I fear that it says a lot about my character when I'm watching the ESC and smiles happily the lower the Swedish song ends up on the list. Sometimes it feels like schadenfreude is the only kind of joy I still can enjoy.

The main thing is that I don't really dislike the actual song in any way. It's "meh, another radio pop song that sounds more or less like all the others" to me, but when things gets hyped to "OMG it's the winner for sure and the world should just lay down on the ground and worship its greatness" for no apparent reason, this is the kind of treatment it can expect from me. (In other words, it probably - as usual - boils down to the usual fact that no one tells me what to like or think!)

As for my likings, I'd say the Latvian pirates and the French cool guy. Which probably says a lot about my music taste. The Spanish somehow ended up having me think of Lupin the Third, something I don't know if it should be interpreted as positive or negative critique.

Edit: I just found this Eurovision.tv clip with Sébastien Tellier on Youtube (actually, I found it at Le Monde, but that's not the point).

Tellier: "Yes, ze Sweden song. Yesterday. With ze tall blond girl. It was... funny. Hahahah."

Interviewer: "The song or the girl?"

Tellier: *more laughter* "Both."


Somehow I think I start to adore that man...

( The fun part is right at the end... )

I don't care if it's a stupid thing to think that things sound better just because they are in English, but... Maskinbrynja?! WTF? There MUST be something better to name it than that!
[English literal retranslation: maskinbrynja = machine mail; and yes, it's Ed's automail translated into Swedish we're talking about here] And again, yes, maybe automail sounds hilarious too when you start thinking of it in detail, but at least it doesn't give me mental images of steam-powered machines clad in small metal rings.

(No, I still haven't bought Fullmetal Alchemist in Swedish, only flipped through it in the store again. And, well, if they're going to call it that, I don't think I manage to buy and read it. The laughing would kill me.)

God help the kingdom of Sweden! (Even if it probably doesn't deserve it.) And now I really hope I get to emigrate before September 2010. And after that date, I think I'll try to pass myself off as a Dane or Norwegian.

Yes, this is a blatantly political entry. Even I have a breaking point.

OK, so it's time for a new political rant from me. It's election year here after all, so not even I can stay untouched by it all the time. And this particular one hit a little too close to home. At least it was a while since my last rant by now...
( You can skip this one if you want to. Really. )

Newspaper quote of the day:
"Swedish European politics are like teenage sex. Everyone say they do it. But in reality it's pretty few. And those who really do it, do it pretty bad." - Kjell Albin Abrahamson, east Europe correspondent for SR (Swedish state radio)
("Svensk europapolitik är som tonårssex. Alla säger att de sysslar med det. Men i själva verket är det ganska få. Och de som verkligen ägnar sig åt det, gör det ganska dåligt.")

As someone who for years have been forced to go to German news sources to get European political news, and more than once been big-eyed over Swedish politicians' behaviour, I find this quote hilarious on so many levels (including the obvious one, of course).

( Oh, and a meme that I'm obliged to post since I couldn't resist falling in Maaya's trap ^^ )

So the first Swede has been sentenced for sharing movies without permission. And as the nerd I am, I naturally had to go and read the court statement instead of just getting the news stories.
( Take a deep breath, 'cause here's my thoughts )

I know that I more than once have been known to say things along the lines "well, at least we most likely won't have to see 'Gravitation' translated into Swedish".

It turns out I was wrong.

Bottom line is I can't go on buying the German edition as planned, at least not before I've got a look at the Swedish edition in September. It can be readable, after all.

Why do they have to bring havoc to my collections by starting Swedish editions of all the series I already started to buy in other languages? First Ranma and Detective Conan, and now Gravitation, Inu Yasha, Fushigi Yuugi, Oh! My Goddess, and Kill Me, Kiss Me (a.k.a. K2). OK, maybe my collections won't suffer all that much, given that nothing stops me from continuing with my German/English editions of choice. But still, I'm not sure I like it.

By the way, speaking of K2; As of this September there will be no less than six Korean comics titles on the small Swedish market. So, when will we see the first Swedes declaring that they're drawing "Swedish manhwa"? ^^

Excuse me while I go slamming my head into a wall for a while.

( The largest Swedish association for promoting comics announce a comics making contest, using the 'M' word )