O Captain, My Captain

 

Robin Williams

1951-2014 

I don't usually get upset when someone famous die, I mean I don't know them personally so I feel like I shouldn't be. But some people, some people they make the world a brighter place for ever being in it. So whilst that means the world is a bit better than it would have been for them ever being there at all, it also means its a bit greyer for them having left.

A good person dies.
There should be an impact on the world
Somebody should notice
Somebody should be upset

That was a quote Cameron (on the TV series House) once said and it resonated with me for some reason, so much that I wrote it down at the time (years ago now) in a book I keep with quotes and when I heard about Robin it made me think of those lines again.

Its not just that I found him hilarious but there was something about him, something about the sincerity in which he made the importance of living shine thru, which sort of feels ironic now seeing he lost that I the end, and it makes me incredibly sad to think that none of us that he had helped were able to help him get that back they way he did for us.

And whilst I loved him in for his comedy my absolute favourite was actually Dead Poets Society which I watched as a teenager and for some reason it made a difference to me. Its odd because I do still find it sad but whilst it was sad it had so much hope in it and so much strength that it outweighed in part the sadness.
Now I am aware that Robin didn't write it and that I should be directing some of that toward the writer as well as the director and I truly do (thank you so much Tom Schulman & Peter Weir), but some people are the roles they play and he made John Keating. He made me want to find my verse and to know I wasn't wrong when refusing to conform.

When I found out on Tuesday I watched that movie again, and as usual I cried but this time not just for the death of Neil but for the death of Robin Williams, for him felling the same despair as Neil did and his own strength not saving him, for us not saving him.

But in the end how he died doesn't take away from what he did, and it never should do. It doesn't take away from the amazing people he portrayed or his amazing personality. His ability to improvise on the spot and in a speed that's incredible (his brain must have been working overtime all the time) and mostly his ability to make people all over the world laugh and see the beauty in life.

So Mr Williams, you will be oh so sorely missed, but what a legacy you left behind!

So I might have done something stupid...

I've signed up to take part in Live Below the line next week. The challenge is to live on just £1 a day for food and drink for 5 days and the money collected goes towards the fight against world poverty and hunger.

The charity I've chosen to support is Unicef UK.  

 

If you know me you know how hard this will be for me! I have gotten a late start as only just signed up so please please show your support and donate. It’s for an extremely good cause and comes with the added bonus of seeing me suffer for 5 days.

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/lina 

January

There is something nice about the beginning of a new year, it seems people are filled with hope following the weeks after making new years resolutions. Whilst I find the fad diets etc exhausting and unnecessary there is just something lovely about how people are for that short period of time, when they feel they can change the parts of themselves or their lives that they are unhappy with. The possibilities appear to be endless!

The Bridge/Bron/Broen

The Bridge is a Swedish/Danish TV series on its second season which is currently showing on the BBC.
I fell over the first series by accident when browsing iPlayer in (I believe) 2012 and absolutely loved it! It was way sadder than I would normally like any TV or movie I watch to be but the main Swedish character is absolutely awesome! So have been waiting and desperately hoping that BBC would buy the rights for the second season as well.

The idea is that whatever the crime is it happens on or (in this season) under the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark and as such the Swedish and Danish police needs to work together to solve it. In the first season they were solving just one crime throu that season and appears to be the same this time around. As mentioned first season was sadder than I'd like and I am hoping this one will be less so. However I am so just watching this for the kick ass Swedish police office cause she is my idol!
Her name is Saga (which in Swedish means fairytale) and she has no social filter, i.e she says whats she thinks and means without first filtering it, she also doesn't seem to have the same emotional response to things. As in most scenarios or actions (but not all) don't really evoke any feelings for her. In the second season she seems to try and work on this a bit more, partly I think due to the Danish Police officer that she works with in the series. However whilst no social filter might seem like a bad thing it has a tendency to make her appear more genuine than most people.














All in all I suggest everyone should watch this!

On as completely random note I actually once started to write a Swedish "fairytale" about a character named Saga called  En saga om Saga (a fairytale about Saga), I still have it, just never finished it.  

2013 is over, bring on the new year!

So it's 2014. Sadly I started the new year with my cold from just before Christmas returning which doesn't feel like a good way to start the year, but what can you do.

As for 2013 I'm not sure if it was a good year or not. My job which I enjoyed thoroughly in 2012 started to loose it spark for a bunch of different reasons which I wont go into now, sadly work is a big part of my life and that taking a turn for the worse probably means more to me than most.
I had to move, thou that turned out to be a good thing (but finding a new place and actually moving was not).
I realised I want to do more things like going to the theatre and as such went and saw the light Princess which was absolutely wonderful! I've promised myself to do more of that in the new year, which makes for a nice new years resolution.
I took on way to much as usual, which actually was my resolution not to do for 2013, so clearly that failed, and found I couldn't fit everything in stressing myself out a bit. I let my friends convince me to celebrate my birthday and for the first time in years it went off without a glitch (seriously my birthdays have been jinxed)!
I made some new friends as well as worked on keeping in touch with some old ones, thou not as well as I should do.

There was lots of other small and big things but writing them all down would take forever (or it would at least feel like it) so I wont. In essence it was a year that could definitely have been better and I wont be saying goodbye to it with great sadness. However there was one thing which made 2013 quite special and that is that my meds are working really well and I'm the best I've been physically since I got sick.  I'm hoping that in 2014 I will keep improving and planning to take a holiday other than home this year as I haven't done so since I fell ill. I've even started to try and make jewellery again (just a little bit so far), but my writing has sadly fallen to the wayside.

In essence I guess my resolution for 2014 is to do more of the things I want as well as not over do it and most of all to improve my character and my mind as well as my body.  That's not to say that I dislike who I am now, cause I really don't, but everyone evolves all the time and I just want to work on ensuring that the person I am at the end of this year is better than the one at the start if it :)

A big brother state...

Sometimes I get a bit worried about the fact that my phone and Internet sites collect all this information about me so that it can tell me what I want etc. It feels a bit like having a peeping Tom looking in your window on a daily basis. Everything is so "smart" these days and able to tell everyone everything about your life.
But then I look at the recommend bar on Facebook or recommended downloads on my apps and realise they really don't know me at all, and once more all is right with the world :-)

Writers that make us who we are.

I read a blog post today by Neil Gaiman . In the post he talks about the writers who made him who he is as a writer. He talks about the fact that there is many writers out there who he has read but that some sticks to you and affects (in his case) the way you write and that you keep reading their books over and over again, making them a part of your life.

Now reading this I wanted to say to Gaiman, - well that's what you are to me!
I have read a ridiculous amount of books in my lifetime and probably still will before I die. If you ask me I can ramble out a list of my favourite books but 9 times out of 10 I don't remember who wrote them, except it seems for when it comes to Gaiman. Truth is that he is one of the few writers that I adore, with him it is not so much about loving one or two of his books but the fact that so far I have enjoyed every book of his that I have read and I have the feeling this will never change.

For example I read a couple of Terry Pratchett's books after reading Good Omens (my favourite book of all) as it was written by Gaiman and Pratchett. Before that I had only read the graphic novel version of Mort and watched some cartoon episodes of Discworld. I found that Pratchett is indeed good but that I don't read it with the same flow as Gaiman, I can start a book of his then put it down for weeks before I return. Also I find some more readable then others.

On the other hand when I start reading a Gaiman book I have problems putting it down and generally finish reading it within days. One I even completed in a couple of hours (The Graveyard book) which was annoying as I had brought it to Sweden as a holiday book and finishing it on the first morning I was there meaning I no longer had a book to read for quiet evenings or afternoons.

Another one of my favourites is Veronika decides to die by Paulo Cohelo and after I read that I tried reading some more of his books, problem was I didn't like them. Paulo is very spiritual and it appears a lot of his books are based around this. In Veronika decides to die it's fine as it isn't shoved down your throat but the book in itself just makes you feel all happy to be alive, sadly some of the other books appear to be more about how you should live to be all spiritual which just bores me to death.

So I guess that what I am trying to say is - Neil Gaiman, you to me are amazing! Your books are full of life and wonder and even though they are sometimes sad they make me feel better (except for Nicholas Was which just made me sad, but is brilliant). There is something about the way you write which makes the stories come to life for me and make me want to read them over and over and always keep them close. I love to write (though I am not very good) and if I ever wrote anything half as good as your books it would make me incredibly happy.