Got nazis?

It's the time of year for insane Swedish holidays and festivities (Lucia etc), and starting off the season is November 30th, the day when far right crazies celebrate the memory of King Charles XII - who by the way (according to Wikipedia) spent his childhood "harden[ing] his body for war by riding horses bareback and hunting the wolves of Sweden's fir forests". See, you just don't get that caliber of royalty anymore.

Sweden was never much of a colonizing super power - we mostly just bullied the fins and norwegians as best we could for a few hundred years - but there was a brief period of time (around the second half of the 17th century) when Sweden could actually claim to be a major player in Europe - also known as the time of "the Swedish empire" (no, seriously). Charles XII was somewhat optimistically called "the Alexander of the North", and for a few years Swedes' egos nearly exploded with their own international importance (kind of like whatever the hell is going on with swedish indie music nowadays). The only thing remaining of Charles XIIs legacy today is a bunch of turkish dishes he imported, a statue and an obscure scholarly debate on wether it was the norwegians or his own soldiers who shot him - and then of course the aforementioned crazies.

Swedish neo-nazis don't have a lot of national heroes to hang on to, as most Swedes through history have opted for a more discreet flavour of racism, rather than the balls out, shaved head approach. In the spirit of loving the one you're with, and with a little creative history rewriting, Charles fit the bill of aryan über king well enough to suddenly find himself - three hundred years after his death - as the poster boy for an annual "pro-swedish march". This of course made the far-left crazies (who I personally have lot more sympathy for than their right wing counter parts) super miffed,they in turn got organized, and in no time at all November 30th had gone from "obscure memorial-day" to "Can the nazis really do that publicly?-day" to "Riot in the streets-day". The perhaps worst result of this alarming development was the truly horrific, based-on-West-Side-Story, even-worse-than-it-sounds teen romance flick 30:e November, which was savagely released onto an unsuspecting public in 1995.

Tomorrow I expect to read about a few half assed manifestations in the paper - as much as they try, the reclaim-kids of today just don't seem to have the fire they did back in the day (or maybe they're saving it for the Salem march, but that's another story), and the fascists are currently doing their very best impression of a bunch of really nice guys who just like to have a bit of law and order (also another - long and scary - story). In other words, the rest of the country can take a deep sigh of relief and then continue to slowly mozy along towards the right wing - business as usual.

Trying to make new friends...

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That's all folks

71. I have the day off today, and am as you can plainly see wasting it on long unecessary blog posts
72. I excel at public speaking
73. but am not great at the whole studying thing
74. Which is purely out of lazyness, the few times I have actually put work into school it has worked out just fine
75. If I had a nickle for every time a teacher has told me "If you would only apply yourself..." I would be a rich woman.
76. Yet almost all of them seemed to like me
77. Which I now find a little surprising, since I was a bit of a snot
78. I was never a big Brad Pitt fan
79. But followed 21 Jump Street religiously when I was maybe twelve
80. Also (decidedly less cool) Saved by the Bell...
81. Where I sided with Slater
82. Other TV obsessions that year were Eerie, Indiana
83. Clarissa Explains it all
83. and reruns of The A-Team
84. I have to change my hair style completely at least every two years or I freak out
85. Though at the age of thirteen I had never gotten a professional haircut
86. At fifteen I had hair down to my waist, got sick of it and cut it off
87. And since then I have had every hair style from sinead o'connor style shave
88. To black mohawk with burgundy highlights
89. But have never bleached my hair
90. When I was thirteen i measured 180 cm, which made me one of the maybe top five tallest people at my school
91. I haven't grown an inch since then
92. Me and my best friend (who were 182 cm tall or something) would spot each other from the far end of hallways, over the floating mass of smaller people's heads
93. I can eat all kinds of junk food without gaining weight
94. On the other hand I have crappy teeth that get cavities if I as much as look at candy or think about snacking between meals
95. Which I do anyway and then have to pay ridiculous dentist bills because of my lack of discipline
96. I have never had a job that lasted longer than five months
97. But have also never gotten fired
98. Ok, so I lied - I don't have the day off today, it's some pointless (ok maybe not so pointless) "prepare for exam class" which I was going to blow off.
99. But now my conscience is killing me - what if I fail the exam because of this?
100. I was never good at ditching school

The list continues...

31. I was raised in a christian home (swedish protesthant, which is pretty much the same thing as anglican)
32. Stormed out on my faith and into atheism in a huff when I was nineteen
33. but have since then comfortably settled into a wishy-washy agnosticism
34. I used to get popcorn cravings on a regular basis
35. Nowadays I get Pizza Hut-pizza cravings instead
36. I have an obsession with being Well Read
37. But have so far to make it through A Portrait of A Lady (not for lack of trying)
38. Or any russian novel for that matter
39. I'm the third child out of a batch of five
40. And spent my childhood dreaming up a somewhat nazi-esque theory of different "kinds" of families to explain the fact that me and my siblings were all weirdos, and the popular kids' siblings were all popular
41. I spent a lot more time on that theory (and other similar ones) than in hindsight seems entirely healthy
42. At 26, I am still suspicious of people who say high school was great
43. I never learnt to speak another language fluently
44. Except English, which doesn't really count as "another language" in anglified Sweden
45. Although I can read a tiny bit of spanish and french
46. ...a fact I take a disporportionate amount of pride in
47. I wrote my first song when I was six
48. It consisted of 24 notes all in all and was about 30 seconds long.
49. Also it did not have lyrics
50. I have an irrational fear of calling people I don't know on the phone
51. Which have caused med a lot more trouble than you would like to think with the authorities
52. and is one of many reasons the internet has simplified my life.
53. I've never had a nick name that really stuck
54. Though valiant efforts have been made to call me Tea, T-rex, T-dawg, Axner, Tess, Tessan and many other names, my favorite being dad's Terroresa
55. Actually, some people call me Tea to this day, but it still takes me a second to remember that it's me they're talking to
53. Which for a nick name that's been around for over ten years, is not a great success rate
54. I'm good at making lavish deserts
55. But never seem to have the energy to cook actual normal food
56. Which isn't a big problem right now since I - because of the ridiculous housing situation in Stockholm - live with my boyfriend and his parents
57. ...and his two brothers
58. ...And his younger brother's girlfriend
59. A living situation which is surprisingly cozy
60. I chose to not really drink much before I was 18 (the legal limit in Sweden)
61. Which had more to do with control issues...
62. ...Including not being able to stand the idea of sucking up to older guys to get them to buy alcohol for me
63. ...Than being a good girl
64. Also it gave me the opportunity to be condescending to my peers...
65. which was a favourite pastime when i was a teenager
66. I harbour a seething animosity towards advertizing buzz words and "new media" hype
67. Especially assholes making money off of bullshit "seminars" with no substance
68. Which might have something to do with the fact that I recently graduated from a "school of new media" that forced me to sit through more than one of those seminars.
69. Today my boyfriend is FINALLY coming home from his work trip to the end of the world (also known as Borås) which will hopefully be celebrated by gorging on Lost and studio 60 episodes
70. I get to live with my TV geekdom soulmate (who is also very cute)

ANOTHER blog?

Believe it or not, I actually have many fans abroad (think: army of one) who have asked me to give them a chance to keep track of my life and admire my awesome writing skills. So. This blog will pretty much be what Roleplaying is so Gay isn't: In english, and about the stuff in my life that isn't movies and TV - i.e. The Other Stuff. If you're one of my swedish readers, and as uncomfortable reading my english as I am with the idea that you are, in fact, reading my english - don't worry about it, just go back to reading the old blog, ok? Otherwise, continue at your own peril.

Now that I have my shiny new international blog, I don't really know what to do with it. Maybe I'll start by writing the list thing I first saw in Ania's blog (love you, baby), and have then followed in Malin's and Johan's? Unless I'm stupid (which may well be the case) the idea is to write a hundred sentences with random facts about myself. Here goes:

1. When I was a kid (around age 5) I was so disappointed with the fact that there were no cute baby stories about me that I made up ones that were obviously fake...
2. ... Though in hindsight I should have just stuck to the true ones, for instance that I was obsessed with Wagner and sat through entire 3 hour operas on TV, completely mesmerized when I was... 4, 5? I'm not sure (Mom would know).
3. Kissed a boy for the first time when I was six
4. ...that same boy passed away a few years ago, by suicide (no cheap jokes for that one).
5. Knew the lyrics for Eternal Flame by the Bangles by heart when I was eleven and thought it was the most awesomest song ever.
6. I wish I could say that Diamonds and Pearls by Prince was the first album I ever owned (and I did own and love it)...
7. But really it was the soundtrack to Cocktail...
8. Which my sister talked me into buying before I had even seen the movie.
9. Other early musical influences included The Housemartins...
10. C+C Music Factory...
11. And The Mamas & the Papas.
12. When I was eight I wanted to be a landscape architect...
13. But by age thirteen I changed my mind to fashion designer...
14. Which at fifteen turned into comic book artist...
15. Or possibly film director.
16. Right now my dream is to live off my writing and my music (How Ross)...
17. Though I'm settling for "whatever gives some kind of income, preferably while not crushing my soul completely".
18. My sights have sadly been lowered steadily since the age of twenty one.
19. My longest relationship so far lasted for five years...
20. Though I'm currently almost two years into one that I hope will last much longer...
21. ...a statement not meant to reflect poorly on my ex, who happens to be a lovely person.
22. Instant-message conversations with certain canadian film geeks and blogging had me so wrapped up I actually FORGOT about the half eaten piece of left over cake from yesterday's birthday bash for more than an hour...
23. Which after that discovery took me all of twenty seconds to gobble up
24. I've been playing guitar for sixteen years
25. Although, admittedly, quite badly during at least the first seven
26. I am a seriously accomplished solitaire player
27. ...But lousy at chess
28. I have never been good at any kind of sport in my life
29. Unless dancing counts - and not just the anyone-can-do-it modern ones - this girl waltzes, baby!
30. My not-so-secret fear is that I won't be anything when I grow up.

30 facts, that'll do for now.