July 31st 2025

So there's something wrong with the car again (again again again).

It was time for Närcon Sommar again last weekend, so me and Ren took the car and I drove us to Linköping. We were driving around the university parking lots trying to find a free parking spot, when suddenly the car starts screaming, a big red warning sign on the car's display screen that usually shows the speed reading "STOP" in big white letters. Next to it read text that said something about the engine being extremely overheated.

So I turn the car off ASAP and open up the hood. It's hot as fuck underneath, and there's this ticking noise inside. I heard the same noise the last time I had to take the car to the shops (just a couple of weeks ago TAT) when the tube from the antifreeze tank had just... cracked open and all the cooling liquid leaked out instead of going where it needed to go. So of course, the first thing I check is the antifreeze. But I've got plenty of that.

So I call my dad, while super close to a panic attack. I'm glad I wasn't wearing makeup that day, cus I was definitely crying from the stress at that point.

While I'm on the phone with dad, I see a car with the meter company pass nearby, so I run after then and wave them down. I got permission to park illegaly for the rest of the day while I got everything figured out. Cus the car was in no state to find an empty spot at that point. The meter man wrote a note for me to put in the window in case a different meter man dropped by, so I wouldn't get a ticket.

While me and my parents had a very strained relationship while I was growing up, dad very nice, cus he did not actually have the time to come and help us that same day, but he did. We're also lucky that he's got an enhanced driver's license. He rented a car wagon (I tried finding the English word but tyda.se gave me zilch), one of those wagons you attach to your car that you can then load another car on top of, and helped us load the car onto that one. We're also lucky that he's got a very sturdy work truck, I don't think my crap car would be able to pull that heavy a weight had the roles been reversed.

By the time he came the day and the car had cooled down enough to at least drive it onto the wagon. Actually, I've been able to drive it (short distances) again this week, cus it seems the problem only happens when it's hot, so as long as it's cool outside it's okay. I'm taking it to the shops tomorrow, they didn't have time before then. Dad's theory is that there's something wrong with some sort of engine fan that's supposed to turn on and off on its own as needed? Apparently on older cars that fan was always on, but in modern cars (though mine is by no means new anymore, it is still counted as a more modern car - it has bluetooth!) it only turns on as needed? I don't know anything about cars, so I don't know if that made sense at all.

So I had to drive a replacement car again. At least that car has a working AC. Didn't have to drive down the highway with the windows down, like we had to on the way to Linköping. My ears are still a bit sensitive to wind since the drive there. On the other hand I sorely missed the cruise control. My foot is not used to having to hold the pedal down for so long. Also, I'm kinda surprised I could drive the car all the way, and my hands were okay-ish. Driving is a lot easier than a lot of other things, cus you don't use your fine motor abilities (afaik) to the same degree as say, when you use a computer mouse. The mouse and I are enemies right now.

It's a miracle that I didn't actually have a panic attack. At least I've got meds for that in my purse, in case I do get one. A scout is always ready (not a scout, is this stolen valour?)!

Uuuh, on to the rest of the con?

Visitors could make lego flowers and stab into Närcon's logo by Zen Garden (one of the areas at the con), and this is what it looked like on Saturday. Me and Ren made one each, though mine didn't look very flower-y. A lot of the good parts were gone by then, but at least it was still pretty pink! It was fun watching the dragon get more and more colourful as the weekend went on. They could have used a material that was easier to stab into though.

On Thursday I attended an activity called 'obligatory jury duty'. It was like... Ace Atterney meets improv acting. It's a trial where the attorney and prosecutor are chosen from the audience, while the judge, accused and any witnesses are the people who set the activity up, so the lawyers go in blind and have to try to either get the accused off or get them convicted. I had never heard of the activity before, but a friend of my friend Trick had gone to it before at a different con, so me and Trick tagged along. It was a lot of fun, though I had to leave after the second out of three cases cus my dad called. Which is too bad, cus apparently Trick's friend got to be the ...prosecutor? I'm not sure which role they played since I wasn't there, but I wish I'd been able to. But, I kind of had to prioritise the car.

This photo is from the first case, where a pirate stood accused for jaywalking, which it became clear that he didn't do. He did however beat someone up, but since that wasn't what he was being tried for, that was irrelevant to the case. He beat them up on the sidewalk after all, where green or red light doesn't matter!

Honestly, I would probably attend this kind of thing again if I got the chance.

There were a lot of food carts at the con, though they had a lot less space between them than last year, since Linköping University is renovating outdoors, so a section where there's usually food was closed off this year. Next year a different section will be closed off. It's a very large university, so it'll take a while to finish everything.

Anyway, one of the places had delicious beef and vegetables with rice. I ate there most of the con, though they ran out of beef by Saturday, so I switched to chicken. That also tasted great. I also had some taiyaki again, just like last summer. They had a new flavour this year, which was vanilla custard, I think it tasted really good. Right next to them were some people selling ice cream and sorbet, and I got the sorbet. It was lychee flavoured, which I found very mild. It was pretty nice to have in the heat. Me and Ren sat under the bridge leading into one of the buildings. Shadow was hard to come by in the middle of the day, so we had to make do with where we could find it.

The most expensive sorbet I've ever had, for sure. It tasted pretty good, but I probably wouldn't buy it again. Ren got the sakura ice cream, which was made with real cherries, which is great! Artificial cherry is a common medication flavour for children here (might be elsewhere too), so the association with it makes it taste pretty bad. Artificial cherry is also one of the more obvious artificial flavours, to boot. It just tastes... synthetic.

Can you tell that I was wearing a maid dress in the photo to the left? I was actually supposed to be cosplaying (Super Sonico) but I was feeling pretty dead from the stress of the day before (when we arrived and all the car trouble happened) so I didn't feel like putting on a wig and makeup. Definitely didn't feel up to false lashes.

I still got a lot of compliments on how I'd styled myself though, and people were asking about my earrings both that day and the day before. The ones I wore with the maid dress were a pair of pink pompom strawberries from a shop that doesn't exist anymore (I also have a pair of peach pompoms - I wish I had more but alas) BUT the ones I wore on the first day are from a shop that still ezists. Well, they used to be on etsy when I bought them back in 2019, now they have their own webpage! Fantastic! So anyway they're tentacle earrings and I love them. This isn't the exact pair I have, but the closest. I love tentacles, they're so squirmy and cute.

Speaking of my maid dress, I got a very obvious tan line where the sleeves ended as well as uh, a burn on my tits. A heart shaped burn. At least the shape wasn't that obvious when I put on something other than my super-mega-pushup bra.

Gotta remember sun screen.

At least the burn wasn't that bad, like 10 years ago or so I got a terrible burn on my boobs while cosplaying KiLLER LADY!Gumi (Vocaloid) at Närcon.

There were a lot of figurines to buy in some of the vendor rooms. This figure is from a room that's full with nothing but figurines. I wanted several of them, but not enough to actually buy them. There as a sakura Miku that I kinda wanted, but there's a different one that I want more, and they didn't have that one, so I didn't buy any. Might snoop online for a good second hand figure instead.

I was pretty surprised to find a Magic Knight Rayearth figure though. She was pretty cheep cus her hair had gotten so faded, probably because it's an older figure, so she's seen a lot of light in the vendor halls. I don't think Rayearth was my first Clamp manga, but it was one of the earlier I read. It was actually translated to Swedish, at least partially. I never owned the books myself (read them at the library) so I don't know if they finished translating all of it.

Unsurprisingly, I brought my 3DS with me. There was a Tomodachi Life meetup planned, so I knew there would be a lot of other people bringing theirs. And I was right, I met people from a few different countries via Street Pass, even. Norway, Finland, Denmark and Scotland. I now have 255 mii characters in my Plaza. 43 of those people are brand new, one person I'd also met during Retromania this spring.

One person's greeting was "old man yaoi", that cracked me up so much!

Now, let's show off some cosplays! I didn't take a lot of photos this year either, there's so many people at Närcon now that everyone just kind of... blends together. According to a friend there were about 20'000 visitors which is... frankly too many, especially while parts are closed off due to renovation. Honestly, they need to stop selling more and more and more tickets, at some point it's just too much and gets overwhelming.

Well, here's the cosplayers I took pictures of!

Only the Jeanne cosplayer had a social media to share, they're called starfoxcosplay! I was pretty psyched to see a Jeanne cosplay, I hope the person I bought a KKJ print from a couple of years ago saw them, I know they had a booth in the outdoors section of Artist Alley this year.

Okay, since we're on the topic of purchases, let's talk about what I bought! I was actually quite frugal this year, I only bought stuff for less than 150 kronor this year.

I've been eyeing the fox girl since last year, and this time there was one in the artsit's bargain bin. Either it's cus it was a misprint since only one side was sparkly, or they're just not gonna restock it. It's so cute though! It's a little big to put on my keys so I'm thinking of framing it, I think it'd be cute that way. I just need to find a cute frame for it.

The Miku phone charm has joined the rest of the ones already attached to my phone. Mum says it sounds like she's talking to Edward Scissorhands on the phone when they click against each other so I'm trying to hold them while I'm talking to people. It's gonna take a while to get used to doing that. The sticker I'm not sure where to put yet.

The furby sticker is by _demon_arts, the Miku phone charm by soga.art and the fox girl keyring is by tahmix.

I also recieved some free stuff. The Kuromi keyring was laid out with a bunch of stuff on one of the tables in one of the kitchens. Someone had bought a blind bag or a blind box or something and had laid out the things they didn't want on the table along with a note to tell people to grab anything they wanted.

The stickers are a similar story, but this time I got them from a friend who bought a mystery pack (there are so many words for convention gambling huh). They're made by si3art. I love Grell and Uta. I haven't finished Tokyo Ghoul and I'm behind on Kuroshitsuji though. But I have been listening to the music from the second Kuroshitsuji musical again, I love Uehara Takuya's Grell. It's fun seeing the contrast between when he plays her and when he used to play Kenya from Prince of Tennis.

When I arrived back home, Njord was like a little leech. If she wasn't in my lap, or on my chest or neck when I was lying in bed, she would yell at me from bed to come cuddle her. She was, what we in Sweden call 'mommy-y' ('mammig'). Which does sound pretty stupid in English since the word already ends with a Y. But 'mama's girl' doesn't really convey the feeling as well. Mammig is also gender neutral on the part of the kid (animal in this case). The dad equivalent is 'pappig'. So she was very mammig. Kalma was a lot more chill, but did give me some extra attention.

The photo of Kalma was taken before I left for the con. I remembered last time when he lied down inside the suitcase and got hair on everything, so this time I had the foresight toclose it when I saw him get close.

The photo of Njord was taken after, during one of the times she yelled at me to come pet her in bed.

Soooo, I did cosplay on the Saturday of the con. I dressed up as Izumo no Takeru from the manga Takeru ~ Opera Susanoh Sword of the Devil. I did however, not take any photos. It was the 20 year anniversary of the manga yesterday though, so I threw the cosplay back on again, for a little bit to take some pictures.

It's been a few years since I last took cosplay photos. Two years, I think? I of course dressed up at last year's Närcon Sommar, but I didn't take any photos. I'm really bad at remembering to do that. So have a few photos from yesterday, to celebrate that it's been 20 years since the first chapter released.

The manga is actually based on a play (one of my most prized possessions is my VHS copy of that play), but we're still a few years out from the 30 year anniversary of the play. Also, I've only cosplayed the manga version before, I don't really want to make an armour for the play version. Also he has long hair in the original, and while I do love characters with long hair, it's always a pain to tend to long wigs.

I uh, turns out I've gotten bigger calves, cus I could not get some of the straps around them on. I guess all my 5km walks (several times a week) have given me stronger legs. So I had to make new ones yesterday. I hadn't tried the cosplay on before the con, cus I've lost some weight since I last wore itso obviously, there should be no issues, right? Wrong. I've gotten more muscle.

I didn't bother with his tattoos cus I was a bit short of time. I was going to dinner with my family right after, so I had very limited time to do this.

We played a board game called Wingspan that my little brother and his sambo had bought. It's about birds. Somehow Tofi grasped the rules super quickly, probably cus he plays a lot of TTRPG so he's used to keeping track of a lot of rules. He plays three times a week right now. I got second to last place. Little brother won big time, he got some really good birds with some great skills so he could just rake in points.

So anywayyy, that was the last bit of my July. I'm gonna go put the stuff for my Izumo cosplay away now.

July 21st 2025

The deer ate my veggies!

Well, some of the corn survived, and I've got plenty of carrots that they didn't manage to uproot, but the broccoli? Probably not getting any of that this year either. I'll find out later this summer. So tonight we put up sticks slathered in sheep tallow. Supposedly they won't like that smell and leave the vegetables alone for now. The everlasting flowers are alright though, and I think I'll be able to pick some flowers soon.

Anyway, These last few weeks me and Tofi have finally started to learn how to use the grill, which is about time to be honest. We've been using grandpa's old grill, so we invited him and grandma (maternal grandpa, paternal grandma) over to make them something with it. It's a good thing sausage is easy to make, we need more practice with the temperatures and all that other stuff. Though I did grill some meat once, it went okay.

Grandma had brought some strawberries for dessert, and I'd bought ice cream to go with it, but she'd also made some strawberry jam to give us to eat later. Me, Tofi and dad had it with oven pancake last week, it was delicious.

Later in the evening, after I'd driven grandma home and grandpa had left, I went for a walk. I got distracted on the way, when I saw some blueberries growing by the side of the road, so I ended up getting off the road and picked about a fistful of blueberries that I found in the forest. Prisad vare allemansrätten! I had them with dad and Tofi the next day, with the leftover ice cream.

Yesterday, me and Tofi picked about 3 liters of cherries. We still have a lot more to pick, but they weren't ready yet. I also need to use a different ladder, you can't reach all the branches when you're propping the ladder up against the trunk of the tree. I need to use the one that folds out so it can stand on its own next time.

After we picked the cherries, we made cherry soup from the cherries we still had left over from last year, chilling in the freezer. Or, as we call it, spit soup. Because you cook the cherries with the pits and all, so you spit the seeds into a glass while you eat the soup. Not a very appetising name, but it's what we've grown up calling it, so it's what we use.

Also last week, I finally got around to going to the forest lake where I like to go swimming in the summer. Since then I've been twice, once being this morning, cus guess what? I started my vacation today. So I got to go swimming in the morning and when I got home I got to have some of the spit soup me and Tofi made yesterday.

My little brother's sambo doesn't like this lake, cus the one time she went there with me and my brothers she saw a leech. But despite the leeches, the sludgy bottom and how you're covered in said sludge when you get out of the lake, I love it. It's pretty and it has spots where the rock has been broken so you can sit on them like you're sitting in a chair with your feet still dipping in the water.

I don't remember if I wrote about it last year (or was it two years ago?), but once I almost collided with a snake that was swimming in the lake, but it veered off. I only knew cus someone on a kayak near me suddenly started yelling "snake! a snake's swimming toward you!" and I realised they were yelling at me. I don't swim on my back as much anymore, but I do still do it.

On to video games! My hands are still not healed, so I've been taking it pretty easy with video games. The only one I've been playing is Tomodachi Life. It's so easy to just play for a couple of minutes and then put it away again. I recently made Takeuchi and Suwa, as well as Sumomone and Uiui. I'm trying to get them to marry, but Sumomone went and got a crush on Suwa?! Come on, fall for Uiui! I usually just let the miis fall for whoever but once in a while you wanne get your ships in there, you know?

Since Sumomone and Uiui are from a music anime/game, I had them sing a duet. I feel like I should make the last member of their band now, Rararin, so I can have them sing as Reijing Signal.

Obligatory kitty pics! Kalma likes keeping track of me when I go to Tofi, cus he knows a scary meany lives there (my brother's black cat), so in the photo on the left he was waiting for me underneath this tree, then when I came outside again, he jumped up on the low spot where the tree splits off and meowed at me expectantly to come pet him and then follow him inside my own cottage, where the only scary meany is Njord.

The photo on the right is Njord helping me read my Mars Red doujinshi. She's very good at reading Japanese, I'll have you know. Unlike me, who needs the dictionary constantly. Some of the doujin were made by my twitter moots (back when I still used twitter - I wish they used bsky TAT), and I hold those especially close to my heart. I had a lot of fun gushing about Takeuchi and SuwaTake/MaeTake with them.

Speaking of Takeuchi, I've been working on his shrine, but wowie, there's a lot of writing. I still have so much to do on it! I wanna make more stuff for it, like icons and stamps. I wanna make wallpapers too, real 2000s looking ones, but I've never made any before so I'm trying to collect a bunch of wallpapers made in the 2000s as a reference.

July 3rd 2025

It's been a while since I wrote about my vegetable garden (it's been a while since I wrote about anything, really)! If I even have? I can't remember.

Most of it is growing really well, though not all of the corn took so it's a bit sparse. Not to speak of the poor wild strawberries. We might have the very beginning of one plant, but it's been growing so slowly. The carrots, everlasting flowers and the broccoli however are doing really well! No flower buds yet though, but we'll get there.

I'm honestly a little surprised by the broccoli, considering how bad my luck has been with it these past few years. We'll see if they continue to grow as well as they are. The everlasting flowers I'm growing specifically to put in between the inner and outer windows. I live in an old house so there's several cm of space between them, where you put stuffing at the bottom to fight the draft. It doesn't look very cute though, hence, I'm putting flowers on top of the stuffing! You can kinda see it in the photo I'm adding to this entry.

Mostly unrelated, I was gifted a kg of strawberries by dad. They both smell and taste amazing. I've been considering getting a strawberry perfume when the vanilla one I use is empty for a while, and I'm getting more certain about it now. I love the scent of strawberries. And these have a lot of flavour, too, unlike the ones I sold back when I was a strawberry salesman for a summer. Selling strawberries outdoors in April was freezing business. I was relieved when I got to move to a place that was inside, especially when it moved over to sweltering heat instead. When you do that job you don't move a lot, so if it's cold it's terrible, and if it's hot you're sweating your ass off cus the sun is usually right on you unless it's the middle of the day. I had a pretty unpleasant time doing it, but at least I got to eat a lot of free strawberries cus we were supposed to get rid of the ones that were too squished. I don't think they do that anymore, I bought some strawberries from the same company a few years ago and they hadn't even bothered to check for mouldy ones. Gross.

Going from barely related to not related at all, my car is in the shops. Again. I feel like it's been one thing after the other ever since that damn mouse ate a cable and died on the engine cus it was trying to nest on top of it last year. So I've been driving a replacement car. There are two problems with this car.

• It's super long, I'm used to driving a very short car.
• It's automatic.

I am soooo not used to driving automatic. I can count on one hand the times I've driven one before this week. I could give you a middle finger with it, too. That's how little I've driven automatic. Manual is still the standard in Sweden, I'm pretty sure. It's cheaper and when you take your license you have to pick between a license for manual or automatic, and while you're allowed to drive automatic with a manual license, you're not allowed to drive a manual with an automatic, so most people opt for the former.

To be honest, since my hands continue to be fucked, I should probably be driving an automatic, but I... don't want to. Humans are creatures of habit and I'm so used to manual, I almost had several panic attacks when I had to drive the automatic the first time this week and hit the breaks while looking for the clutch. Several times. And also, it's not just that easy of a thing to change cars, you know? It's expensive.

Anyway, for some reason the breaks on my car decided that it was going to permanently stay partially on the wheel (right side), which made it very difficult to drive. And then they found some other problem with a tube connected to something-something (I am not a car person, I'm lucky my dad knows a bit more about that).

Hopefully I get my car back tomorrow, but I was supposed to get it back yesterday originally. I just want it back til the weekend so I can go swimming in the lake. I do not wanna do the turning required to go back home after, where parking is literally just a tiny spot cleared of trees, so most people park along the side of the road. And it's a very narrow road, so not that easy to manoeuvre a long car there.

I know I'm not a car person, but I learned how to drive in this car, so I'm kinda attached to it. Even with how much trouble it's causing recently.

Well, I'm gonna go eat more strawberries (dessert before dinner, hello!) now.

Bye!