A very Hobbit-y Midsummer

   This year, for the first time since I was in my early twenties, I had enough time off from work to be able to attend some sort of Midsummer festivities without stressing myself to bits. My best friend arranged a LotR-inspired potluck in her garden for which ten happy nerds turned up. 

     In proper hobbit fashion we were absolutely drowning in good food and good drink. Pictured below is most of the food we had to choose from (key word: "most of"). After all the food it's Swedish tradition to play games and be silly which we obviously did with gusto and to our great joy one of the nerds had created a LotR-themed game especially for the evening - a version of "Toss the Dwarf" obvisouly. 

I'm eternally grateful for my best friend for lending us her garden to meet up - it was lovely seeing friends, dressing up and stuffing my face with good food. Some of these nerds I haven't seen since High School, but we're all still basically the same lil' nerds/misfits as back then.

Happy Hobbit Day

   I have celebrated this glorious day all according to tradition by dressing up hobbit-y and preparing plenty of food. Admittedly, it was mostly lunch prep for work but it still counts.
   As a way of luring myself out of the flat I also went for a coffee with a new friend at my local nerdy café. It'll have to do for celebration, and truly, I don't think Bilbo nor Frodo would mind having their birthday celebrated that way.

   I myself have also reached a whole new age level, and am now... mostly overwhelmed to be honest. In the last year I've become romantically close to a select few people that has come to mean very much to me. Together with my best friend they decided that this was the year that I'd be spoiled rotten as a way of making up for the covid years of no celebration at all. I was wined and dined by friends the night before my birthday and as for my birthday I went from a dreamy breakfast in bed worthy of a hobbit with one partner (and my metamour) to a movie night drowning in cuddles and cheesy pizza with another person I'm dating.

   It feels a bit bizarre to be a reasonably functional adult reduced to some childish goo by the simple act of receiving thoughtful gifts. I've never been very good with compliments or being in the centre of attention because I keep asking myself about other people's hidden agenda, so birthdays are a strange lil' challenge for me. Don't get me wrong, I love being celebrated and noticing people making an honest effort on my account, but I'm still incredibly uncomfortable with it. I get awkward and act like I'm an embarrassed five-year-old.

   However, now as I wear the clothes, or read the books, eat the chocolate, or watch the movies I was gifted I won't be able to deny that there are people out there who likes me. People who made an effort for me. And that sure is a fantastic feeling.

HAPPY HOBBIT DAY

   Today I'm celebrating my 31st birthday (though I was actually born on the 18th) and I've invited a few nerd friends over to eat and play board games with me. My partners are here to help with all the preparations, and we're going to be joined by my family members, and my best and closest friends a little later.

   In two years time I'll be an adult hobbit. And that's when the big party'll start for real.

Backbreaking work

"Brutal".
   That's how I'd describe getting the backpiece done. It's nothing I'd like to do again, because PAINFUL, but then on the other hand I kinda don't have much room now... The piece is colourful and lovely and sore and sweet and finally fucking finished after yesterday's grueling six hour sitting. (I am going back to fill in the tree one more time because apparently I bleed a lot in the neck area, so that's not going to be fun...)

BUT LOOK AT MY LITTLE PIECE OF HOBBITON:

by the super talented and super sweet @filthyswede

Soooo, I wonder what the next one is going to be?

NEW TATTOO

HEY GUYS. I'VE GOT A NEW TATTOO GUYS. LOOK AT IT GUYS.

JUST LOOK AT IT.

Work by @filthyswede, Liza Nordqvist

Next time: colours.

Happy Hobbit Day!

Today is Hobbit Day!
So make sure to sit down to eat all your nine meals properly, read a book and/or enjoy your ale in the lovely company of friends. Celebrate the little things, the hobbit way.

It's party business, precious

   Having been to New Zealand I'm now fairly certain it doesn't actually exist on this plane of reality. I've just spent ten days nerding around the north island and everything feels like it was designed in a computer to be plopped down in the middle of the ocean. Or maybe we went, Bermuda Triangle style, through some portal and ended up in some wonderful Fantasy Land. It was somehow too beautiful to feel real.

   We did Auckland (with a very jet-lagged visit to the Auckland Art Gallery, and Auckland Zoo) - Waitomo Caves - Mata Mata/Hobbiton - Rotorua - Wellington (with Te Papa, Weta Cave, LotR film locations along Hutt Valley, and Martinborough wine country) and it was all great. What will always stay with me though is the tour we took through the Hobbiton Movie Set. It was nothing short of magical. I was right: I cried. Like a fucking baby.

   I've petted a wallaby and an emu, I've seen glow worms, I've had ale in The Green Dragon, I've spent hours in hot mineral baths, I've been to Rivendell, I've talked to a whole bunch of nerds at Weta Cave, and I've had a veritable shitload of great wine. I've cried from joy and from frustration, and I've been surrounded by the most otherworldly nature I've ever laid eyes on.

   But listen, since New Zealand is quite exactly on the other side of the planet it will at its shortest take us Swedes anywhere between 27 and 34 hours single trip to get there depending on layovers and such. It fucking sucks. My butt still hurts. To add insult to injury, my lightsaber key ring kept getting stuck in security and so I decided to leave it behind. Also! Try and be a vegan tourist and see how much fun it is. I'll tell you this much; you have to like coriander.

   Was it worth it? Absolutely!
   Will I ever do it again? Doubtfully.
   Do I want to do it again? Why yes precious, I do...

Long Live the Halflings!

Today, the 25th of March, in the year of 3019 in the Third Age of Middle Earth Frodo finally reached Mount Doom in Mordor. After a brief battle with the creature Gollum the One Ring was finally destroyed and with it the Dark Lord Sauron.
Long Live the Courage and Strength of Hobbits!

Crybaby

That would be me.
   I've started listening to The Lord of the Rings again so that the trilogy will be fresh in my memory when my best friend and I get to New Zealand in April. Though before I got started I figured I needed to brush up on my Middle Earth history, so I dove head first into the appendices and suffice it to say I didn't get very far before I was crying.
   Have I gone soft? (Yes. Yes, I have. Emotions everywhere. Much better.)
   Is it normal to feel so proud over fictional characters? (Oh Samwise... )
   Well! Back to the books.
   Lets get this Fellowship to Mordor! (We'll walk, it'll be great.)

My nerd beginnings - LotR

Oh my dudes, The Lord of the Rings.
Peter Jackson. The nerd that set it all in motion for me.
   A nerd friend of mine, my best friend as a matter of fact, tend to tell me once in a while that she was 110% destined to become a nerd. She never had another option really, being surrounded by comic book nerd uncles and an older brother crazy about Star Wars. With me it was an entirely different story because I had to discover the lovely world of nerdiness all on my own. Don't get me wrong, my family has its fair share of book worms but their reading material tended to be rooted in reality and not in far off fictional worlds or alternate universes.

   When I say books were my gateway into fantasy and scifi I'm not being entirely honest to myself because when I really get to dig into it, it was movies. Specifically those my mum didn't want me watching. I was about seven when I watched Jurassic Park (and had nightmares for a week), about ten-ish when I saw Aliens, and Tim Burton's Batman movies (with better results dream-wise). Then came the news that Peter Jackson was adapting The Lord of the Rings for the big screen and I was obsessed. By then my mum couldn't possibly ignore the fact that I was way more into fiction than her history nerd ass had ever been and that it was probably a better idea to introduce me to more age appropriate media than forbidding me to watch that which wasn't age appropriate. She gifted me the LotR books, for Xmas 2000 I believe, and those motherfuckers are heavy to get through when you're twelve years old, I can tell ya! but she wished to be proactive and I, in return, was thrilled. However, though I love the story I never really took to the books (sorry J.R.R.) and although I finished The Fellowship of the Ring it took me well over a year to do so (the Two Towers and the Return of the King didn't take as long). Turned out there was a trick to it; after only a few heavy pages I decided to make a list of every single name mentioned in The Fellowship of the Ring and thus made reading into both a hunt for new names as well as the completion of the story. It helped getting me through the book. But it also made loving the movies significantly easier; they were heavenly in comparison (because FYI, there are well over 200 different character names in The Fellowship of the Ring only). However, reading Tolkien and then experiencing Jackson's adaption launched me like a exuberant rocket into the fantasy genre and made me choosy as it comes to universe construction. Say what you will about J.R.R. (prolix, racist, sexist etc) but he started something unique with Middle Earth that has grown, branched out and blossomed.

   As a part of the Ringer cult fandom I didn't just find my place among my immediate weirdo friends, but also grew to be a part of a world-wide weirdo community that I, surprisingly enough, felt really connected to (thank you Internet). Speaking from the perspective of an oddball and somewhat of an outcast, it was pure awesomeness to find so many other people not only sharing my passions but also my experiences when my family didn't.
   The importance of this can't be lost on anyone.

   Peter Jackson didn't just drop my very first real fandom in my lap but also gave me adult nerds to look up to - the cast of the LotR trilogy is littered with different kinds of nerds that influenced what kind of nerd I myself was going to become one day. Unapologetic (thank you Elijah Wood), enthusiastic (thank you Dominic Monaghan), happily and lovingly sarcastic (thank you Billy Boyd), fiercely queer (thank you so much Ian McKellen) and childishly passionate (thank you Peter Jackson). I can only ever aspire to be as nerdily refined, curious and awe-inspiring as the great LotR nerd Christopher Lee (as the only one of the production to actually have met J.R.R. Tolkien, Lee was the ultimate LotR fanboy).
   The Lord of the Rings holds a very special place in my heart and always will.

   My best friend and I are at the time of writing this planning our journey to New Zealand. It's nerve wracking and exhilarating and absolutely wonderful to somehow be able to complete the circle by travelling to the place where my love for hobbits began and in many ways my inner nerd awoke.
   Thank you Peter Jackson, I look forward to Going There, and Back Again.

   "The Road goed ever on and on,
down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
and I must follow if I can.
Pursuing it with eager feet,
until it joins some larger way
where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."

Hobbit looking for party

Third down

   Sean Astin is an amazing human being.

   Lucky he turned out to be the amazing human being he is, because he was the only reason I decided to hop on a train (train commuting in this country is tragic, always count on being at least 20 minutes late to your destination) and go to Stockholm (a city I dislike terribly and try to avoid unless I'm paid) and their take on the Scandinavian Sci-Fi, Game and Film Convention (arranged several times a year in different cities).

   This was my third Con this year (Gothenburg, Helsingborg, and now Stockholm) because... LotR actors. David Wenham, Billy Boyd and now Sean Astin. I've started hunting them down to make them sign my LotR trilogy illustrated by Alan Lee.

   Astin ended the signing (after having had a geek-out over the illustrations) with slamming the book shut and pinning me with a stare.

Him: "You know what I hate about you?"

Me, squinting suspiciously: "What?"

Him: "Nothing!"

   After which he laughed, grabbed my hand, shook it and told me he loved my hair. And that's that.

   Three down.

Happy Hobbit Day!

Today is September 22nd and that's the birthday of both Frodo and Bilbo Baggins!
So happy birthday to two of the most important hobbitses that ever walked outside of the Shire and a Happy Hobbit Day to all of you followers.

Credit to Kiptay.

Cheers Mr. Wenham

I went to the Scandinavian SciFi, Game & Film Convention in Gothenburg this past weekend and after having queued for 1,5 hours to get in(!) I went straight for David Wenham's table. Once at the table I barely had time to get my Lord of the Rings book out of my rucksack before it was my turn. To pay 300SEK for an autograph and a non-commital half-smile smarts a bit but was totally worth it when looking at the end result.

Wanna go on an adventure?

I have been spending the last half hour ugly crying watching production videos from the making of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Hobbit movies. Everything from the Hobbiton location sets me off.
(I need to have a LotR marathon pretty soon. C'mon nerds, join me.)
Running the risk of sounding massively ungrateful for the vacation to Dear Old Blighty I'm planning I've just realised that my dream vacation is Matamata, New Zeeland. If I ever went there though I'd spend the whole time crying and laughing and crying some more. I was twelve when I read the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I was thirteen when the first film hit theatres. The original Trilogy introduced me to fantasy for real and has shaped my nerdiness in many ways since. Back then I wanted to be like Arwen (a starting point for my impossible struggle for that ethereal femininity elves possess and many following body issues I think) but the older I get the more I identify with hobbits. They appreciate the important stuff: good company, good food, good ale, good earth, good stories.
And they're content.
So screw elves, I'm a hobbit through and through. And I want to go to Hobbiton.

Precioussss...

Did I buy this? Yes. Yes, I did.
I sense a certain Hobbit fever going around right now which I'm not completely comfortable with. I feel my expectations going through the roof and I really don't want all that to fall flat. I'm scared that I won't like it. The Hobbit isn't a particularly long book and to make not one, not two but three movies out of it... I don't know. It's been a very tedious nine years since The Return of the King premiered - the movie I went and watched three times at cinemas despite it being three hours long and an almost constantly empty wallet - and I know that my inner Ringer will explode with pleasure within the first ten minutes. No. Make that five minutes.

The Hobbit

I'd just like to point out that Sir Ian McKellen has been posting pictures of the preparations for the The Hobbit premiere on his Twitter. The big premiere in Wellington is tomorrow and I cannot stress the fact that I'm excited about this enough. I'll have to wait until December 14th to see the first of the three movies but yes, I'm thrilled.
Have a good night my lovelies.

Bilbo's walking song

"The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet."

- The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien 

New shirt!

Ok, don't judge me for the maniacal stare that's going on in the picture. I was up at 5 this morning for work after about 3,5 hours of sleep. I’m so far beyond tired I can’t actually sleep. Instead I’ll eat biscuits, drink tea and judge people I pass on the internet. In my new awesome shirt. Now, I haven’t read The Hunger Games yet but Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Supernatural, Doctor Who and Sherlock on the other hand are personal favourites. These are also the fandoms I myself have chosen to embrace on Tumblr. Among other things of course.
Nothing better!
Find your own awesome t-shirt on Qwertee! Buy them immediately, each shirt is only up for sale for 48 hours (or until there are none left). After that, they're gone forever!
And yes, I have the wandering soot from Tonari no Totoro (and Spirited Away) dangling from my phone.