I guess it's time to admit a) my reading habits are fairly obscure, but also b) I'm way too much of a perfectionist when I spend much of the night looking up details about a 1985-published book on a Swedish narrow-gauge railroad so that I can convince Goodreads to add the book to their database.

And of course, reading about Roslagsbanan also fires up my imagination on the similarly themed model railroad layout I want to eventually build, a narrow-gauge railroad in a coastal setting, with tram-like passenger operations combined with freight transport (so akin to Roslagsbanan or Lidingöbanan in Stockholm – except the latter has always been standard gauge).

But in addition to that, I also want to eventually build a Norwegian fjord layout and a French riviera layout. Plus I've already promised to build a contemporary Finnish layout with the kid one day.

All this is, of course, pointless daydreaming when my existing layout (circa 1970 East Germany) remains a work in process into its fourth year...

#modeltrain #roslagsbanan #goodreads

Carl-Kristian Rundman as Boromir in the 1993 Finnish TV adaptation of the Lord of the Rings. Bck when adaptations of the books dared to be original, rather than just carbon copies of the Peter Jackson films.

Incidentally, you can't legally view this version anymore, since the Tolkien estate retroactively decided they don't allow it.

(I thought I had deleted this post from Tumblr, but turns out it was still there doing rounds two years later when I went to schedule my yearly Salvador Allende posts for 9/11... so I decided to recreate it here).

#lotr #tolkien

Kleinprofil #U-Bahn trains encountered while in #Berlin:

A West Germany -built A3-class unit at Hohelzollernplatz on U3.

A Made in der #DDR G-class unit deep in West Berlin at Nollerndorfplatz on U2.

Finally, a post-unification (2010s-built) class IK unit arriving at the Schlesisches Tor station on the elevated section of U1 (shared with U2).

#publictransport

The Tram Driver World Championship.

Tomorrow. In Vienna. You can also watch it live behind the link.

#publictransport #tram

WHH GT18 residential high-rise buildings, Berlin-Mitte. My photos from June 2025.

#architecture #plattenbau #berlin #germany #DDR

Finished reading a comic book about the intersection of gender and class in Finnish society.

Went back to my rail nerd bullshit, reading another book on the Paris Métro next.

Ranskasta puheenollen: mulla on ikävä Pariisiin. Oon aiemminkin käyny kivoissa paikoissa, mutta en muista milloin ois aiemmin tullut näin syvä ikävä takaisin johonkin. Se ei toki auta, että lapsi juttelee toiveistaan mitä tehdä kun seuraavan kerran mennään Pariisiin. Eikä toki toi Pariisin metrosta lukeminenkaan.

(Kuva ei ole itse Pariisista, vaan naapurikunta Les Lilasista).

Speaking of France: I miss Paris. I've been to nice places before, but I don't remember when I would have missed a place so deeply. I doen't help that the kid is chatting about what they want to do when we revisit Paris. Reading books about the Paris métro doesn't help either.

(The photo is not from Paris itself, but from the neighbouring commune Les Lilas).

Menin paikalliseen pienoismallikauppaan ostamaan kaksi pientä purkkia maalia.

Päädyin ostamaan kaksi pientä purkkia maalia ja kolme kirjaa.

I learned from this book that Paris Métro has given copies of their iconic Art Nouveau station entrances to other metro cities around the world, and often received something in return. Hence, for instance, stained glass artworks by a Chigago artist on one of the Paris overground stations, and a Paris-style metro entrance in Montréal.

Now I can't help thinking how cool it would be if we could have one of those for the projected northern entrance of the Kaisaniemi – shit, I mean, University of Helsinki – station in Helsinki.

And to ramble on a bit more on the subject, I love how the Paris Métro embraces its history. Not only the iconic Art Nouveau entrances being retained, right down to the original signage, but also later designs being maintained in their original guise, rather than applying new-style signage on them whenever there's a design change. Helsinki for one could learn a great deal about this kind of respect for history.

Mon enfant, 8 ans:

"The next time we visit the Louvre, I want to see the Italian Renaissance paintings."

Tonight we were making potion bottles with the family:

The partner and kid went to Alko – the Finnish state monopoly liquer store – to get small nice-looking bottles. The contents were poured down the drain, since none of us wanted to drink vodk or limoncello (the latter would have been okay withour the alcohol.

Finished reading a book on Plattenbau houses in Berlin.

Started reading a book on the design history of the Paris Métro. In French. A language I have studied for a grand total of four months.

This is peak me.

Oh yes, and to continue here something I originally wrote about on Bluesky: my partner bought Legendoja ja lohikäärmeitä, a Finnish translated version of Dungeons and Dragons (or more precisely, the somewhat simplified version for kids) from Ropecon.

The game allows you to make catfolk characters. Both me and the kid wanted to make a black cat ranger. And we did (I modeled the personality of mine after the – now deceased – cat that is my avatar here).

Today, the two black cats started their adventure in Middle Earth, 15 years after the events of the Lord of the Rings, by placating a restless spirit on the Barrow-downs. My partner is a huge LotR nerd, so she cooked up an adventure set in the universe (okay, I maybe participated a bit, resulting in an orc fancying themselves as the new witch king of Angmar as the main antagonist, once we get into the main story).

Apparently there has been some kind of fuck-ups as this year's Worldcon, and people I follow on Bluesky are mad about it.

I've been to Worldcon once, back when it was in Helsinki in 2017. And it was the worst con I've ever been to. The programme was uninteresting, and the few things that could have been interesting were held by people who clearly didn't know enough of what they were talking about. I particularly remember the guy who claimed there were Roman ruins everywhere in Europe.

The contrast to a good con was made clear by the fact that year's Ropecon (a local roleplaying convention, which – despite its name – has a very similar programme to Worldcon) was held just one week earlier at the same venue. That year's Ropecon was a muted affair, people clearly expecting Worldcon, but it was still so much better than Worldcon. Eight years later, I frankly remain disappointed I ever wasted money on going to Worldcon.

Speaking of DSLR's: I also have a Flickr, and have been putting both old and new photos there. Tonight I'd like to share my photos from our 2023 trip to Norway, which was probably my fave trip of all time. You can expect to see nature, rail vehicles and ships:

More here: flickr.com/photos/199434641@N0…