The Hutt recommends: Chicks Dig Comics

THIS.

"Chicks Dig Comics - a Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them"
edited by Lynne M.Thomas, Sigrid Ellis

In these times of GamerGate, the Fake Geek Girl meme, and everything else the male dominated nerd community can come up with to scare women out of even trying to get into comic books and other nerdiness, this was a rather uplifting read. A group of nerdy women that really MADE IT in the comic book and graphic novel business share their stories of growing up to become nerds. Their stories point in the direction that becoming a nerd seem to be getting easier but diversity and representation remain a HUGE issue within the comic book world, or rather, the lack of it is rather distressing. Representation is one of the issues often mentioned throughout the book and the comic books the writers grew up with are problematised and brought forth as something that used to be but need to change apace with the changing audience.

A good read.

On a related subject - look what I've got in the mail! Look at the pretty! It's available for free online but I really want to support this artist on so many levels. The art is breathtaking, the characters lovable. and the story is altogether engaging.

"Sunstone" by Stjepan Sejic

What I've just finished:

Or rather:

Slightly upset.

"The Blade Itself" by Joe Abercrombie

HOLY COW BATMAN. A grand collection of highly interesting characters but none of them female (two women in total through the book given any sort of attention, one could have been substituted by a lamp and the other... well, she's not been along for long enough yet to make much of a mark) but aside from that a very good story. Had me glued to the pages. I'll get back to you when I've finished the whole trilogy as The Blade Itself is only the first part.

Happy New 2015

My first post of the year will begin with a huge WHOOP of joy because I'm recieving my very own copy of the first issue of Sunstone by Stjepan Sejic some time next week. Aaaand I might have pre-ordered the second issue.

Also, fuck 2014.
I had a few good things happening to me but that's on a purely individual level. Sweden has during 2014 become one snake's nest of normalisation of racism and fascism on a state level. Some 13% of the voters in last year's election found it to be a good idea to put the Swedish Democrats in a position of power - these are the fuckers who more or less publically condone violence against Muslims and leftist activists.
2014 also saw more than a little police brutality against peaceful demonstrations.

The few good things about last year was flying off to Mallorca and getting a bit of the old sun and alcohol, dying my hair green, and working on my tattoo. I met some awesome people I'd like to see more of. I finally realised how much I like being on vacation. How much I love the political side of LGBTQ pride festivals.
I finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series and loved the everloving fuck out of it. Neil Gaiman is awesome, and despite his occasional misogyny Robert A. Heinlein has really caught my interest.

I don't want 2015 to be worse than 2014. That's it. I'll try and work on that. I didn't make any resolutions for 2014 and just as well I didn't. I will not do that for 2015 either.
I might keep working on my nerdiness.
I might want more hugging out of 2015.
I might also have started planning a little trip to Dear Old Blighty. Lets start there.

Suddenly: Dresses

I finally snapped a picture of my new 14th century medieval dress set. The green dress is a fitted gown, laced at the front and with buttoned sleeves, that is supposed to add the kind of bust support that makes sure you don't need modern underwear (I will add a picture of the fitted dress on its own later). My mistake was to lose weight after I made the dress so now it's not as supportive as it was before. Now I need to make some supportive medieval style underwear. Like this. The yellow surcôte is a project I also just finished by adding 'pockets' (slits in the fabrics for easier access to pouches hanging from the belt underneath) and embroidery. The surcôte is a bit short for the period when the longer the garment the better off you were money-wise. But I love this set. So comfortable.

FIVE YEARS

I just realised that I've kept this blog going for over five years now (it was five years in August, WOOHOO!). Feels weird to tell the truth.

I've gone from:

First week in the corridor in Belfast.

To:

This week in the corridor in Gothenburg.

...and I'm not sure how to handle that. Because I don't feel like much has happened. For crying out loud, I'm still living in a corridor full of students who can't clean up after themselves! Yes, it's in a different country and I have a steady job now but it's still a corridor.

I'd like to say that I've strayed deeper into Nerd Territory, which I have, but as for personal development - I don't know. Am I a better nerd today? Hell yeah! A better person? Doubtful. I still can't keep deadlines to save my life. Sad, but true.

It's pretty much exactly five years ago I was in any sort of relationship too. I don't live to get involved in a relationship but it'd be nice. A bonus, you know. Sad, but true.

Here for the party

Heavy metal and tea. Handicrafts, cute skirts and big shiny steelcapped boots.

SUPER GREEN

OK, so I went a bit crazy just before the Medieval Week and went on to dye my hair. Green. Yes, you heard me. It's green. My sister decided it was an excellent idea to colour her hair cotton candy pink a while back and thereafter began campaigning for dyeing my hair green. It didn't take long to convince me of the genius of the idea. But the colour is only semi-permanent so constant upkeep is vital.

 (I use Manic Panic - Green Envy) Also, my hair is getting quite long now.

And I will tell you about the Medieval Week in another post.

The bookish type

I'm the first to admit I'm the bookish type of person. I love books. Books of most kinds. I can be rather picky about what I choose to read but I adore books. There's nothing quite like it. I buy books for the people I love. I give books away. I read books. I aquire books from all sorts of places. I collect them by the hundreds. Observe:

Pile on the left: MINE. My loot. My precious. Pile on the right: half of them are part of a gift for a good friend for his birthday, the other half is what he bought himself. You see, my friends love books too. The best kind of people appreciates books.

Mmmmmmm, I love the smell of books in my presence.

Bleh.

The highlight of my year is usually any medieval themed market and/or festival that I attend and previously I've visited 1-3 of them each year. This year the only medieval festival that I'll attend is The Medieval Week on Gotland. As I write, it's four weeks away and I feel like shit because I haven't made any new clothes for this year's festival wardrobe. Actually, I'm still mending last year's clothes. Last year I made a wonderful green kirtle with hand-made buttons on front and sleeves. I loved it to bits. Quite literally. It's such an amazing dress I wore it for half of the week despite having loads of other dresses. So I'm mending it to be able to wear it again all the while daydreaming about what I can make with the big pile of linen and wool fabrics I bought last autumn in the post-medieval-fun state of euphoria. I imagine new kirtles, surcoats and kerchiefs. But I can't do it without help (an extra pair of hands is useful when everything is supposed to be pinned and fitted while on me for the most comfortable fit). I have one week of vacation time before going to Gotland and I seriously doubt that I'll manage any miracles. Especially since I'm making so much of the clothes (but not all since I'm more than a bit lazy) by hand. While I know that I shouldn't really feel bad about it I will (by all the gods, will I feel bad about it).
So yeah.
Here I am.

STRIKE

This year's first real heat wave struck my city yesterday and today I've got the worst case of the chub-rubs that I've had in years. Stings like a motherf-r. On the other hand this is the first summer in a very long time that I'm wearing anything showing off some leg.
I guess the tattoos will do that to you.
Well, it does to me.
And other people of my lovely city. Which is exactly why I love summer. The sun shows it's face for five minutes and suddenly everyone and their cousin is half-naked. It's also much easier to find a tattooed person in Sweden than someone without ink. Mostly fantastic.

Speaking of tattoos; my new boss likes my apple pie.

And I have a colleague who looks so much like Ricki Hall I want to take him home and use him as an art piece.

I'm sorry about the absence, but I've got shit to take care of.

When in doubt; make pie.

I've had a friend over this weekend and he left about four hours ago. Since then I've watched some episodes of my present tv show obsession, played some D3, showered, continued listening to a Terry Pratchett audiobook and finally had some icecream. That's when I realised that I had a whole bunch of apples tucked away in a cupboard.
I don't really like apples. Except, if they're in any other shape than just the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree I love them. I like apple pie, apple juice, apple muffins, dried apples, apple sauce, apple marmalade, apples stuffed in chickens... After a short burst of panic about the fact that they might go bad if I don't come to a decision quite soon I decided to make pies (notice the plural). And since I'm a slightly odd carbon-based bipedal life form of the planet Earth I will be serving one of them to my colleagues in the small hope that it will not poison them but possibly endear myself to them instead.

My new boss in particular.

 Lets just hope he likes apple pie too.

G.R.R.R.R.R.R. Martin

What in the ever-loving fuck will I have to do to keep at least one of my favourite characters alive in A Song of Ice and Fire? With only a few chapters left of A Dance with Dragons I'm enraged about yet an other death. I can't help it. I get so angry when I'm furious.
And then there's the HBO show. I'm not sure what to think about the last episode. They're changing some of the best parts. The Tyrion + Shae story in particular I would have loved to see exactly like in the book.
Oh well.

Reaper of Souls

I'm happy to announce that my monster computer has been revived and the D3 expansion proved to be worth the money I didn't really have but threw at Blizzard anyhow. Yeah. Life is odd.

PRAISE THE GODS

That essay.

I finished the examination seminar like I would have my second breakfast.

I passed. I survived. It's over.

 It would seem that I will be drinking a bottle of fine champagne this weekend. I've been waiting for so long and now I'm done. Done, I tell you.

My job according to Bernard and Manny

I sell wine and other alcoholic beverages for a living and therefore must develop certain bullshitting skills in order to convince customers to choose wines I find would suit their specifications. Sometimes it sounds like I'm an all-knowing expert and at other times it just sounds... a bit like this:

I don't really see the problem. You just have to choose your audience with care.

Past deadline

I've handed in my essay. It's not great. But it's in. I can't do anything but prepare to defend it. In a few days we'll find out if I can pop that bottle of champagne or if I'll have to wait a little while longer.