Posted by jukkahoo
Since this has been the centennial of Finnish independence, we have been fed throughout the year the official Suomi100-mania. Which has been simply everywhere. And why not? I think we should be proud of our country, there are quite a number of various international surveys and reports extolling the wondrous achievements in different areas: equality, education, living quality, peace, happiness, coffee-drinking, and then some. Finland is a great place to live, love and thrive. It's safe and sane. Sure, we have problems, but in the greater scheme of things, not that many, and the way to deal with those bad things is to bring them put in the open and talk about them, deal with them and not just moan about them.
But, all this Suomi100 has been a bit too much, as we on occasion tend to be guilty of as a nation, when we decide to be proud of things. Like our independence, ice hockey, design, worldcon et al. Suomi100 has been everywhere and now that we have our independence day, I didn't feel too patriotic about it. Sure, we went to sauna and watched the Official Handshake Ceremony, but I'm afraid that was about as Finnish as we were today.
I spent most of the day reading comics and seeing two Marvel-films. Spiderman: Homecoming was fun and finally "spidey" and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 was brilliant for the first half'n hour, dived deeply into Arsenal with Ego, and was fun again in the end, although (as with Spiderman, and EVERY SINGLE EFFING superhero-movie) that GIANT big endfight was too long and very Arsenal. I was entertained, but as I don't expect too much out of these films, I'm easily entertained, thus the first 30 minutes of GotG2 was so funny and giggle-worthy.
Recommended reading: Britannia by Milligan and Ryp, Manifest Destiny by Dingess and Roberts, Autumnlands by Busiek and Dewey. First one is a fantasy-spiced Ancient Rome detedtive story, with some echoes of John Maddox Roberts SPQR-series, except this one is much gorier and not as detectively. Manifest Destiny tells the Lewis and Clark -expedition as it "really" happened, with warts and all, I mean, fantastical creatures from beyond space and time. Pretty Lovecraftian and the end of the 3rd book, that was some great writing there. Autumnlands is interesting, but I don't know what to say about it in order to make people read it. It is not particularily well drawn, it's OK, the story is moving forward and doesn't feel like our protagonists know where they are going to, but it has moments of goodness, and anthropomorphized humanoids are a personal guilty pleasure.
Good day, our independence day was.
Eating Muffins 