

“Have you been told before?”

                Jayden looked uncertain and confused, despite knowing that he had never heard the answer before.

“The most important skill of ANY mage is focus, concentration”, Sori explained. “So perhaps you should listen too, Ella.”

                Ella started out of her reverie at that. She slipped down form the window sill and came to stand beside her twin, looking a bit sheepish. They looked so alike. Sori wondered how long that would last. Another two years? Three? Then Ella would probably start growing into womanhood, and Jayden would soon after that start growing into manhood, and they would no longer be able to be what they were. Always twins, but soon, different.

“Now Listen. Feel. Find the Flows and reach out to them. They are there, for you to use.”

                The Flowing Colours concentrated and glowed in the work room, at Soris will and demand. It was as if the whole room slowly filled with the rainbow. The two feline familiars in the window where Ella hand sat raised their heads, curious.

“You have already been chosen by the elements, your colours”, said Sori. “Now draw on them. Reach out with your thoughts, call on them.”

                Jayden didn’t really understand what he was supposed to do, but he tried anyway. He imagined that the flowing beams of colour were ropes, and his mind had hands. He reached out for the thick blue rope with his minds hands.

“Careful, siha”, Sori said, encouragingly.

                Jayden tried, but it was like trying to grasp and hold on to water and wind at the same time, and it burned with cold. He shirked back, looking shocked.

“Don’t worry”, Sori said calmly. “Take a breath. Try again.”

                He turned his attention to his foster daughter. She wasn’t faring much better, but she was infinitely more stubborn. Rather than Jayden’s rope-and-hands mental image, she was imagining herself as a magnet and tried to attract both her blue and red colour flows at the same time. She did affect both Flows, but not a lot.

“Concentrate on the red, Ella”, Sori said softly, keeping in mind that Jayden was reaching for the blue.

                Ella frowned and concentrated on the red Flow. It bent, slightly but visibly, as if she was pulling on a rubber band.

“Good”, Sori smiled. “Try to keep it just like that, don’t pull any further.”

                Jayden, not wanting to be up-staged by his sister, reached for the blue Flow again.  He tugged at it. It was heavy, too large for his minds hands and it was cold and wet and slippery, like a rope of melting ice. And it refused to budge. Frustrated, he tugged harder.

“Calm down, Jayden”, Sori warned. “Try to part the Flow instead. You can only use the darkest part anyway.”

                But Jayden wasn’t listening. He tugged at the Flow as hard as he could. It didn’t budge, it exploded. The workroom was covered in a sheet of ice, icicles grew from the ceiling and from the perch where Sori’s starling familiar sat. She ruffled her feathers indignantly. Sori hastily let the Flowing Colors dissipate and fade. Jayden looked around, stunned and a little dismayed at what he had done. Ella had slipped as she lost control of the red Flow and sat on the ice, surprised and a little cross at her twin. Sori was about to as them both if they were alright, but at that moment, Ella started to giggle. It bubbled up in her, she was unable to stop it. She Heard and Felt Jayden’s shock and surprise and increduelty and she giggled as if someone was tickling her, and Jayden joined in. He crouched down in the icy floor, hid his face against his knees and laughed harder than he probably had since he came here with his sister 6 years ago. Ella suddenly pushed him so he slipped and ended up on his side on the ice. The two feline familiars, Ella’s white lynx cub Sol and Jayden’s amber tiger cub Mari, jumped down and joined in the game, and the four of them became a slipping, jostling heap of laughter. Sori smiled shook his head and decided that they were done with lessons for today. 

Getting Monday of my chest (open letter to the users and owners of Familjeliv.se)

So, the hacker attack on Familjeliv left me a bit drained. Mostly because of the nonchalance of the people on Familjeliv. Here’s the rundown:

A hacker found a nice little hole in the session cookies at large, parent-targeted Swedish forum Familjeliv.se, and decided to take action. According to the first hacker, he did NOT want to do anything malicious, but as Familjeliv.se didn’t heed his previous warnings about this hole, he decided that drastic action was called for. Adding a little extra code to the session cookies, he could basically hi-jack anyone’s account and surf around pretending he was them. He, and he alone, did this Sunday night, doing nothing but demonstrating what could be done with that hole. As far as I noticed, he stuck to one forum thread that night, only replying to other users that posted in his thread. That thread, however, was shut down late Sunday night. Monday noon, when I first logged in, he was at it again, this time more persistently. He maintained, however, that he meant no harm and only wanted familjeliv.se to take some action. I here suspect that he himself is a member of the forum, and really was only concerned with his own and other forum members safety. Over the course of Monday afternoon, though, things escalated. I cannot say and wish not to speculate in whether or not it was the original hacker that posted the hack on the other largest (way larger and wider) forum targeting a Swedish audience, Flashback.se, but it ended up there somehow. After that, users of famljeliv.se got their accounts hi-jacked left and right, their accounts were used to post things they did not support, some people were “outed” in threads where they wished to be anonymous, and so forth. Fortunately, this seems to have amounted to some more or less harmless inconveniences, and the worst of it seems to have amounted to one user having their password changed. Some people might have to regain some reputation. Personally, I only had a couple of posts written by myself to myself, and a lot of logout forced by… well, someone. Exasperating, to be sure, but harmless.

The worst bit about this hacker attack was not the attack itself, but rather the MASSIVE silence from Familjeliv.se. They deleted some threads the hacker started to show what he had found, but refused to say anything on the subject. I say refused, because today, an internet news site publicized a short article on the subject, where they had also interviewed the boss of familjeliv.se, where she stated that “We were aware of the problem as of 18.00 Monday night and the problem was fixed at 18.19. It took us 20 minutes to come up with a fix. This is no big deal, our users needn’t worry.” Yeah, I call bullshit. As I stated above, the hacker had already been in the night BEFORE and he had had forum threads DELETED the night before. Familjeliv.se were CLEARLY aware of the problem. So, here’s my guess: It was Sunday night, Easter, and they couldn’t be less bothered. It can WAIT. Let it wait till after Easter (which would be today, Tuesday). That’s my guess at their reasoning. However, and I don’t know how much this has anything to do with their more expedient handling of it all, I didn’t want this to get any worse, and decided to take action. Now, I’m just a lowly member of a forum that doesn’t even have a member rep system, but I started a forum thread, calling attention to the problem and stuck to my guns on it. I did not let this “can’t-even-promote-threads-to-sticky-forum” defeat my will to reach as many of the users as possible. Making sure my thread, giving info not only that the hacker attack  had occurred, but also what to do to make sure the hackers didn’t use any certain user’s account, didn't get lost in the shuffle, I forfeited my work, my poker tournament and my dinner for it. Of course, other users soon came in, helping me out, for which I am very, very grateful. You all have huge amounts of my gratitude, and you should have Familjeliv.se’s, as well. And still, Familjeliv.se has barely commented on the attack… They posted ONE lousy, tech-speech-ladled forum thread in which YOU CAN’T EVEN ASK ANYTHING ABOUT THE INCIDENT! It’s locked for comments. Not because it got flooded with questions, it’s empty. The questions land instead, of course, in my forum thread. Hopefully, they get answered (I must here apologize for not being available in the thread, I have had connectivity issues as well as log-on issues….)

So, that became a long rant. I probably had more to say, but if so, it’s gone now. I hereby want to thank all the forum users that made sure my thread about the incident didn't get lost in the shuffle, and give my promise that if this ever happens again, and I notice it, I WILL make sure you know about it and I WILL be badgering the support team about it.

Yours sincerely

Aniiee

Oh, and…. Don’t go too hard on the mods about this. They were just as vulnerable as anyone else, and there are not nearly enough of them to be everywhere all the time. 

Short messages to all kinds of people everywhere

Dear Christians!

Thank you for the Bible. It's totally yaoi-licious.


Dear radical feminist!

Thank you for voicing your opinions. You always make me laugh at your absurdities.


Dear creationist!

READ A FUCKING BOOK! That's NOT the Bible.


Dear Hollywood-people behind the scenes!

Thank you for your hard work. Even if you only work on crap movies.


Dear A-list Actors!

You're not as special as you think you are!


Dear racists!

Who cares? Really?


Dear anti-theorists!

Why are you against the theory of evolution but no the theory of gravity? And also: Please study up on the definition of a scientific theory.


Dear anti-gay people!

Why do you care who others fall in love with? It's not like they fall in love with you....


Dear smokers!

I don't care if you smoke! Unless you blow your smoke in my face. Also, did you know there are more effective and less painful ways to kill yourself?


Dear radical diet X-believers!

People are DIFFERENT. Peoples bodies react different to different things. There is no "one diet fits all".


Dear CIO-moms!

Please read some research on babies and stress hormones, and tell me again why it's a good idea to ignore your kids....


Dear militant vegans!

I kill 1 cow and have meat for 4 months. 1 individual of 1 species. You kill ALL the cows, and thus have killed 401 species of mamal and insects FOR EVER. Who was protecting the animals, again?


Dear telemarketing people!

I don't have a registered phone number. So.... to bad for you.


Dear people of the "normal IQ bracket"!

You're not as smart as you think you are.


Dear "I know best, this is how you should do, it's so easy, you're so stupid" people!

Everyone doesn't have the same knowledge base, experiences or life that you do.


Dear great authors whose books I've read!

Thank you! Just... Thank you!


Dear great authors whose books I haven't yet had time to read!

Sorry I'm so slow, I will come around to that as soon as I have time.


Dear bad authors whose books I've read!

Thank you for getting me to realise just how much I should pick my litterature with care.


Dear bad authors whose books I haven't read!

Please send an angry letter to all the other bad authors whose books I've already read, and totally turned me off your books.


And finally:

Dear Santa!

You never did send me any christmas gifts, so how about a nice, big pile of yaoi for my birthday? And some tickets to Tokyo. That'd be great!


Yours truly

Aniiee, the yaoi fangirl, female otaku

Trailers of the Week: week 1 2014 (Jan 1-5) Also, laying down the... eh... "rules".... yaoi edition

Yeah... I tend to throw myself into strange ventures such as this one. So, I decided to just rate the game trailers that come out, as many as I can, and totally arbitrarily. I'm NOT a movie/trailer critic. But it's kinda fun, so, I'll just go for it. Here are my arbitrary points that I grade:

1: The graphics. What is a game without graphics? Lines of code, that's what. BOOOOORING! Unless you're into that stuff. I kinda am. Did I just call myself boring? *shame*.

2: Music. Again, what is a game without music? Flat graphics. Music is important.

3: Pacing. Now, I don't mean narative pacing, I mean the pacing of the music and what is happening on screen together. Do they "hit the note" or don't they? And how well? Stuff like that.

4: Narrative. With or without VO, you should get some idea of what it's all about. You should "get it" even if not a single word is spoken.

5: Captivation. Is the trailer intresting? Fun to watch?`Boring? Does it make you more or less interested in the game? That sort of things.

6: Interest. This and Captivation kinda goes hand in hand, but I'm trying to consider my intrerest in the game pre-seeing the trailer.

7: Other. This is ust an arbitrary line (and some points) to dole out if there was something else noteworthy in the trailers. Character designs, points for nostalgia, special VO-actor... whatever I find interesting.

Be forewarned, my grading-span tend to run in the 7-10 gambit, rather than 1-10. Which means these are going to be rather high, for now. Hopefully, the more i work with this, the better I become at using all the points. And yes, I am 4 weeks behind. Actually, I'm 13 YEARS behind, But we'll see if i get to those lost years. I will try.

So, without further ado... Let's start at the bottom, shall we? (And remember, I'm rating the TRAILERS, not the GAMES)

Worst Trailer of the Week: Mincraft PS3 Launch Trailer (YouTube link.)

Here's why:

Minecraft PS3 Launch Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	4	Retro graphics only actually work in nostalgic games…
Music	7	Kinda liked the music. It was 8-bit-y
Pacing	5	Slow, but short enough not to bore me to pieces.
Narrative	1	If I had NEVER heard about Minecraft before, I wouldn’t have gotten it at all….
Captivation	3	It was pretty… 8-bit-pretty… ehum…
Interest of game	0	I will NEVER play this game. EVER.
Other	7	Just for being so damn popular. And I don’t get it…
Average	3,8

The yaoi perspective: There is none. This is Minecraft. Everyting is 8-bit, and about building stuff. No yaoi here. Nowhere. The yaoi fangirl is sad =( 

Next up. the 3 best trailers of the week, starting with:

3d Best Trailer of the Week: Dr. Luigi (YouTube link)

Here's why:

Dr. Luigi Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	6	Wii graphics.
Music	6	Ear-worm-y, peppy, nostalgic but meh.
Pacing	5	Eh…. Don’t know
Narrative	5	Tetris copies don’t really rely on narration
Captivation	6	It is, a little, on the nostalgic level
Interest of game	7	I could play this
Other	10	NOSTALGIA!!!!
Average	6,4

The yaoi perspective: STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY CHILDHOOD ICONS! Damn yaoi.....

2nd Best Trailer of the Week: Elsword – Ara Haan Sakra Devanam Trailer (gs link)

Here's why:

Elsword – Ara Haan Sakura Devanam Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	6	Ok. Bit grainy and shaky.
Music	7	Dig, not epic
Pacing	10	Oh, heck, it was perfect. Hit every note.
Narrative	7	Ok
Captivation	7	Yeah. Made it.
Interest of game	7	Manga + RPG + MMO = Nice
Other
Total mean	7,3

The yaoi perspective: A little too cutesy for me to gain any sort of yaoi material. Sorry...

And the Best Trailer of Week 1 2014 is.....: Deep down - Prologue Trailer (YouTube link)

Here's why:

Deep Down Prologue Trailer
	Points	Note
Graphics	7	Ingame graphics (?)
Music	6	Nice, not much more (Reminded me of N.U.)
Pacing	8	Hit the right notes, s.t.s, not perfect
Narrative	8	Extra points for having a narrator who spoke “to me”
Captivation	8	Yes, I didn’t get bored, so…
Interest of game	7	Had some interest before, didn’t lesser with this.
Other	9	Dungeon Crawler =)
Total mean	7,5

The yaoi perspective: I now to little about this game, as of yet, but knowing my dungeon crawlers, there will probably be a couple of bishounen and biseinen here to warrant some fanfiction. There always is....

Some Honorary mentions: Check out Europa Universalis - Conquest of paradise trailer for this weeks best music, Mecha Naruto trailer for best graphics and Atelier Escha & Logy for this weeks white-haired pretty boy =). And don't forget to give me a holler/some critique/whatever in the message box, so I know you've been here!

Will be back in a couple of days, playing catch-up with the trailers for week 2. And maybe for January 2000....

Logix

Some Christmas yaoi i never posted.....

Yeah... I update so often, don't I?

Have some yaoi and be happy. It's New Years Day for fuck's sake.....

Most days, Alex liked his apartment. It was tucked into a corner, he had windows in three directions and all rooms. Comfortable and fashionable rooms, fit for a young man of his fame. Only… empty. Empty and lonely. And he hated it for its emptiness. Why, oh why, had he decided to stay home this winter holiday instead of going with his cousin to his aunt and uncle’s home? What stupidity had come over him?

                             Alex had no real desire to do anything. Even going online felt utterly pointless. No. Real, live IRL people. That’s what he needed. Only, the places people go were so far away. It would take him at least 5 minutes to walk down to the bar. Sighing as if the world was about to end, he changed, put on his boots and jacket, grabbed his phone and keys and walked the 250 meter to the local bar.

                             Once there, he was greeted with cheers and smiles. Smiling back, he made his way to the bar, sat down in a tucked-away corner and asked for a glass of whiskey. The bartender smiled a little. Alex was well known here, and the bartender knew that whiskey was the drink of choice when Alex was feeling bad, wanted people around, but didn’t want interaction. Maybe that wasn’t so strange, Alex must have lots of people pestering him for some Q&A every day.

                             The cheerful talking and laughter only underscored Alex’ loneliness. Four hours, three glasses of whiskey and a few scraps of musical ideas later, Alex gave up and left. He felt worse than when he had come, but at least he had jotted down some things for work. It was just past midnight, rather dark and empty, so to gain some time, he cut across the skating rink. He shouldn’t have. He slipped, fell and hit his head and twisted his ankle. Head blazing with pain he gave in.

“Fuck it”, he said out loud. “I’ll just lie here ‘til the others come back in two weeks.”

                             Having said that, though, he felt a little less miserable, so he tried to sit up. His foot throbbed painfully, and his head said no! don’t do that! Every movement made him nauseous and he was seeing double. He closed his eyes to clear his head.

“HEY!”

                             Alex eyes snapped open. A man stood over him.

“You’re awake”, the man said with half a smile. “It’s kinda stupid to sleep on the ice, you know.”

                             Still seeing double, Alex blinked and thought.

“I didn’t mean to”, he muttered.

“No kidding”, said the man. “I know that you lot can be an eccentric bunch, but this… Are you all right?”

                             The man stretched out a hand, expecting Alex to take it.

“One”, Alex said trying to sit up by himself, but his head was still protesting. “What do you mean ‘you lot’ and two, why do I recognize you? All three of you?”

“Double vision, is it”, the man asked, crouching down beside Alex and helping him sit. “Maybe O should call an ambulance after all.”

                             Alex grimaced. He was mortally afraid of anything having to do with hospitals.

“I’m fine. You didn’t answer my questions.”

“You’re not fine. You probably have a concussion. Can you stand?”

                             He helped Alex up. Getting to his feet, Alex felt the pain in his foot again, and faltered. His helper held on to him.

“Your foot”, he asked.

                             Alex nodded.

“Must have twisted it”, he muttered. “Could you answer my questions?”

“If you at least let me help you home and call someone who can sit with you. You shouldn’t sleep if you have a concussion.”

“No one to call, they’re out of town.”

“Then I’ll stay with you. Someone has to.”

“Yeah, thanks, but you have a life of your own. Do yourself a favor and don’t get dragged into mine.”

“Too late. Whereto?”

                             Resigning to the kindness this man obviously harbored, or maybe it was just Alex wanting it to be kindness, he pointed.

“Over there.”

                             They started to walk toward the apartment complex. For Alex, every step was sheer pain, in his foot or in his head. He tried not to use the foot too much. It was slow walk, but soon he felt like he had run a marathon.

“I meant musicians”, the stranger said suddenly.

“What?”

“When I said that you lot could be eccentric. I meant musicians. Alex Gabriels.”

“You know my name. But then, everybody do.”

“Most people know my name, as well. You said you recognize me. I peg your inability to place me down to you being drunk and having a concussion. I’m Kevin Reesi.”

                             Alex grimaced. Of course, he though, Stupid me.

“How drunk were you anyway”, Kevin asked.

“Not nearly as drunk as I wanted to be”, Alex replied bitterly.

“Maybe you’d been more careful if you’d been that drunk”, mused Kevin.

                             Alex fished his keys out from a pocked. He was trembling and sweating from pain now, and could barely unlock the door. The fingerprint and iris scan felt like it took forever. Once inside, he collapsed on the nearest chair in the kitchen.

                             Kevin hung his coat at the rack, took of his winter shoes and looked around. So this is how the richest man in the world under 25 lived. Fashionable, but rather impersonal. Almost like a page in a catalogue. Rather strange, actually. In all interviews Alex seemed like a very personable guy, who made everything his own. Apparently not so with the place he lived. And the rumors seemed like they could be true. Alex didn’t have a girlfriend, there was no such thing as a woman’s touch in this apartment.

                             He went into the kitchen and helped Alex take of his boots and jacket. About time, too, Alex foot was swelling.

“Do you have any kind of medical supplies”, he asked.

“Maybe. In the bathroom.”

                             Kevin walked across the entrance hall to the bathroom.

“I thought you were a teacher”, Alex shot after him.

“And I was under the impression that you were a rather clever guy. Apparently, we don’t know much about each other.”

“You’re not a teacher?”

“No, I’m a professor.”

“Semantics”, muttered Alex as Kevin came back with gauze, tape and scissors.

“Perhaps”, he said pleasantly. “Do you need help taking of your pants?”

                             Alex’ head wasn’t clear enough for him to blush. He just undid the buttons, stood on his other foot and took them of, then he sat down again. Kevin crouched down and took his foot. Alex grimaced.

“I know it hurts”, Kevin said. “And it will keep hurting all night.”

“Too bad”, said Alex lazily. “So, professor. Why are you doing this, exactly?”

                             Kevin concentrated on the job at hand for a moment. Why was he doing this, exactly? Because Alex was famous and he wanted a brush with such fame? Because of the goodness of his heart? No, neither was true. The first absolutely not, and the latter only partly true. The true truth, however, eluded him. For now.

“I’m not sure. Because you needed help and refused hospital care.”

                             Alex smirked.

“A sane person had just called an ambulance. Probably from the path, and then moved on without caring.”

“That last part doesn’t sound very sane.”

“Maybe not. But that’s what human beings do. They don’t care. Especially not about me.”

                             It sounded less bitter and more resigned. Famous he might be, but Alex was not without his scars, Kevin realized. After a long moment’s silence, he asked:

“How’s your head?”

                             Alex shrugged.

“I’ll live”, he muttered. “You don’t have to stay, you know.”

“Don’t start. You’ll just lose the argument.”

“Whatever. Can I put my pants back on?”

“You should put on some pajama pants or something. More comfortable.”

“Yeah, maybe. Can we watch TV?”

“Sure. As long as you don’t fall asleep.”

                             Alex got up on one unsteady foot. Kevin grabbed his arm as he was about to fall.

“That’s why you’re here, right”, said Alex with a genuinely warm smile. That smile brightened his whole being. If I’m not careful, Kevin thought, I’ll fall in love with his guy.

“Exactly”, he said.

“So you’re really going to stay here, with me, all night?”

“Yes. All night. And you will hate me for it in the morning”

                             Kevin didn’t know it then, but that was just the first of very many nights.

Happy 2014....

I got a theory..... about Disney Deaths, Mufasa and the trauma of Bambi's mom

The death of Bambi's mom, and the impact of it on our childhoods and life in general, has been satirized to death. We all know how it goes. Or do we? Yeah, well, we all knows they are running away, and scary music and BOOM! and we never see Bambi's mom again. And Bambi goes around a bit looking for her and then the great stag comes out of nowhere and says: "Your mother can't be with you anymore." And.... then nothing. Do you remember the next scene? Little birds bathing and chirping and singing a happy song.

THAT'S THE PROBLEM! Well, not the birds singing, per se, but the fact that the death is never touched upon again. In comparison:

No one (that I know of) satirize  the death of Simba's father, Mufasa. Do you remember the Lion King, particularly the parts about Mufasa's death and the aftermath of it? Simba gets cornered by stampeding herd, Mufasa saves him, gets dragged down, makes it aaaalmost to safe ground hadn't it been for Scar... dies. Scar chases Simba of into the wilderness... and then they spend the rest of the movie bringing it up again, and again, and again. It might be a little subtle for some, but there are plenty of hints that the lionesses grieve, Zazu makes comments about the differences between Mufasa and Scar, and, ultimately, Simba faces the death of his father and the grief he feels, and is ultimately rewarded by his bravery for doing so. (Face it, people, facing the loss of someone and the emotions it brings up takes courage.)

My point is, we feel confused and marred by the death of Bambi's mom, but not Simba's dad, because Bambi gets no closure. Not any that we as an audience gets to partake in, at any rate. Simba gets his closure, and we as an audience gets our closure, because the issue IS addressed and we GET to feel what the characters in the movie feels. And thus, it feels better.




So how do we prevent future kids to get traumatized by Bambi and his mother's death? Try my mantra for taking care of the kids: TALK WITH THEM! Not TO them, or AT them, WITH them. Don't just sweep it under the rug, pretending it never happened. And that goes not only for dealing with Bambi's mom, but for dealing with anything that comes with being a little child in this big, scary, confusing, wondrous world.

Welcome to Project Backlog... Part 2

Ok, Iäm at it again. Let's do this.

Thursday October 10th: Thursday in Swedish? Torsdag. As in Thor's day. You know, that God of Thunder with the hammer and... That doesn't really have a brother named Loki. In Norse mythology, Thor is the son of Oden and "the earth" (the debate is still going if this is supposed to be Frigg) and Loki is the son of two giants named Farbaute (his father) and Laufey (his mother). There, now I've gotten to correct something out of the Marvel Universe, too =). Anywho.... Here's the reason why I stopped my last post. Thursday I play video games. What video game came out Thursday?  Beyond: Two Souls. And I got to play it. So I thought I'd give you my opinion on the game. Here goes:

Beyond; Two Souls is a game about a girl and her.... ghost.... spirit... whatever. We get to follow her, in flashbacks, along an non-chronological narrative. We get to see her as a CIA trainee, as a bum, as an active agent, as a little girl, as a teenager... as a lab rat.... First of all, i have to say, this game looks GORGEOUS. It is as gorgeous today as Heavy Rain looked when it came, if you take my meaning. It's well-acted, Ellen Page as Jodie is good, the girl doing the voice-acting (and mo-cap? don't know...) for little Jodie is GREAT. Willem Dafoe is always good. The others are good. It's all goood.... The story segments are mostly good as well, some of them drag a little, some are.... weird.... some are highly emotional, some feels kinda... throw-away, but not many. Then there are the game mechanics, and the story segments and how they are structured are part of that, and this is where my big beef with this game come in. The controls, just to start with the not-so-negative, are fine. They're not what the avid gamer is used to, sometimes they are a little counter-intuitive, sometimes they are not so clear, but these are things you get used to, mostly. Thinking about it, this game feels a little... point-and-click-y... and sometimes you cant see where you're supposed to click because the thing you're supposed to click isn't marked well, or the marker is white against a white/bright background, or it's out of view. I also have this little thing about Aiden, the ghost-spirit-thingy. He's used far to little. That would have been a great, interesting game-mechanic if only one remembered to use him more. They could have played around far more with that and given us gamers a far more interesting set-up. And then, there is that THING that bothers me about this game. And that game is the lack of suspense. This is the problem of a non-linear game like this. The game starts at the END. We KNOW that whatever we do to Jodie, whatever life throws at her, she'll make it. We KNOW this because if she hadn't, the game wouldn't have started. Granted, you could make the point that it's not supposed to be that kind of game, that it's not about the goal and all that. And it isn't as much the prologue that bothers me (being at the far end of the time axis), it more the decision of it being non-linear after that. You can start with the end. There are other games (and movies) that do, but if you're going to show it as a flashback, start at the beginning and follow it back to the prologue chronologically. Otherwise it just gets confusing and annoying. I kept asking myself "where am i in the story now? Is this before or after event X? Why are we here?" Sure, that might be the point. But at the same time, that makes me feel disconnected to Jodie. Why should I care about event Y when I don't know about event X? And why should I care about event X when I've already gone through event Y? In the end, what drove me to go on was curiosity about Aiden and little girl Jodie, who sometimes shone through in adult Jodie as well. I'm glad I did finish the game in the end, but still felt a sense of disconnect to Jodie. Other loose ends got tied up neatly, and i guess Jodie's loose ends got tied up to, I just didn't care as much as I wanted to. And that kind-of sums up this whole game; not as much as I WANTED TO, I wanted to love this game, and i did, just not as much as I wanted to. I wanted to love and care about Jodie and what happened to her, and i did, just not as much as i wanted to. I wanted to care about and be interested in Aiden, and I did. Just not as much as I wanted to. And the events and characters around her, too..... Don't take me wrong, this is still a really good game. The graphics are gorgeous, the acting is good, the game mechanics are ok, and when the writing, graphics, voice-acting, music and mood come together in the right way, it's fantastic. And for the most part, it does. Just not as much a as I WANTED IT TO.......

Next time Onee-chan comes visiting, I'll have her play the game in chronological order, and see if it gets even better....


I'm going to stop this weeks Project Backlog here, with ha little shout out to one of my fav internet celebrities about this game: Fraser, you stopped playing this on VideoGamesAwsome just short of some of the best segments in the game. Please, if only for yourself, play it through....

Wecome to Project Backlog....

Hi, everybody, Aniiee here.

You know that feeling you get that you were supposed to do something but you forget what that was? Yeah, i have that all the time. That is pretty much this blog. I was thinking to write in it... later.... apparently several days later, or even months.

Anyway, Project Backlog. I should probably have called my blog that.... I have TV-series, movies, books, games, recipes, life, on backlog. Since like.... 1982.... I wasn't even born then. So here's the plan: On Mondays, I will blog about whatever chatter has been going on the Swedish forum I'm most active on at the moment. Tuesdays I catch up on whatever TV I have backlogged, and make mini-reviews on them. Wednesday is Library day, so catching up on books. Thursdays I play video games. Fridays I make an effort to cook or bake. Saturdays and Sundays I try to play catch up. And seeing as today is Saturday..... Let's see how far I can get.


Monday, October 7th: Monday... Monday, Monday.... Did you know that the Swedish word for Monday is Måndag? Only spelling it with a capital M is considered wrong unless it's the first word in a sentence or the only word on a line. And just as in English it means "day of the moon, moons day". Ok, ok, sorry. I'm researching things like this for my book....  Eh... we've been talking a bit about the differences in parenting in Sweden and France (and other countries). Mostly because of a book that you could win in some contest on the forum. I followed the discussion long enough to understand the upset, because people were UPSET. I didn't really say anything, though. But here's my little analysis: In France, as far as I've understood it, they let babies cry if mom is busy/needs rest/want's to sleep. They're also OK with correcting their kids behavior physically. Doing this in Sweden... well, actually, IF a parent hit their kids, for whatever reason, and IF someone got to know, or even just suspect, that, social services is very likely to come knocking, and sometimes, even the police. Letting a baby cry itself to sleep is definitely sacrilege. That is part of why people are upset. Personally, I'm on Sweden's side in this..... So, I can't recall all we talked about week before last, but I'll have another look next Monday.

Tuesday, October 8th: Yeah, I'll just.... bother you with more fun facts about Swedish language. Did you know that Tisdag is named after Norse mythology God Tyr? Yeah, that's.... that's all I got....
               So, Tuesday, supposed to watch TV-series, only I didn't. I've started on my backlog of Bones today (Saturday), so I'll get back on you on that. Otherwise, on my backlog of TV-series I've got about 100 series that's ended, some of them a long time ago. Fraggle Rock, anyone? Childhood favorite. Now airing, I got American horror Story, Arrow, Bones, CSI, Castle, Criminal Minds, Downton Abbey, Face off, Family Guy, Homeland, How I met your mother, Law and order SVU, Agents of SHIELD, NCIS, Naruto Shippuuden, Once upon a time, Person of interest, Revolution, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, The Blacklist, The Originals and Top Chef on the Backlog. I wonder if I can clone myself..... or stop time or something....

Wednesday, October 9th: Wednesday in Swedish is Onsdag, or Odens (Odin's) day. You know... Thor's father? Books this week is actually comics, or A Comic. The Mass Effect Redemption. Put it out to read, haven't yet. Backlog.....

I'll post Thursday and Friday tomorrow. Unless... I get backlogged..... (I have a special reason for this, which till become evident i my next post.)

Crazy casting couch! Casting The Nightrunner series, Part 1

Sometimes, you do stupid things. Like doing your own ice cream, and then put the freezing bowl into the freezer, instead of moving the ice cream into a different container. It took 2 hours last night no get the ice cream soft enough to scoop. As I STILL didn’t move the ice cream into a new container, I’m looking at 2 hours of idly waiting for my ice cream… *sigh*

I intend to use these two hours to do a crazy casting couch. And with crazy, I mean that I will not cast actors as characters (well, that too), but characters as characters. Where, or even why, I got this idea, I don’t know. I just can’t explain it. This is part serious, part humor, but mostly serious. Only, as you can’t really cast characters that doesn’t exit as characters in other movies as characters that doesn’t exist…. Let’s just say, take it with a grain… no… truckload… of salt.

I intend to do one casting couch on each book I own, unless they are straightforward series or something. No point casting every Nancy Drew book I have. Yeah… I have those, too. I’ve been a kid.  I have over 400 books, and I will try to look at them all. First I thought I’d look at them in the same order as they stand in my book shelves, but as my immediate inspiration is The nightrunner series, I’ll just take it backwards instead. My book are sorted according to size. Largest (Tallest) book at the top left, smallest (shortest) book at the bottom right. Actually, Nightrunners is 6th from the bottom right, so I’m cheating a little. I’ll take the other 5 too, don’t worry.

Today’s exercise: The Nightrunner series, book 1: Luck in the Shadows, and book 2: Stalking Darkness.

So, I’m currently reading the Nightrunners now for the 4th time since I discovered them in, well, actually it was during the Pride in Stockholm 2012. The bookstore had Casket of souls out special for the occasion. That’s when I wanted to read it. Didn’t buy it until my birthday in March this year, so 4 times since March. So… Thank you Lynn Flewelling, for writing the best fantasy series I’ve read for the last 10 years. That it’s yaoi is just a great bonus.

So, let me run this down for everyone who hasn’t read them:

Young northerner Alec, wanderer, hunter, orphan, is thrown into Asengai’s dungeons. Exactly who Asengai is, I don’t know, but probably some lord with a holding in the North. (Don’t ask why I capitalize North. I don’t think the author did.) There, he is joined by another prisoner who doesn’t intend to stay in prison for very long. The second prisoner, later known as Seregil, who is an Aurënfaie (essentially: elf (Tolkien, not Santa)), takes Alec with him on a whim, they head down to a town called Wolde, steal a wooden coin, meet up with a friend of Seregil’s called Micum Cavish, gets ambushed, Micum parts ways with them, and Alec and Seregil goes on by boat towards the country, and it’s capital, where Seregil lives. Seregil dresses up as a woman for the passage on boat, witch… Yeah… well, fools everyone until the captain finds him with his pants down… eh… skirts up… Oh, and during this time, he’s also sick and half mad, because of that coin. Left to try to fend for them both alone, Alec manages to take them to Skala and its capital city Rhiminee (wonderful name, by the way), where he is met by the wizard and old friend of Seregil’s, Nysander, and the wizard’s apprentice, Thero. They soon get Seregil to his feet. Did I mention Alec chanced a meeting with the youngest(?) princess of Skala on the way down, and carried out a whole conversation about horses with her, without ever realizing Klia was a princess? This story could have ended right there, but… No way, we’re barely beginning. Back on his feet, Seregil installs himself and Alec at the inn The Cockerell and then, it’s back to business. Seregil is known in certain circles as “The Rhiminee Cat”. That’s who you contact when you need something done of the… shady sort. Recovering compromising letters, spying, the occasional love token delivered. All under the cover of darkness, of course. He trains Alec, and as a… graduation… he gives Alec the solo mission of burgling a house in the Noble Quarter, without telling him he’s burgling Seregil’s own home, or that Seregil will be inside, throwing a party. What a ruse…

                             Anywho, so Seregil is a lord, kin to Queen Idrilain of Skala, a nightrunner and a Watcher. The watcher are the Queens spies, thieves, advisers, whatever she needs, but they also have a greater purpose. The wizard Nysander has in his possession 2 items, one of them that cursed wooden disk, of deadly danger. He is trying to protect the items, and all the people in Skala, from a foe Seregil and Alec made themselves up in Wolde, the Plenimaran lord Mardus. Mardus intend to take possession of the 2 items, and some other, and finish the Helm of Seriamaius (did I spell that right? *shrugs*), the… death god? Of Plenimar. Necromancy and stuff. Killing a million people with a thought. Are you noticing that I’m running out of steam? Court intrigues, Seregil gets implemented, they clear his name, Alec and Klia are almost killed in a fire, stuff, secret stuff, more stuff, Seregil tells Alec that Alec is a faie, (ok, he is, because humans are called Tirfaie by the Aurënfaie, but Alec is probably (really, we get to know later) Hazadrielfaie), Alec and Seregil confess their love, bittersweet ending, fin books 1-2. (Yeah, I know. Go read the books if you want to read more.)

That’ll do for now. Let’s put a cast to this heavy-hitter.

Casting the North

The North isn’t all that character-heavy, as it were. I’m a bit torn as to put Seregil here or not, but I think I will, just because it’s where he and Alec meet. There are, of course, a handful of minor characters, but I won’t even bother with them. So the line-up stands as follows:

Alec (later known as Alec I Amasa of Kerry and Alec of Ivywell): Cloud Strife. Now here me out on this, because I know it’s a weird thought. BEFORE Cloud became the moping emo he is today (basically, before the end of FF7 and Sephiroth did that… thing…) Cloud was very much the wide-eyed optimist. Without being gullible, he took life and the world in a stride without lingering all that much on the past. While I’d argue that Alec’s “growing-up”-curve is much steeper than Cloud’s, and Cloud’s “growing-up”-curves final point is rather on the catastrophic side, somewhere mid-stories they seem rather equal. That’s why I think Cloud could pull of playing Alec in a movie. I can’t answer for his archery skills, though…

Seregil I Korit: Here’s probably the weirdest casting choice ever made: Clopin from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You know, that guy that tells the story in the beginning, with that epic song, and… well. Both are pretty much the high-spirited rogues, with a streak of deadly serious. Seregil has no problem going between his roles as nightrunner, watcher, lesser lord or any other that he “plays to the hilt”, and I just get the feeling that Clopin wouldn’t either. Maybe we need to shed some years from Clopin before giving him the role, Seregil being the perpetual youth.

Captain Rhal of the “Darter”: Ok, this was hard. I thought about this for four days before coming up with a solution. Admiral Hackett in Mass Effect crossed with Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Planet. Here’s my reasoning: If you’d cross them, they would look the part. And with shrewdness and humor of Long John Silver and the authority commanded by Hackett, this would work wonders. And as Silver was voiced by Brian Murray in English and Sven Wollter in Swedish, and Hackett was voiced by Lance Henriksen… *fangirl dreaming*.

Casting the villains

As we meet our first villains in the North, Wolde to be exact, I’ll just cast them now.

Duke Mardus of Plenimar: This Plenimaran bastard is a bit hard for me to grasp. But I see someone imposing. Like… Shan Yu, you know, the Hun leader in Disney’s Mulan. Clean him up a bit, cure him of whatever weird sickness he has in his eyes… yeah, I can see that.

Vargûl Ashnazai: Tim Curry! This was actually the first one I settled on. The first role I remember seeing him in was as the Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers from 1993 (Another Disney movie… what’s wrong with me?) and he was just so deliciously devious and creepy. He just needs to shrink a little, then he’s good to go as this Plenimaran bastard of a necromancer.

Irtuk Beshar: Female (? *nods*) corpse (?) =) Yeah, she was once a pretty woman, I think. I’m thinking ice queen like Cersei Lannister or something Nicole Kidman could pull off. For her later appearance… Nicole Kidman as a mummy, anyone?

Casting Watermead

Ok, so, Seregils friend Micum Cavish they met in the north, that’s why I opt to take Watermead before Rhiminee.

Micum Cavish:  Another very weird choice: King Triton in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Micum is kindhearted, calm, pretty much Seregil’s opposite in temper. But still a badass warrior if need-be. King Triton is all of these, and with only three daughters to contend with instead of 7, I think he’d call it vacation. I also imagine Triton as being a red-head, like his youngest daughter, and lite Micum.

Kari Cavish: Micum’s wife. Another no-brainer. Lady Catelyn from Game of thrones. Kind, caring, strong, bunch of kids… Yeah. Perfect. She looks the part too. I’m not sure, though, whether I want Lady Catelyn or Michelle Fairley to play the part.

Becka Cavish: This feisty read-headed wannabe soldier, oldest daughter to Micum and Kari, and after having spent a couple of weeks training together, Alec’s almost-sister, should be played by Aveline in Dragon Age 2. They’re actually so much alike, although Aveline being, what, 10 years older than Becka, that I sometimes wonder if the DA2 writers didn’t read this book before creating her. Maybe it’s just me.

Elsbeth Cavish: Hello, little mouse. Ok, I doubt she’s a mouse, but she is the quiet, book-smart middle daughter of Micum and Kari. Seregil tends to spoil her with books. For this role, I cast Sophie Hatter of Miyazaki’s Howl’s moving castle (which is based on a book. Go read. It’s really good.) before she is turned into a little old lady. Quiet, a little mousy, but I’m sure she can bite back when she needs to.

Illia Cavish: This was SO HARD I needed help. So thank you all in my forum-thread at Familjeliv who came up with great suggestions! I finally settled on Kajsa Kavat (known as Brenda Brave to all you englishspeakers reading my blog). Kajsa in the short TV-movie is only four, but I think she would be great as the high-spirited, chatty 7- (or was it 6 or 8) year-old girl.

Casting the Orëska House

Nysander: I thought about this for the better part of four hours until I came up with: Liam Neeson. I think this is my love for voices shining through. I think what made me go there was Neeson’s portrayal of Ra’s al-Guhl in Batman begins, which is a complete oxymoron. Nysander is kind, compassionate and intelligent, all he has in common with Ra’s is intelligence. The other tings Ra’s is not. I think. Never saw him as such at any rate. But on the other hand, Nysander can be just as deadly, so I think it’s a good match.

Thero: Nysanders apprentice Thero is quiet, a little stuck up and he and Seregil HATES each other. Well, maybe hate is a bit harsh. They are more like... Jealous brothers, vying for their father’s attention. This is another that gives me grief. First thought: David Krumholtz, as seen as Bernard in The Santa Clause. Second thought: Antonio Banderas, if he was 20 again. Third thought: Lightning Farron in the beginning of Final Fantasy XIII. Then I gave up. So maybe all three of them, as a hybrid…

Magyana: Wynne in Dragon Age Origins. We don’t get to know much about Magyana in these two books, but my feeling of her is that she is a lady that is nice and kind and can handle herself. Like Wynne.

Ylinestra: Another ice queen, at least that’s my impression. Sure, she seems kind and compassionate and more than a femme fatale, but something was always off-putting about her to me. Like… The White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Tilda Swinton was great, but so was Barbra Kellerman. Very different from each other, but still great.

Now, I need a rest, if I can ever sleep in this clammy weather we're having. I'll take the rest later.

All respect to Lynn Flewelling, and a great "thank you". It's been a while I had this great a time reading a book. I mean no harm in this Casting couch, just some fun, and I do want people to read your books.

Thanks to these users of Familjeliv.se, for giving me ideas for casting Illia: Sticka, Stumpan83, elyse, OLilly, Juniana, and especially Toppen9 for suggesting Kajsa Kavat.