The Garden of Discordia

Ze street signs
I decided that, since I am joining the tech-geeky generation by buying a Smartphone (Samsung Galaxy 5, like it so far) and Facebook is evul and only allows logged-in people to see the pictures, and I am far to lazy to double-upload everything, imma gonna get a twitter account. Connected to twitpic, you see =)
So if anyone wants to see my random photos from Berlin (which I will try to remember to actually take, ehehe) you can find my tweetages @dansandem

This photo, I just have to share twice:


I _boggled_ seeing those signs during my walk, lemme tell you! Now, you gotta know some pretty recent German history to understand that bogglement, and I most certainly do not know the whole story!

But, basically Dutschke was a left-activist and student leader. He was shot by a right-wing extremist in 1968, survived but was severly wounded.
And Axel Springer was the then owner of the Springer-group which, among other things, owned the magazine Bild which went out very hard against the student movement and agitated in what to me looks like a pretty Sarah Palinish way (less crazy religion tho).

Eh, right, the Springer main offices is also right by this crossing.

Sooooo basically I stood there wondering whether I misremembered a name (Springer, Sprenger, what do I know? Apparantly I didn't), if this was some kind of German expression of black humor, if it was a protest against Springer or what. So of course I had to photograph it, and from what I can see off Wikipedia, it's basically a combined memorial for Dutschke and a bit of a "Fuck off!" to Springer.

If anyone has more information or a link about this, do share because it seems fascinating =D

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Så var det det där med lokaltrafiken aka My thoughts on BVG vs. SL

(I suspect the rest of this post will mainly interest lanjelin but what the hell she's not here so I can discuss it face to face so you ALL GET TO SHARE =D)

BVG = The peeps running the trains, buses etc in Berlin
SL = Dito, but Stockholm

( BVG vs SL: Overall )

( Prices )

So: If you work and buy a monthly ticket, the difference in cost ain't that huge. If you're a visitor or a student, Berlin FTW

One place where it's mostly a YMMW is the matter of ( ticket barriers and ticket formats )

Oh, and there one more way that the BVG wins. THE *BLEEPING* TRAINS ACTUALLY RUN. ON TIME. Sure, delays happen, but they're an exception, not the norm

And since school starts tomorrow, I really gotta sleep now!

Am at lanjelin's, waiting for her, lampadari and the others to finish watching their K-Drama before we continue to my parent's house to celebrate midsummer.

But that's neither here nor there for this post, really, as I mainly wanted to share this link to the From Eroica with Love side-story that I managed to grab from this site. There's a whole bunch of links there, but everything from Rapidshare seems to be too old :/

However, if you scroll down there's a working link to "Der Freischütz", a pure spy-thriller with Klaus in the starring role. Good and more serious then the main story (although also a bit less fabulous crack, what with no Dorian...)

In return, if anyone has working links to the scanlations for volume 16-19 with the "Emperor Waltz" story I would appreciated it muchly! With Eroica's publisher, CMX, having closed down the chances of anyone ever translating the rest of this series is pretty much nil.

Sooo this made go me go "OMG flail!!" and then x_x followed by a =D because it straddles the weird line of cute-wrong. I'm still not sure if it's so cute it's wrong, or if it's so wrong it's cute.

Cat Ears Controlled by Your Brain are just what it says on the can. Or not quite, but it's fake kitty ears that work like a mood ring. You happy? They perk up. Sad or just neutral, they seem to lie down.

My mental chain of association: Eeek, Loveless! Omg imagine the furry uses! Argh, no wait don't! Imagine the cosplay uses instead! And then just the blinding realization that, yes - I can pay my bus ticket or a chocolate bar with my cell phone, there are a few people walking around with chip implants in their arms and brain-"reading" hardware is now so cheap that it can be put into a novelty item. We are living in the future!

...along with the Met's crime database. This uses a national IT system developed for major crime enquiries by all UK forces, called Home Office Large Major Enquiry System, more commonly referred to by its acronym, HOLMES (which recognises the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes). The training program is called "Elementary", after Holmes's well-known, yet apocryphal, phrase "elementary, my dear Watson".

- Wikipedia knows everything, including the name of the Scotland Yard's IT system

Question thus rises: What is this database called in the BBC!Sherlock-verse, where the Victorian Holmes appears to never have existed? Or, is the system called the same, and everyone just keeps mum about it?

(and what would the 'historical' Lestrade have to say? I think he'd find it a bit sweet ^^ )

Jag behöver nog mest det här själv, för annars kommer jag tappa bort länkarna, huhu

Konventet BLYG, var på internet finnes det?

Hemsida: blyg.eu
Twitter: BLYGswe på Twitter
Tumblr: boysloveyaoigakkai på Tumblr
Youtube: BLYGswe på Youtube
Facebook: Användaren och Evenemanget

"Screw it, we're not going to make money with most of these manga anyway, so I'm just going to publish my favorite manga and hope that DC Comics pays for it?" - Jason Thompson speculates on why in the world CMX ever decided to publish this series.

One has to wonder if there's not a kernel of truth in that statement, because CMX choice of published titles can generally be summed up with a giant WAT? If you look at it from a business perspective, that is.

Besides From Eroica with Love, they had Swan, Moon Child (nothing to do with Gackt) and Kaoru Mori's Emma. But also crap like The Devil Does Exist and plenty of other really bland titles... On the whole, the line-up lacked a real hit. Though I am eternally grateful that they kept going for as long as they did!

Anyway, do read the entire column, whether you know Eroica or not. It's pretty funny, and also shows a compelling argument for why one should always read the two first volumes of Eroica before making a judgement

Then, if I know you IRL, feel free to come over and borrow the manga off me. Am always glad to pimp this series out to folk ^^

I once wrote a fic and described an uniform as "handsome". Then I got a really long concrit on it, with some very good points, some points that made it obvious that they'd missed some things (Reviewer: Get a beta! Me: uh, yes, you mean like the three I thank in the header...?) and some points where I quietly agreed to disagree.

Now, English is not my first language. Technically, I suppose it's my third language, though I've forgotten almost all of number two. But. I still thought that in that particular instance, my handsome uniform made a neat image, only to be told by Reviewer that No, impossible, nevereverno only people can be that.

Then I go to Mark Reads Harry Potter (v. entertaining, do take a look) and what do I find, but following quote:
The room was spacious and must once have been handsome
- from chapter 10 of TDH.

Ah-HA! If JKR can do it, so can I ^__________^

/End revenge of the third-language-English-geek's triumph

Quick bookmark to myself. ANN has added another interesting column to their already good and varied group of scribblers ^_^

Brian Ruh, whom I have never heard of before (but then, I know very few names in anime/manga academia) is going to write about japanese media from a more studious perspective. He'll also present other interesting writings and starts of with Mia Lewis's study about kanji/kana wordplay in manga as used by CLAMP to torture translators

Sounds great, I'll follow this column with interest.

I pimped my favorite authors and latest manga finds at the J-fi blog (its in Swedish) in the post called "Reasons to dust off your school German".

It's basically my reasons to get thee to Germany and buy a bunch of good yaoi/girls manga titles, because they have loads more than is easily available in English.

Illustrative picture:


Look at my pretty Kuroshitsuji bag ^_^ Isn't that reason enough to start shopping in Berlin?

Call for papers on the visual cues of manga over at fanficforensic.

Now, break is over. Back to bookkeeping *sigh* It's too hot to juggle numbers today, honestly