Another video online

I’ve added another video to the guiltyguiltyguilty.org page: Mark Melvin.

Since last week I haven’t really touched the page, just sort of leaning back and occasionally watching the traffic stats (not all that high yet), but I’ll prolly get around changing some of the texts – as it stands it’s focusing a bit too much on music- & film-piracy, instead of the more general question of “intellectual property – is it a useful concept?” sorta thing.

But for now – feed my ego and go and watch the new video.

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2009 Update: The above mentioned site is now defunct. Go to monocultured.com for a mirror of the project.

Pratchett progress

I always do this.

I really have taken the Oscar Wilde saying to heart, that too much of something good is wonderful (or words to that sentiment, I can’t be bothered to look it up) and currently that means that I spend all my waking hours with headphones on, listening to Terry Pratchett audiobooks. When I was but a wee lad I used to buy the Discworld novels and read them in the same spirit that I’d read the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, but ever since I started downloading audio versions of the books, I’ve come to realise that Pratchett can have a lot to offer when it comes to plot and character development – or to put it differently, it’s all rather good. (albeit silly at times)

Since I like compiling lists I made one showing the Discworld novels in their chronological order, ticking off the ones I’ve read:

[x]The Colour of Magic
[x]The Light Fantastic
[x]Equal Rites
[x]Mort
[x]Sourcery
[x]Wyrd Sisters
[ ]Pyramids
[x]Guards! Guards!
[ ]Eric
[x]Moving Pictures
[x]Reaper Man
[x]Witches Abroad
[ ]Small Gods
[x]Lords and Ladies
[x]Men at Arms
[ ]Soul Music
[x]Interesting Times
[x]Maskerade
[x]Feet of Clay
[x]Hogfather
[x]Jingo
[x]The Last Continent
[ ]Carpe Jugulum
[x]The Fifth Elephant
[x]The Truth
[x]Thief of Time
[x]The Last Hero
[ ]The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
[x]Night Watch
[ ]The Wee Free Men
[x]Monstrous Regiment
[x]A Hat Full of Sky
[x]Going Postal
[x]Thud!

Some of the uncheked ones I’m quite sure I’ve read already, but that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far away so to speak, so I’m gonna give em a listen and see if that doesn’t jolt my memory. Currently, I’m nearing the end of Moving pictures; Not the best in the lot, there’s too much real-world-influence jokes (popcorn is called banged grains and so on) for my liking, but still. It’s part of whatever disorder I have to go through them all. I just can’t bear the thought of not gobbing it all up in one go; A behaviour that can be readily observed whenever I’m making food and subsequently eating all of it regardless if it’s three helpings or six.

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Update: I’ve finished two more: Moving pictures and Light fantastic. I’m listening to Carpe jugulum right now, althought I know I’ve read it already – it was a while ago, so the book is sort of new with just occasional anticipation on my part.

T-shirt

I’ve always had a thing for doing t-shirts. It’s something about wearing my heart on my sleeve (of which I btw have a design), and being obtrusely juvenile. So imagine my joy when I found out about Threadless.com. Lotsa fun tshirt designs, and rather on the cheap side. (unless you order three or more, in which case you end up paying tax when it arrived within the EU)

So I submitted my first design the other week:

And to my surprise it wasn’t even allowed into the competition. What the hell I thought, they’ve had blood and gore and suicide t-shirt, and they didn’t allow this one in? I know they don’t like text-based designs, but I thought I was being rather clever.

Oh, well, I’m not one to give up to easily, so despite not being able to draw if so my life depended on it, I traced and photoshopped this one up:

Again, more clever than well executed, but whatever. If it’s get entered into the running I’ll be sure to post it up here as a minor achievement… In the meantime, y’all better get accounts there so that if it does get accepted you’ll be ready to vote for it and shower me with praise and such like.

In the previous episode…

Or, let me list the ways in which I am displeased about my life.

* The MFA course i’m doing right now is cancelled. I will be able to finish the MFA, but I don’t know who’s gonna be responsible for it, or if we’re gonna get shuffled around and lose our studios or what the budget is going to be. The course I’m doing has always seemed to be the retarded stepchild of the art academy, but it still pisses me off no end that I found out about the cancellation of my program through the fucking web page of the fucking university instead of maybe, oh I don’t know, an email gently informing us about it? At all?. Or why not when I applied to the course. A short sentence like “oh, btw, we might cancel your education on a whim“.

* Anna is looking to sell her place, which means that I will have to start looking for something new. And it’s the second last thing that i like to be thinking of.

* The last thing that i want to be thinking about is money. It’s not original, it’s not a fun conversational topic, but for hells sake I need to straighten my “economy” out in some way. Preferably not a way that includes robberies or lottery tickets.

On a lighter side, there’s been a lot of hubbub about people doing remixes of subway maps. The transit authority in London has ordered shutdown of this page because the maps that the site is hosting are breaking trademark rules or somesuch. Which of course is a crock of shit, so I’ve put up a mirror of the site here.

Enjoy it while it lasts; Don’t know the university stance on these kinds of things, but even with the relative laxness of copyright law enforcement here in Sweden, I wouldn’t bet much on any spine existing within the university administration – it’s just not the point of administrators…

Why I don’t run after trams

When I’ve crossed a road I often get the sensation that I’ve been run over. I have to look back over my shoulder to see if my mangled body isn’t lying in the street somewhere, with skidmarks leading up to and over it.

It’s a very odd feeling; Unfortunately, the only illustration of this is the scene from ghost where Sam runs after the guy who stabbed him, only to look back at his girlfriend leaning over his dead body.

What this leads up to is me telling you not to run for trams or busses or trains or whatever. My friend Þora had the great misfortune to combine running with Gothenburg, which at this time of year consists of ice, gravel and a blistering cold. She slipped, hit her head on the curb and briefly passed out.

She knocked her head quite badly in the fall, and we’re still waiting to see what the consequences will be (ie, surgery or no surgery). Right now she has a splitting headache, feels rather sad and annoyed about the state of things, and looks like she tried to read aloud the biography of Malcom X at a klan-rally.

I went over to the hospital to help her home, and next to the receptionist there, there were these pamphlets informing about scabs, blisters, ticks, incontinence, acne and thirty other odds and ends on the failing of the human body. The pamphlets about depression were the only ones that were out of stock.

When I ate happy-happy pills a while ago I did some research into how many people in Sweden are on these pills, and even though I can’t recall the number right now I was very surprised. It’s like one in every twenty persons or somesuch. What the hell is wrong with us? Is life in this gray country so miserable? Are more people concerned with taking pamphlets about depression rather than the common cold?

I’m imagining a gov run program in a couple of years time entitled “don’t worry, be happy.” The subtitle of this program would be if you really can’t be happy, take these pills and make sure you’re still contributing to society by staying in your depression-inducing workplace, and don’t kill yourself before you’ve payed off your student loans. Of course, such a program would be doomed to cause instant depression in at least half the population, spreading mental illness across the globe and ending civilization as we know it.