Niklas' blog

Yesterday I visited my grandmother (on my mom’s side) together with my parents. Grandma’s 93 years old, and is the most positive person I’ve ever met; she won’t accept other oldies’ nagging clichés, such as “life gets worse the older one gets” and all other woe-is-me-shite she gets. What’s interesting, is Mikaela’s grandmother. She’s the exact opposite. She’s been through some bad things in her life, and she’s very negative at heart. The funny thing is when I’ve asked her about her health, and she’s said stuff like “Ooh, when you’re past 80 years of age, you just can’t wait to die” and “as usual: bad”; I wouldn’t joke about her health if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s probably put herself in the position where she is at the moment. She’s quite over-weight and perennially wonders why that is. Her relatives are quick to nicely reply that stopping her vast, daily intake of junk-food and candy might have something to do with it; to this she replies “Well, I have to have something to do, don’t I?” in a sort of don’t-take-away-my-only-joy-in-life. So, after she’s told me me of her many ailments, she asks me how my grandmother is doing. Mind you, my grandma’s over ten years older than she is. “Well, her feet are swollen, she has recently had pneumonia, she’s been lying in bed almost all last week long, but this one she’s been out walking at least an hour a day, she’s doing her gymnastics and eating the right things”, I say. I always bite my tongue as I’m about to add my grandma continually says old people should 1) not complain as much as they do and 2) let kids be kids as they have a life to live, Bog damn it. Check this picture out. It’s my grandma, and I took it yesterday. She’s hard-headed in a good way, and I know that’s where my mom got it. And I definitely know I got that from my mom.

Mikaela’s still ill, at home yet getting better all the time. Poor thing. I can’t even remember when I was last sick for a whole week. She’s cooking right now, though, which is a good sign.

I’m reading “Locas” like nuts. I can’t stop. I’ve written more about this comic both here and here, but now that I finally the book in my possession, reading’s like a poison. I got hold of the entire back-catalogue of Grant Morrison’s “The Invisibles” a while back, but still haven’t read it. “Locas” is almost 700 pages thick, and in just three days I’ve run through more than 250 pages. I’ll have to get Jaime’s brother’s anthology “Palomar” as well. Hernandez, produce more, dang it! I was just down the local hall to get lemons and garlic, and found myself comparing the chulos of Fruängen with the vatos from Hoppers. Escapism, here I am. Oh, you’ve already found me? Little wonder.

Yeah, I’m still a camera nut. I’m wondering whether to buy the Tamron lens I’ve yakked about, or a Nikkor lens, exactly the same I lent off Fredrik a couple of weeks ago – plus a Lowepro bag and a tripod, as the Nikkor lens is half the price of the Tamron. Fair trade, huh? I was pushed further towards the Lowepro CompuTrekker AW bag as I saw this picture of some photographer’s equipment. Here’s to materialism: salúd! I have no idea on what tripod to get: I just want something to help me stabilise the camera as I take the pictures, especially if I’m getting to photograph something at maximum zoom using a 70-300mm lens. On the other hand I may just merely freak out when Frederic gets his Sony PSP and get one myself, but I’ll wait and see until I try one out. Pah! Or I’ll just calm my materialistic nerve…and get a new audio-player, maybe with a new pair of head-phones?

Hi, my name is Niklas, and I’ve been a materialist for more than two decades.