Abschied by Hannes Wader

Morgen gehst du für lange Zeit fort,
für ein Jahr und du gibst mir dein Wort
dass du mich nicht für immer verläßt,
leg dich lieber nicht fest.

Denn ich weiß, dass der Tag kommen muß,
wo ein flüchtiger Brief oder Gruß
mit verrät,wie fremd du mir schon bist
und du mich bald vergißt

Aber wenn du schon nicht bei mir bleibst
will ich dass du mir schreibst, was du denkst, was du treibst;
denn vergiß nicht auch ich, das ist klar,
bin dann nach diesem Jahr,
nicht mehr der, der ich war.

Trennung, Warten, Allein sein sagst du
gehört nun mal zum Leben dazu
das mag richtig sein aus deiner Sicht,
nun ich halte dich nicht.

Und du denkst dir es tröstet mich jetzt
wenn du sagst, dass man zuguter Letzt
nur behält, was man loslassen kann
- Gut ich glaube daran.

Aber wenn du schon nicht bei mir bleibst
will ich dass du mir schreibst, was du denkst, was du treibst;
denn vergiß nicht auch ich, das ist klar,
bin dann nach diesem Jahr,
nicht mehr der, der ich war.

Morgen gehst du für lange Zeit fort
für ein Jahr und du gibst mir dein Wort
dass du mich nicht für immer verläßt,
leg dich lieber nicht fest.

The Fortress of Solid-Rules is the Supercrew wiki. I've contributed a fair bit of content, along with a lot of creative people. Go look!

The daal soup shal inherit the dinner table, for it is objectively a superior dish.

Today my brother got his driver's license, which he's muy happy about. I don't think he was at all sure that he would pass the test. Our mother and myself are too neurotic for all that horsepower, so we're very happy for him. Next item on the agenda: boost him a car for Christmas.

The Supercrew is a Swedish supers rpg by Tobias Radesäter, in the shape of a 28-page comic book. The story alternates between the exploits of the Supercrew (Captain Sweden *giggle*, Florosa, The Bullfinch and Massif), and the game master wandering through a vast, secret 'rpg lab' explaining the rules. Here follows part of a page from the Swedish version. Even if you don't read Swedish, I'm sure you can follow what happens. Florosa and Captain Sweden is talking to a police officer, while Massif is being all heroic in the background.



I think it is über-cute.

The rules very briefly: a player character has three superpowers (or three manifestations of one power). A very useful one (given three dice), an 'average' one (given two dice), and a problematic one (given one die). Note that your problematic power can be very strong/powerful, but it's the one that will get your character in trouble. In adittion to the powers, a character has got three tricks,specific applications of the powers, used to get better die-rolls.

You WILL hear more about The Supercrew, and the characters I think up. Just so as you know.

...and now the Human Torch is our mayor. It's a funny old world. The man (who may not really have gained fiery powers through exposure to cosmic radiation) was pretty much an anonymous figure in city politics. I predicted a very slim chance of him getting elected. I suppose it's a symptom of the recession having made people more critical of the Liberals (liberal in the sense of moar free market, less government. On paper anyway). Yay, I guess. If I sound less than enthused, it's because I'm uncertain whether anything will really change.

It's local election day today. The Social Democrats are fielding some heavy candidates.



It seems to be the fashion of political organisations around here to use cartoon characters. On the grassroots level I've seen Iron Fist and Power Man cautioning me against the ever-growing power of the EU, and even Super Mario with a white power symbol on his cap. It struck me that Mario looks a lot like a Turkish guest worker. Wonder if that was what they were aiming for?

Sorry for the long hiatus everyone. I'll just be writing a little update, in case anybody's still reading.

My Dad has been diagnosed with what looks like early stage thyroid cancer. This has meant two surgical operations, and a radioiodine treatment looming in the future. We've all been a bit beside ourselves about this, since we're really not used to dealing with serious ilness in the family.

The evening of the surgery itself I was on the phone to his wife who was with him (so far as that's possible), and the next morning my Dad texted me himself after having had his first meal post-operation. ”I eat, therefore I am” he wrote. Bona fide Dad-humor.

My Dad's a vocational councellor, and really gives it his all (damn protestant work ethic!) so he's back to work again. No long convalescence here! I've told him ten times to take it easy, but he's an adult after all...

Through my Dad I've been hooked up with a few translation jobs. The youth department of the council has decided to try a career guidance model created by Career Scotland, and needed a translation of the model and documentation. The outcome: a nice little extra income for yours humbly.

I've fallen in love with the Swedish superhero rpg, Supergänget/The Supercrew. It's a very fast little game, which makes it very easy to create heroes, villains, doomsday devices, mega-monsters etc. You will undoubtedly hear more about this, whether you like or not.

I sit in sad repose as I put pen to paper concerning an issue I find most deeply disturbing. The key point of the following exposition is that I wish that one of the innumerable busybodies who are forever making "statistical studies" about nonsense would instead make a statistical study that means something. For example, I'd like to see a statistical study of Pres. Barack H. Obama's capacity to learn the obvious. Also worthwhile would be a statistical study of how many morbid clunks realize that Pres. Obama is not only immoral, but amoral.

I like to think I'm a reasonable person but you just can't reason with the worst kinds of insolent drug addicts there are. It's been tried. They don't understand, they can't understand, they don't want to understand, and they will die without understanding why all we want is for them not to paralyze needed efforts to search for solutions that are more creative and constructive than the typically vengeful ones championed by narrow-minded untrustworthy-types. Pres. Obama proclaims at every opportunity that he'd never block streets and traffic to the extent that ambulances can't get through. The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks. He is reluctant to resolve problems. He always just looks the other way and hopes no one will notice that I've heard him say that those of us who oppose him would rather run than fight. Was that just a slip of the lip, or is Pres. Obama secretly trying to woo over headlong, pernicious freeloaders by using tactics such as scapegoating, reductionist and simplistic solutions, demagoguery, and a conspiracy theory of history? Here's the answer, albeit in a somewhat circuitous and roundabout style: He complains a lot. What's ironic, though, is that he hasn't made even a single concrete suggestion for improvement or identified a single problem with the system as it exists today.

I have not forgotten that there is no time and little temptation for those who work hard on their jobs and their responsibilities to relabel millions of people as "debauched". I have not forgotten that Pres. Obama's speeches tend to be more phatic than illustrative. And I cannot forget that Pres. Obama, in his hubris, has decided that he has the right to bar people from partaking in activities that cannot be monitored and controlled. So let him call me insidious. I call him unstable. Today, we might have let him grant a free ride to the undeserving. Tomorrow, we won't. Instead, we will fix our sights on eternity. One last thing: Thanks to Pres. Barack H. Obama, we're up a creek without a paddle.

I made it using this neat generator.

It's been a while since we talked. I hope you're well and that your day's really nice.

So, our government has started sending refugees back to Iraq. We all knew that they were in negotions with the Iraqi government to start repartriation, but it came fast and without warning. Even Danish Red Cross were caught with their pants down, and has only been sparingly informed of how far the negotiations were. Consequently communication with those poor people who are to be kicked out has been less than stellar. Last night things came to a head. From The Copenhagen Post Online, Thursday, August 13th:

Police raid on church sheltering refused Iraqi asylum seekers, sparks violent street protests

Seventeen Iraqi men and numerous protesters have been arrested following a police raid on Brorson’s Church and in ensuing street clashes, TV2 News reports.

The church in the city’s Nørrebro district, where refused Iraqi asylum seekers have been sheltering, was raided at 1:30 am this morning. The action unleashed violent protests from about 300 people, many affiliated with refugee assistance group Kirkeasyl.

Protesters formed a human chain on Rantzausgade to stop the bus used to take the Iraqis away. But when that move failed, the protesters began attacking the bus, smashing the windscreen.

Police used pepper spray and truncheons to break up the protesters, many of whom were arrested. Numerous confrontations between the protesters and police followed, with order being restored in the area at about 5am.

Per Ramsdal, Brorson’s Church vicar, said the police wreaked havoc inside the church. He said the raid was anything but peaceful and calm as the police had promised.

‘A lot has been destroyed. It was a very violent approach from the police’s side.’

Flemming Steen Munch, spokesman for Copenhagen Police, said his force received a request from the National Police to carry out the action. He denied it was a raid. 

Police entered the church with civilian officers and took the Iraqis away, but the officers were forced to go into uniform when the street riots began, according to Munch.

Integration minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech described the action as ‘unfortunate but necessary’.

Around 80 Iraqis had originally sought refuge from repatriation in Brorson’s Church. While some have been sent back to Iraq, up to 45 others are ‘missing’, according to police.

www.cphpost.dk/news/local/87-local/46552-raid-on-asylum-seekers-sparks-riot.html

I've seen parts of the footage from the raid, and I was taken aback by how brutal it seemed. The whole affair has been handled in a blunt, ham-fisted way, quite apart from the fact that these people are victims of OUR war. Despite accurate criticism from UNHCR, despite the fact that Iraq won't accept repatriation of unwilling people we're still going ahead.
Sometimes I I feel as though Denmark (from the government to people I meet) has become something I don't recognise. We've become enarmored of some kind of postcard idea of ourselves, and are able to justify all sorts of callous and self-serving behavior because of it. I don't see it changing anytime soon either.

On the 22nd we will have a small meetup in Odense. I'll be running a game of Lacuna...



...or something similar at any rate.

Discussing the Scholastics with my brother. Given that they have cool titles like Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Subtilis etc. we think that they deserve a superhero comic.

I've decided to start a new school of art. Working title: SufferKitsch

Isn't this a neat ad for the Dresden Files RPG? It promises to be really awesome, and to be out in my lifetime.