I got a package!

A nice surprised at about 9 o’clock in the morning, a package from far distant land, a mysterious place called, Rhodes Island… I love getting things (who doesn’t) but I think I like giving things even more. Shalyn read my mind and got me yarn, it’s knitting time!

Random facts about me

I just realized (well I just counted) I have six books about Jack the Ripper in my bookcase. And I haven't read all of them, think there is two of them that I haven't read, but which?

Picture from Punch 1888, found at Wikimedia

Dreams

At first I didn’t think too much of it but then I had another dream with similar team. First dream took place in one of my old schools. I had a few spare moments and I went shopping and I got a book, more like a pamphlet, about Jack the Ripper. Even in my dream I was like, “What? Why? Shouldn’t I save my money instead?” I put it in my bag and then I put my bag in this big closet back in school. Then, later I see this bag on the floor and the only thing missing is my book. I apparently know what class the thieve goes to so I head over there during class and make a silly speech, “I know someone here took it, I’m not mad I just want my book back.” First there’s silence and then a girl rats the thief out and I get my book, pretty messed up now, bent and such. So when I start to walk out of the classroom I get more and more angry, what did the guy do to this book anyway?
“No this is not okay, you better pay up.”
“You said you weren’t mad.”
“I lied, deal with it!”
He gets his wallet up and snatches some money out of it and start walking again, yelling, “Go and get a proper book about Jack, I recommend Donald Rumbelow.”
Waking up I thought, if I got the money for the book he could have kept it.

Then a few days later I have another dream, I’m in town or something, this big weird black and white metropolis kind of city and there are these girls that are sort of lost and I help them out and we end up at my place where they want to look at in my closet. There’s this odd feeling, my mother is there as well. I see one of the girls, while speaking in this mock impressed voice take a bra (still on a hanger) and puts it in her bag.
I confront her and snatch the bra up and that’s not the only thing she has taken. Mom and I go through their stuff and take back whatever they have stolen and throw them out. Waking up I’m like, wait, they were standing by the jewelries, I should have checked and see if there was anything missing.

Two dreams about someone stealing from me, that can’t be a coincident can it?

Books so far…

101 books in 1001 days
1. "True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey
2. "The Canterville ghost and other short stories" Oscar Wilde and others
3. "Twilight" Stephenie Meyer
4. "En liten chock" Johanna Lindbäck
5. "A great and terrible beauty" by Libba Bray
6. "Just listen" by Sarah Dessen
7. "Read like a writer" Francine Prose
8. "The Jane Austen Book Club" by Karen Joy Fowler
9. "Underneath it all" Traci Lords
10. "The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want" Cameron Tuttle
11. “Sense and sensibility” Jane Austen
12. "Write away" Elizabeth George
13. ”What I loved” Siri Hustvedt
14. ”Let the right one in” John Ajvide Lindqvist
15. ”Candy Girl” Diablo Cody
16. ”About a boy” Nick Hornby
17. ”Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” by Hunter S. Thompson
18. ”Twins” by Marcy Dermansky
19. ”People of the abyss” Jack London
20. ”Snabba Cash” Jens Lapidus
21. ”Bridget Jones: The edge of reason” Helen Fielding
22. ”Alice's adventures in wonderland” Lewis Carroll
23. ”Strips of the sidestep wolf” Sonya Hartnett
24. ”Memours of a Geisha” Arthur Golden (Audio book)
25. ”Outhärdeligt” Hans-Eric Hellberg
26. ”The rules of attraction” Bret Easton Ellis
27. ”Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese” Dita Von Teese
28. ”The uncommon reader” Alan Bennett
29. ”Geisha, a life” Mineko Iwasaki
30. ”Brave new world” Aldous Huxley
31. ”Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness” Gris Grimly
32. ”The Tales of Beedle the Bard” J.K. Rowling
33. ”Ravens gate” Anthony Horowitz
34. ”Förföljaren” Magnus Nordin
35. ”Wives and daughters” Elizabeth Gaskell
36. Emily The Strange
37. ”How to be popular” Meg Cabot
38. ”Friday night kniting club” Kate Jacobs
39. ”My so-called life” Joanna Nadin
40. ”Berserk” Ally Kennen
41. ”Freaky green eyes” Joyce Carol Oates
42. ”Good grief” Lolly Winston
43. ”Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging” Louise Rennison
44. ”The devil Latch ” Sonya Hartnett
45. ”Star-crossed” Rachael Wing
46. ”Anna d'Arc” Mårten Sandén
47. ”Witch Child” Celia Rees
48. ”Jag såg honom först” Eva Susso
49. ”Stenhjärta” Ingrid Olsson
50 ”Ett litet hål i mörkret” Ingrid Olsson
51 ”Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen
52. Love Letters of great men
53. ”Wuthering Heights” Emily Brontë
54. ”Fucking Åmål” (screenplay) Lukas Moodysson
55. ”Rör vid mig” Malin Isaksson
56. ”Dead until Dark” Charlaine Harris
57. ”Hex Education” Emily Gould and Zareen Jaffery
58. ”The Luxe” Anna Godbersen
59. ”Great Expectations” Charles Dickens
60. ”I am legend” Richard Matheson
61. ”On Writing” Stephen King
62. ”Atonement” Ian McEwan
63. ”American Eve” Paula Uruburu
64. ”Cranford” Elizabeth Gaskell
65. ”Anne of Green Gables” L. M. Montgomery
66. ”The Duchess” Amanda Foreman
67. ”New Moon” Stephenie Meyer
68. ”Eclipse” Stephenie Meyer
69. ”The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
70. ”Little Women” Louisa May Alcott
71. ”The divingbell and the butterfly” Jean-Dominique Bauby
72. ”Romeo and Juliet” William Shakespeare
73. ”The Devil's Footsteps” E E Richardson
74. ”Breakfast at Tiffany's” Truman Capote
75. ”The Importance of BeingErnest” Oscar Wilde
76. ”Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” Seth Grahame-Smith
77. ”Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper” Gypsy Rose Lee
78. ”A Model Summer” Paulina Porizkova
79. ”Made in America” Bill Bryson
80. ”Mansfield Park” Jane Austen
81. ”Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” John Lydon
82. ”Lulu in Hollywood” Louise Brooks
83. ”Krigets Färger” Arkadij Babtjenko
84. ”In a Sunburned Country” Bill Bryson
85. ”En olustig början” Lemony Snicket
86. ”Emma” Jane Austen
87. ”A Study in Scarlet” Arthur Conan Doyle
88. ”My Story” Marilyn Monroe
89. ”Gossip Girl” Cecily von Ziegesar
90. ”Tänk om det där är jag” Johanna Lindbäck
91. ”Save the Cat” Blake Snyder
92. ”Rebel without a crew” Robert Rodriguez

Ends January 18 2011
Books left: 10

Knitting hats!

I’m going to knit hats for everyone so make sure to let me know what color you want, you can also give me a picture and I’ll see if I can make you a similar one. Autumn is coming so I better start knitting. I’ll be making myself this one, but bright red instead of raspberry.

Picture from Drops Design (pattern 109-10)

Movies so far

101 movies in 1001 days

1. Le Amants du Flore
2. Chocolat
3. Exorcist, The beginning
4. Chain of Fools
5. The Tailor of Panama
6. Tur och Retur
7. Becoming Jane
8. The Gathering Storm
9. Van Helsing
10. Gangs of New York
11. Wasabi
12. Prisilla, Queen of the Desert
13. Keeping Mum
14. Cold Creek Manor
15. Kindom of Heaven
16. House of wax
17. Transamerica
18. Bandidas
19. L'Homme du train
20. The Medallion
21. New Police Story
22. The Orphanage
23. One Hour Photo
24. Fever Pitch
25. The Good Girl
26. Saved!
27. Fantastic Four
28. The wedding Banquet
29. The Pacifier
30. Dawn of the dead
31. Hitched
32. Get Smart
33. About a boy
34. Vampire Bats
35. The Royal Tenenbaums
36. Thirteen
37. Casanova
38. The Jane Austen Book Club
39. Lord of War
40. The fog (2005)
41. When a stranger calls (2006)
42. When a stranger calls (1979)
43. Shaun of the dead
44. Memoirs of a Geisha
45. Patrik 1,5
46. Gothika
47. Danny the Dog
48. Cold Prey
49. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
50. The Astronaut's Wife
51. Murk
52. Closer
53. A Very Long Engagement
54. The Libertine
55. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
56. WALL·E
57. Johnny English
58. Peter Pan
59. Cinderella
60. Kung fu Hustle
61. Australia
62. Laura
63. It's a Wonderful Life
64. Nick of Time
65. The Producers
66. Veronica Gueirn
67. Sense and Sensibility
68. Pandora's Box
69. Being there
70. Zatôichi
71. Cashback
72 Dark Knight
73. Bride Wars
74. Der Untergang
75. Ladykillers (2004)
76. Billy Elliot
77. Frost/Nixon
78. Milk
79. Chinatown
80. The Reader
81. The Wrestler
82. Casablanca
83. Babel
84. The Hot Chick
85. The Lodger
86. Metropolis
87. Slumdog Millionarie
88. Twelve Monkeys
89. Heathers
90. Singin' in the Rain
91. Night Watch
92. Atonement
93. Cheaper by the dozen 2
94. Ziegfeld Follies
95. Pan's Laburinth
96. Twilight
97. Hotel Paradiso
98. Being John Malcovich
99. Gypsy
100. Million Dollar Baby
101. Waxworks
DONE! May 31 2009
102. Once Upon a Time in the West
103. Rebel Without a Cause
104. Cleopatra
105. Elizabeth
106. Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf
107. Marie Antoinette
108. The Savages
109. American Graffiti
110. Velvet Goldmine
111. My Own Private Idaho
112. Run Fatboy Run
113. Role Models
114. Sunshine Cleaning
115. Mysterious Skin
116. Slap Her... She's French
117. The Messangers
118. Pee-wee's Big Adventure
119. Igor
120. Black Sheep
121. Murder by Death
122. Rebecca
123. Ringu
124. Professione: reporter
125. The Nanny Diaries
126. The Golden Compass
127. Beetle Juice
128. The Grudge
129. Miracle at St. Anna
130. The Black Balloon
131. Once upon a time in Mexico
132. Love me if you dare
133. La vie en rose
134. The Fall
135. Tristan + Isolde
136. North Country
137. Arizona Dream
138. Whatever It Takes
139. The Kid
140. Georgia Rule
141. Foxfire
142. Serendiptiy
143. Because I said so
144. Sugar and Spice
145. Young Adam
146. Bin-jip
147. It's a Boy Girl Thing
148. Miami Vice
149. The Buried Secret of M. Night Shayamalan
150. The Broken
151. Ritana
152. Casino Royale
153. The Devil Wears Prada
154. The Prestige
155. Lesbian Vampire Killers
156. The Day After Tomorrow
157. V for Vendetta
158. Saw
159. An American Haunting
160. Day Watch
161. My Super Ex-Girlfriend
162. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
163. The Order
164. The Nines
165. Disturbia
166. Oldboy
167. Knocked Up
168. Just My Luck
169. Four Feathers
170. Mystic River
171. This is England
172. The Machinist
173. Ragtime
174. Crash
175. The Bourne Supremacy
176. The Bourne Ultimatum
177. The Spiderwick Chronicles
178. Hellraiser
179. Sid & Nancy
180. Paris Je t'aime
181. The Frighteners
182. The School of Rock
183. Cops and Robbersons
184. The Brave
185. Benny & Joon
186. Priceless
187. The Other Boleyn Girl
188. Definitely, Maybe
189. Great Expectations
190. Wanted
191. Cry-Baby
192. Miss Pettigew Lives for a Day
193. Lars and the Real Girl
194. Silent Hill
195. The Transporter
196. Tais-toi!
197. An Ideal Husband
198. Mama's Boy
199. My Mon's New Boyfriend
200. Freddy vs Jason
201. The Heartbreak Kid
202. 30 Days of Night
203. Brokeback Mountain
204. Friday the 13th Part 2
205. Friday the 13th Part 3
206. Halloween II
207. The Boondock Saints
208. Dead Silence
209. The Duchess
210. In Bruges

2010
211. The Covenant
212. Ordinary Decent Criminal
213. Harsh Times
214. Terminator Salvation
215. St. Trinian's
216. The Goods: Live Hard Sell hard
217. Mansfield Park
218. Inglourious Basterds
219. A Crime
220. Mansfield Park
221. District 9
222. The Hangover
223. Eight Legged Freaks
224. The Stepfather (2009)
225. Friday the 13th (2009)
226. My Bloody Valentine (2009)
227. I Sell the Dead
228. Dead Snow
229. Black Water
230. Confessions of a Shopaholic
231. House Bunny
232. Das Cabinet des Dr. Galigari
233. The Accidental Husband
234. 1408
235. The Accidental Husband
236. Music and Lyrics
237. Miss Potter
238. Two Weeks Notice
239. Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
240. Sherlock Holmes
241. The Boxer
242. The House of Mirth
243. Seven Samurai
244. River Wild
245. Per qualche dollaro in più
246. Superbad
247. High Tension
248. Prey
249. Rec
250. Drive Thru
251. Franklyn
252. Harry Brown
253. Repo! The Genetic Opera
254. The Crow: City of Angels
255. The Wolfman
256. Leap Year
257. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
258. To Be or Not to Be
259. It Happened One Night
260. Die Hard 4

Ends at April 2 2011

Three more movies… (busy weekend)

Wasabi: Silly but it was expected, love Jean Reno though
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: Never got around to see it, just seen parts of it and liked what I saw and finally I got to see if from beginning to end. Loved Bernadette.
Keeping Mum: Maggie Smith (she would be a nice Mrs Marple) is so cute, so was Emilia Fox. Cute family movie with a lot of, “shall I put the kettle on”.

Movies left: 88
Days left: 978

I love the teapot, where do you get one of those?

Polly Put the Kettle On

Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
Polly put the kettle on
We'll all have tea

Sukey take it off again
Sukey take it off again
Sukey take it off again
They've all gone away

Picture from Wikipedia

More crappy movies…

“Gangs of New York” was long and blah. Cameron Diaz, don’t like her… Best in the movie…? I don’t know, Jim Broadbent maybe (I really like him). I just realized I have seen three movies with him lately, “Gang of New York”, “The gathering storm” and the new Indi.

Then I saw “Van Helsing”, what the hell…? Best in the movie, easy, Kate Beckinsales corset. I thought it was based on a comic book but apparently it’s not.

Movies left: 91
Days left: 981

Dream…

Road trip, I’m a cheerleader or something and a screw falls out of my retainer and we have to stop at this nasty creep old gas station where the owner films us when we pee. Does it mean anything? Doubt it.

Autumn must have item number 3

Number 3 on the list, rubber boots. These are sort of cute. Can’t walk in heels though but there are cute. The other pair without heel and lacing in the front that were cute too. Nice to know there are some options when it comes to boots.

Both from Tretorn

AUTUMN-MUST-HAVE-LIST

Autumn-must-have-list

1. A beret because they are so cute! I’ll probably look like a fool but hey… Maybe I can knit one?
2. A new coat, bought one last winter but two seams broke right away. Hate when that happens.
3. New rubber boots. Perhaps two pairs? One fancier pair and one for walking the dog. It could be nice to stay dry and not look like a hillbilly when I go places.
4. An umbrella, a black double domed one, like the one witches have. Oh and perhaps a red one too…
5. A rain coat, maybe two? (Same reason as number 3)
6. Cozy socks, mohair, cashmere or similar.
7. A nice throw.

It’s not even August yet but it feels like autumn…

Where is the summer at? This happened last year too, no summer… It’s not all that warm, not cold either but no summer heat and there’s something with the light that makes it feel like fall. I have to stack up on books and movies, and yarn and new recipes so I have things to do this fall.
Even though I usually get low when it’s fall, leaving yet another disappointing summer behind me and it’s starts to rain, the winds picks up and before you know it the sunsets at noon I think it’s my favorite time of the year. The colorful leaves, feeling cold and miserable and sit down and watch television with tea and apple-pie with a cozy blanket and slippers on. I like it when the wet leaves are caught in the wind and slapping your face, why? I don’t know… Guess because it’s okay to be gloomy that time of year, no one is questioning you if you are upset and/or down because most people are at that time.

I was just out with my dog, it looked like rain so I got my rubber boots on (even though there’s a hole in them but they are better than sneakers) but skipped the raincoat. It was probably just a small shower and it gets so warm with that thing on. I hadn’t gone far when it started to rain, a faint thunder behind me and my dog being stubborn decided what way to go, to the highest point. It was pouring down now, we were both soaked and the thunder right above us. It sounded like a whole mountain crumbling down and my dog doesn’t like that so we headed back and I was a little scared because we were so high up. We were walking and lighting cut our path, it was right in front of us, hissing and spitting and making all kind of noises, it was like stepping into a Poe story.

The rain beating down on us and rooftops, lovely sound, sure I was wet but it was warm. Have a feeling this fall is going to be a wet one so I need new rubber boots, a new raincoat and a cute umbrella (a black one like in my story).

(Nice picture from Wikipedia article about lightning)

The gathering storm

Again, pretty dull movie, eventless. “The gathering storm” (oh, good title though) is about Winston Churchill and takes place just before the war. It would be more fun if the movie started where it ended, just when England went to war with Germany. Good acting but there was very little for them to do.

Favorite… Vanessa Redgrave and Jim Broadbent

Movies left: 93
Days left: 985

Two more movies

Swedish movie “Tur och retur” felt like a “Parent trap” rip-off and a bad one, very predictable. Then I watched “Becoming Jane” and it felt like a cheaper version of “Pride and prejudge” (2005), never really appreciated Keira Knightley before but she is a better actor than that Anne chick, and Rosamund Pike is better than Anna Maxwell Martin (still can’t believe she won BAFTA best actress over Gillian Anderson in “Bleak House” Gillian was way better!). Dull and pretty eventless (like my life), better off watching “Pride and prejudge” one more time.

Best was Julie Waters, but I just started thinking of Brenda Blethyn… All the characters were so similar to P&P and maybe that was sort of the point, to understand where the stories and people in Janes books come from but it felt like they had all sat down and watched P&P and studied it and based every facial expression from it.

Love Maggie but she was barely in the movie…

Movies left: 94
Days left: 987

Next movie I watch better be good.

First I saw “Chain of fools” and what stuck was, A) Steve Zahn looks like Michel J Fox B) Orlando Jones is pretty funny and that was it. Then I watched “The Tailor of Panama” and the only thing was, this movie sucks… Pierce was cursing and being ridicules, Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t get any space at all and somehow Geoffrey was almost invisible.

Movies left: 96
Days left: 989

Lady Bird

Yesterday I could see that they were about to bloom so this morning when I woke up I was like a kid on Christmas and immediately looked out the window to see if they were in bloom, and they were! My “Lady Bird” (Papaver commutatum) is so cute, looks so fragile and delicate with the big flowers on the small stems. I wish I had more of these, next year I will.

Reading right now

"The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want" Maybe it’s the translation but at times it feels like this book is for kids and then there “advice” about sleeping around so maybe not. Feels like a book that could really mess a little girl up if she believed in it, there were plenty of times I thought, “Okay, that seems like a good way to get a reputation and/or get beaten up”. I’ll try not to buy stupid books in the future…

Trying to read Jane Austens “Sense and sensibility” right now but it is taking me forever, I have to re-read a sentence every now and then to make sure I got it right. Don’t like to read books in that weird old Swedish and I’m not a big fan of either Marianne or Elinor, I don’t think we would have been friends if I met them, I wouldn’t have been posh enough. Maybe I should get "Jane Austen for dummies" and maybe then I will enjoy it more?

Weird dream, again

No vampires this time though. Heidi was living at her old place and we had to walk through it to get to school, and we hurried so that we would beat everyone else (for some reason everyone at the entire school seemed to set off to school at the same time and from the same place). My mom’s old job was also there and since I had forgotten some sort of card we needed to pass somewhere we decided to sneak through my mom’s old job where I borrowed the phone, or answered it and forgot about it and had brought it with me to school.

When we got to school Heidi wanted to talk to the school nurse about her problems with alcohol and when she did that the school nurse decided it would be good if everyone had that conversation and it was like group therapy all of a sudden. I was listening but I can’t remember what was said and everyone was supposed to say something, I put my foot in my mouth and came off as a complete jackass and the more I tried to get out of it the worse it got, but luckily Marilyn Mason (!!!?) called me and asked if I wanted to watch a movie with him so I excused myself and left the room.

That dream can’t mean a thing now can it? What did Marilyn Manson do there? I don’t listen to him or anything, maybe he was on the radio? I tend to get affected by the radio when I sleep.

Dreams…

Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire (1897) Found the picture here

I have similar dreams most of the times. Chasing vampires (always in modern times), which usually backfires and I or someone I care about ends up in mortal danger. Every now and then I am a vampire but that doesn’t mean that other vampires like me, they still try to kill me. I’ve been in several wars, usually part of some kind of rebel force or underground movement, hunted by the law or some sort of conspiracy. I’m fighting battles that are doomed from the beginning, giant monsters that I can’t win over. To sum it up, “they” are always out to get me and they odds are against me.

Last night it started out with a party somewhere out in the woods (my dreams often take place in the woods), my friend Amanda was there and her friends that don’t like me, they were mean to me. This faded away and suddenly I was on the run. Someone was trying to catch me, some kind of conspiracy and I knew about it and had to be stopped. I fled with someone to the bus but when we got there “they” had killed the bus driver and we were trapped (time to get a driver’s license).

All my vampire dreams some would think I’m just one of those vampire freak, someone who watches Buffy but I’m not. Ever been into vampires and I didn’t watch Buffy. According to dreammoods.com “To dream that you are a vampire, signifies that you are sucking in the life energy of others for your own selfish benefit.” Yeah, that sounds like me… (it’s hard to use sarcasm in text) they also say about fighting vampires, “The vampires in your dream may suggest that you are feeling drained of your life energy and autonomy. In dreaming that you are fighting these vampires, is a literal depiction of your daily struggles with keeping things in order. You may be suffering from exhaustion or feeling overwhelmed in some aspect of your domestic or personal life which explains the tiredness you feel when you wake up.” Not sure you can say that vampire means this or that, I must mean different things for everyone, but this could be true.

I should go t-shirt shopping at Topshop

Cute tees, and I’m running out of clothes. I tend to wear things until they fall off… Don’t have a lot of money so if I could only buy one I would go with the Batgirl one.

Exorcist: The Beginng

Has Renny Harlin ever done a good movie? (Except for Christmas classic “Die Hard 2” but that’s not really a “good” movie, just a good old classic so it doesn’t count.) Watched “Exorcist: The Beginning” last night, just a movie with a lame scene where Isabella walks around in the dark with nothing but a towel. Is there like a rule or something that there has to be some sort of nudity in horror films?

I don’t know what makes “The Exorcist” scary but it’s one of the scariest films I have ever seen. Haven’t seen it for years and I have no plans of seeing it again. I got scared when I saw “Jaw” but I was seven so that’s understandable but “The Exorcist” still scares me. Just thinking of that late at night and I imagine my bed shaking. I’m glad this wasn’t anywhere near that because I was sitting all alone watching it with my terrace door open. The scariest thing was when my dog all of a sudden started barking and I dropped the remote in the floor and went searching for the batteries under the sofa.

No one can take Linda Blair and Max von Sydow a wonderful Fader Merrin, Stellan is fine but he’s no Max.

Apparently “The Exorcist” is based on a book… would I dare read it?

Movies left: 98

Days left: 995 (I suck at keeping track of things, I hope it's right...)

Poppies!!

I actually managed to fail with some of my poppies, guess I didn’t water them enough this spring? Some made it though and they are in bloom, love them! And I’ll get more and treat them better next season. (I'm collecting seeds if anyone wants some)

Love the color of this one. The mother looks like the one below, opium poppies (papaver somniferum) I found on a meadow around here. For some reason a few decided to be pink and I want more of them.

Frilly purple opium poppy

Corn poppy (papaver rhoeas) "Shirley double"

More corn poppy, same seed mix, "Shirely double" but not double

Not in bloom yet, Papaver commutatum "Ladybird"

Bad girl’s guide to getting what you want

Because it was cheap and sort of cute I bought Cameron Tuttles “Bad girl’s guide to getting what you want”. (I buy way too many books like that...) As I was flipping through I saw these lists of different bad girls and a Swedish name caught my eye and I thought, they she make the list? And then I looked closer and there were loads of Swedish names on it. Of course when it was printed in Swedish they added Swedes on it so that people could relate but… I don’t like things getting changed. Sure, it’s not a serious book but still. They have added some names they liked better and I guessed thought we here in Sweden would know who they were and removed some… Like poor Debbie Harry, why?!

Annoyed with all of these changes, irritated, what else have they changed? I want the original version. Guess it serves me right for buying silly books… UPDATE: Oh my, comparing the original with this one… “mug shot” has been translated to “passport picture”, guessing this Swedish version is for the kids…

Here are the lists

Bad girls making music
Billie Holiday
Janis Joplin
Josephine Baker
Tina Turner
Bessie Smith (Not on the Swedish list)
Lil’ Kim
Aretha Franklin
Bonnie Raitt (Not on the Swedish list)
Shania Twain
Eartha Kitt
Courtney Love
Joan Jett
Chaka Khan (Not on the Swedish list)
Deborah Harry (Not on the Swedish list!!!!!!)
Sheryl Crow
Melissa Etheridge (Not on the Swedish list)
Annie Lennox
The bad girl formerly known as Prince
Liz Phair (Not on the Swedish list)
Grace Slick (Not on the Swedish list)
Chrissy Hynde
Stevie Nicks
Queen Latifah

ADDED IN THE SWEDISH VERSION
Gwen Stefani
Robyn
Monica Zetterlund (which is okay with me, love that woman)
Nina Persson (The Cardigans)
Beyonce
Jennifer Lopez
Mary J Blige

Bad girls making movies
Marilyn Monroe
Miss Piggy
Raquel Welch
Pam Grier
Carrie Fisher
Barbra Stanwyck
Tallulah Bankhead
Drew Barrymore
Callie Khouri (Not on the Swedish list)
Judy Davis (Not on the Swedish list)
Marlene Dietrich
Mae West
Sharon Stone
Rita Hayworth
Jane Champion
Christina Ricci
Greta Garbo
Katherine Hepburn
Penny Marshall (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Tova Novotny (What?! Please… If they are going to add a Swede, what about Ingrid Bergman?)
Juliette Lewis
Sarah Jessica Parker

Bad girls scoring points
Serena and Venus Williams
Mia Hamm (Not on the Swedish list)
Florence Griffith Joyner (Not on the Swedish list, most defiantly because of the steroid controversy)
Martina Navratilova
Lisa Leslie (Not on the Swedish list)
Brandi Chastain (Not on the Swedish list)
Michelle Akers (Not on the Swedish list)
Laila Ali (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDEN ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Kajsa Bergqvist
Therese Alshammar
Anja Pärson
Annika Sörenstam (Defiantly earned her place on the list)
Hanna Ljungberg
Victoria Svensson

Bad girls making history
Eve
Joan of Arc
Harriet Tubman (Not on the Swedish list)
Amelia Earhart
Eva Perón
Anne Boleyn (Not on the Swedish list)
Rosa Parks
Annie Oakley (Not on the Swedish list)
Queen Elizabeth I
Angela Davis
Wilma Rudolph (Not on the Swedish list)
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Madeleine Albright
Marie Curie
Jane Goodall
Margaret Sanger
Rosie the Riveter
Martha Graham (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Fredrika Bremer
Mother Teresa
Bridget of Sweden
Lady Diana
Anna Lindh

Bad girls making literature
Jane Austen
Anaïs Nin
Toni Morrison
George Sand
Dorothy Parker
Edit Wharton
Audre Lorde (Not on the Swedish list)
Colette (Not on the Swedish list)
Joan Didion (Not on the Swedish list)
Susan Sontag
The Brontë sisters
Maya Angelou (Not on the Swedish list)
Grace Paley (Not on the Swedish list)

ADDEN ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Astrid Lindgren (Yes! Hello, she’s the creator of Pippi Longstocking for F sake!)
Kerstin Thorwall
Linda Skugge
Liza Marklund (urk!)

Then they have removed the art category completely in the Swedish version and have “girls with power” instead, I’m not surprised.
Cristina Stenbeck
Anna Bråkenhielm
Stina Dabrowski (why not)
Princess Victoria

Bad girls making us laugh
Lucille Ball
Glida Radner (Not on the Swedish list)
Sandra Bernhard (Not on the Swedish list)
Lily Tomlin (Not on the Swedish list!)
Rosanne Barr
Holly Golightly (Not on the Swedish list)
Rosie O’Donnell
Phyllis Diller (Not on the Swedish list)
Ellen Degeneres
Oprah Winfrey (I wouldn’t say she makes me laugh, I would have put her on the “So bad they need only one name”)
Lisa Kudrow
Teri Garr (Not on the Swedish list)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Not on the Swedish list!!)
Bridget Jones

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH LIST
Annika Lantz
Suzanne Reuter
Babben Larsson
Tiffany Persson (Love her!)
Anna-Lena Brundin
Ulla Skog

Bad girls that make men weep
Scarlett O’Hara
Catwoman (!!)
Elizabeth Taylor
Heather Locklear
Gloria Steinem

Bad girls so bad they need only one name
Eve (Not on the Swedish list)
Madonna
Thelma & Louise
Xena (Not on the Swedish list)
Cleopatra
Eloise (Not on the Swedish list)
Charo (Not on the Swedish list)
Colette (Not on the Swedish list)
Lucy “peanuts” (Not on the Swedish list)
Ling

ADDED ON THE SWEDISH ONE
Pink (ew)
Pippi (Yeah!)
Grynet
Nikita (Hell yeah)
Patsy and Edina (Yes! I mean, cheers!)

I never said I would write a masterpiece

Just that I would write and I have 61 days left to write and a really crappy first draft so I can touch it up and finish it. Practice makes perfect and you have to start somewhere so what if I don’t write something great? At least I’m writing and I’m finishing what I started and that’s the important thing to me right now, not quitting, not giving up.

Chocolat

I didn’t know the movie was based on a book, maybe I should read it… Johnny Depp was more tempting then the chocolate they were making. The movie was pretty unexciting but it wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call it good either. Favorite was Judi Dench

Movies left: 99
Days left: 996

Les Amants du Flore

The movie was pretty dull, life story movies are rarely good. The actors were pretty good though. It's was about Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre, I didn't know anything about them before the movie and now I know where they are Buried. The best thing about the movie was the hairdos and the atmosphere. My favorite was Lolo.

Movies left: 100
Days left: 1000

New Challenge

101 movies in 1001 days. That seems like it’s plausible. Starts today, July 5 2008 and ends… um…2011 April 2, I think…

Indiana Jones

Where to begin… this is one of the worse movies I seen in a long time. I just sat there squirming and going, “What is this?” and it was so lame that I knew everything that was going to happen, then you know it’s a bad movie when you figure everything out within five minutes. Sucked so bad!! If you haven’t seen it, don’t. You won’t miss a thing, watch a good movie instead… Why do they make movies like these? (Because of the money) I can’t understand how anyone can like this. What was up with the chipmunks? Surviving a nuclear blast by climbing into a fridge? Everything became dust except for the fridge, he’s one lucky fellow that Dr. Jones.
Ctrl A for spoiler. I missed Marcus and Sallah…

Oops

I’ve totally forgotten all about writing. I haven’t been in on How to write a novel in 100 or less days in like… a week, I suck so bad! Seriously, tomorrow I will focus on my writing, on my story. I have to figure the plot out properly; right now it’s not working. I like my heroine and the “hero”, not sure he’s a hero but anyway… I liked the task for day 29 and I think everyone should give it ago, try to be as honest as you can (dare). I have to find out exactly what it is in the plot that isn’t working.

But maybe it’s not working because it’s all crap? It’s a possibility… I just looked at it and I just don’t like it. I think I have to toss the plot and come up with a whole new one, same some of the elements but a new story in the same environment with the same people. The people don’t fit the story… Well I guess it’s the people that don’t fit the story and not the other way around. Feel so stuck and unsure on what to do. When do you know to drops something and start something else?

What would Jane think?

Jane Austen Book Club, didn’t like it… Who was the narrator? That was basically what kept me going, who is telling this story? Maybe I’ll know in the end but no… Just felt like glimpse in pretty ordinary lives. At the end of my book there were questions to consider, perhaps someone hoped that this would be a book people gathered in someone’s living room to discus and wanted to help out and have the questions already made up in the end of the book? (Who wrote these questions? The publisher?) I did like that idea, I like to get some questions and think about the book a little bit more.

The best thing in the entire book was the mentioning of Jet Li at page 195, Jet Li rules

Imaginary Tea Party…

If you had a tea party for five and could invite whoever you want, dead or alive, fictional or real life person who would it be? I’m think Sherlock Holmes and the lovely Ms Marple, I’m sure they would get along and it would probably be fun to listen in on their conversation. I guess Dr Watson could come along as well but then there are two empty seats left. I would invite Fred and George Weasley but I don’t think they would like that sort of thing, sitting still, talking and having tea isn’t their style. Maybe I’m in some sort of crime fighting mood because Poirot seems like a delight to have at a tea party. Last seat at the table… Indiana Jones wouldn’t like it, neither would James Bond. Oh, I think I’ll invite Sir Ian McKellen, or Vincent Price… Hm, I think I’ll go with Ian, he seems more easy going than Vincent.

Interesting, all my guests but one is fictional, what does that say about me?

Only problem is, all of these people seem very smart, well-spoken and have interesting ideas about all sorts of things and then there in the middle, me!?

Geraldine McEwan as Ms Jane Marple

The fabulous Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Stock as Dr Watson

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot

Ian Mckellen