Did I ever mention ...

... that I wish I could draw?

He was such a nice man

I'm guessing that everyone who's reading this is familiar at least to some extent with the recent activities of mass murderer Derrick Bird. 12 people dead in a 'shocking surprise attack', allegedly. Although of course media coverage has been at its highest in the UK, where the events took place and where the media in general is the trashiest in the world (and thus of course collectively faints with joy when something like this happens), there's been a lot in the media here too. (Can you say 'media'?? Whee!!) And there's something that is so typical that I've seen quoted from like four different sources ... something that I was expecting to see from the moment I heard about what had happened. It never fails. He was such a nice man.

No matter how messed up the person or how disgusting and fucked up the crimes, the reaction of the perp's surroundings is always how they never saw it coming and they would never have thought him capable of anything like this, he was such a nice man. Every time a serial killer is caught or a mass murderer goes on a spree (I'll assume you know the difference between the two) it's always the one reaction you can count on like clockwork. The only exception seems to be school shooters - they only get like half of it, they usually get 'he was always a weirdo/outsider, but we never thought he'd do anything like this'. So it boils down to the same thing - people never see it coming.

Although, in fact, this reminds me of a funny story. Well, funny maybe isn't quite the word. But I like it. This is a supposedly true story that happened sometime in 1988. Some of Jeffrey Dahmer's friends, if that's the word I want, from high school had met up for coffee and were reminiscing about people they'd known back in the day. They were talking about people like that guy still lives in his parents' basement and that chick's been divorced three times ... stuff like that. One of them would throw out a name and everyone would share whatever they knew about what that person was doing. So then one of them mentioned Jeff, and it turned out that not a single one of them had heard from him or of him or has seen him at all since graduation. And they're all saying fuck, that guy was weird ... !! But they had no idea what's become of him. And then as a joke one of them said, He's probably a serial killer by now! And they all laughed. But by that time Jeff had actually killed four people ... and would kill thirteen more before the Milwaukee police finally stumbled across him. Funny joke, huh?

So, back to my point ... it's always the same, he was such a nice guy, always helped his landlady with her groceries, no one ever thought he'd ever be capable of harming a fly. I just find it so hard to credit that. Parents especially are maybe the worst. Yes, it's natural to want to see the best in your children, I guess. But if you genuinely want the best for them, does it really help to pretend like nothing's wrong and you're all one big normal family ... like the rape case in Sweden I posted about a while back, where a woman's teenage son has been convicted of rape twice in two totally separate cases, and she refuses to believe he can have done anything wrong. How does that help?

And how is it even possible? I don't mean any offense to anyone reading this, if you feel I'm pointing fingers at you, but seriously, how is it possible to not notice anything amiss if someone close to you and/or someone you spend a lot of time with is so completely fucked up mentally and emotionally that he's planning to brutally kill his own brother, the family lawyer and two coworkers ... and whoever else he comes across as well as, finally, himself? Just to stick with Bird as the example. Is it really possible to genuinely believe 100% that everything's fine and dandy and he's just so happy to be a grandfather for the first time and nothing to see here, move it along ... I don't buy it. I think it isn't a matter of genuinely believing that everything's fine, it's a matter of wanting to believe it - and wanting it enough that you trick yourself into thinking it's really what you feel.

Derrick Bird allegedly said to someone the day before the murders that 'there's going to be a rampage soon'. Yet no one reacted. Jeffrey Dahmer was in the hands of the police or other authorities a number of times, but he fell through every crack in the book. Harold Shipman was suspected by how many of his patients' relatives and friends, but who did anything about it? Jack the Ripper* was interviewed by the police as a witness, but told an obvious lie and totally got away with it. With both the lying and the killing. To paraphrase Poppy Brite, murderers are blessed with tremendous skills of adaptation ... so many of them fly under the radar so well. But I'd say it's likely that they are helped by the vast majority of people in their surroundings not even having their radars switched on. o_O

I do understand that it must be incredibly traumatic to be one of the bystanders caught up in this - to be a close relative, especially, of someone who carries out an act like this - but does it help to refuse to acknowledge reality? My little boy could never have done what those girls say he did, I raised him better than that. The Ted/Andrei/Dennis/Peter/John I knew could never have done anything like this. I'd never have seen this coming in a million years.

If those among us who are, if you'll pardon this cliché, walking time bombs, wouldn't it be more helpful for both them and their future victims for them to be seen and taken seriously for what they really are - people with serious problems that need to be acknowledged. If it's not acknowledged, it certainly can't be fixed. I can't see how it ever helps to bury one's head in the sand.

Jeffrey Dahmer's father felt, after his son's crimes came to light and Jeff made a full confession, that he should indeed have seen and understood. But it was so much easier to pretend the danger signals weren't really there. At least, easier for him ... >:-(


*I am of the George Hutchinson persuasion.

Quote of the Week

Gods dont kill people. People with Gods kill people.
David Viaene

Artist Trading Cards

So, if anyone remembers my New Year's resolution to do more crafts this year ... I am so definitely living up to that, and one of the new things I've really gotten into recently are Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs for short. They are basically little artworks that can be any medium or style, the only restriction is the size, which has to be 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. You can read more about them here, and see lots of pictures.

I was nervous about trying to make these at first, I didn't feel confident that I could make them to the recipients' standards ... they are meant for trading, as the name indicates, so that you're not really supposed to keep the ones you make. At least not all of them - I know that some people make doubles of all of theirs and trade one and keep the other, but I haven't done that with any of mine so far. I just take pictures. :-) Anyway, some swaps came up on Swap-Bot that I just couldn't possibly resist ... the themes were just too tempting ... so I tried a few, and I'm happy to say that I've been getting mostly really good feedback on them. So ... always nice to get compliments. :-) That's not in any way saying that I'm fishing for them now ;-) but I wanted to share some of the ones I've been making. I'm pretty happy with all of these. :-) They're on pretty varied themes, as you'll see. :-)

Pride & Prejudice character - the BBC Mr Darcy

Joss Whedon - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Atheist quote

Cryptozoology

True Blood - Bill Compton

Dragon

The real winners?

Not letting go of the ESC quite yet ... ;-)

I'm not saying this to toot our own metaphorical horn, but I have to say that I think the interval entertainment was to a very high standard this year. I'm so glad that NRK didn't go for anything 'typically Norwegian' - whatever that would have been - but instead decided on something modern and original. I loved what NRK head Bjerkaas said about the production as a whole ... that this wasn't Norway's party, this was all of Europe's party, and we as host had a duty to make it fun for everyone. I think we can call that mission accomplished. :-)

I'm not really a Madcon fan - it's not really my kind of music - but I like those guys a lot and I think it was a great idea to make them part of this event. And now one might say that they are ending up as the real winners of the contest, without even taking part. :-) The song they came up with for the event, Glow, is now above Satellite on the German charts. That is pretty impressive. It's shooting up the charts all over Europe, apparently, but that it's doing so extremely well in Germany is just ... fun. :-) OK, sure, Satellite was out as a single long before the contest, and has been topping the charts for what, two months ... so it has had some time to climb and peak ... but still, it won!! Fairytale had been out for at least a fortnight before the final last year, but I think it would have been extremely surprising if the Red Army Choir had topped the charts in this country a week after Rybak won. :-)

Even if you're not into the ESC, you should check out this video ... it really is fun to watch. The whole concept is so entertaining and creative and it's so well carried out. The ... Vilnians? did it best IMO. :-) Not too shabby in Dublin either. (But in London, sheesh, don't get me started.) I love the idea of filming from someone's living room in every country. Dance on the sofa!! :-D

I learned something today

Or actually, it wasn't really today, but I'm watching South Park.

Every Friday at work we make up a batch of waffles to treat our customers - Friday is the slowest day of the week so we like to do a little extra then so people know it's still worth coming by that day. ;-) Since we have mostly professional customers the shopping pattern at our store is the opposite of what you'll see in for instance mall stores. We don't build up to the weekend ... on the contrary, the closer the weekend gets, the more our customers think that damnit, I'll leave this till next week. Anyway.

We has waffles ... and a couple of weeks ago I was making them when a customer came up and wanted some. He put raspberry jam on them and as he was eating he told me about the history of raspberry farming in this country. Apparently, up until 10-15 years ago there were a whole bunch of different raspberry canes in use in this country. He seemed to have his best information from the West Country. There used to be maybe half a dozen varieties that were common and about another dozen that were also farmed to a lesser extent. They got dessert berries from some and industrial grade berries - ie berries intended for jam and juice - from others. But then sometime in the 90s a new variety was introduced, a Scottish cane called Glen Ample ... and in just ten years it's almost completely wiped out all these other types. Or, maybe not wiped out, as such, but they're just hardly being grown anymore now. This new type works so well for both dessert and industry purposes that there's no need for any other types. I see the value in that, but it's still kind of sad.

I love raspberries ... my favorite way to eat them is with vanilla sauce, yum. :-) I actually eat them all year round these days, because there are Belgian and Portuguese berries on the market here in the winter season as well, and they're actually really tasty. Not like strawberries in winter that just taste like water. But this week some Norwegian berries have been on the shelf too. I had to get some ... they looked soo delicious, I couldn't resist. It wasn't till I got home that I remembered to look at the box. Glen Ample berries from Østre Enger farm in Sylling. Would you look at that. I learned something today. :-D

My calendar wall, April-May 2010

April 2010

May 2010