Merry christmas, everyone!!! I'm off. Parents and siblings await.

Good food. Gifts. Second helpings of Return of the King. Yummy.

.....

I saw the Return of the King last night, three minutes after midnight.

Whew.

I'm a total Pippin fan in this movie. He is so sweet and cute, and I don't mean by appearance (at least not only). He has the best scenes, I think. The scenes with the hobbits are my favourites. Perhaps it's because they have such a strong bond of friendship and they are somewhat dependent on each other - Merry and Pippin of each other, Sam and Frodo of each other. Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli just don't have that. Merry and Pippin are anyway my favourite characters, and I was so happy to see more of them in the TT extended edition.

It was funny - I had tears in my eyes in many parts. There were three reasons for that - one was because I could recognize the lines, or the scenes (usually I get shivers down my spine, but this time I got tears in my eyes), the other was because a scene was so well done or beautiful, and the third was that, well, it was sad and touching. Mostly the parts with the hobbits, naturally (?). They are just so far of everything they know, and yet they have also changed so much. Pippin was my favourite, as I have stated, and the scenes with Merry and Pippin. I thought it would be Sam and Frodo that would get to me, and of course they did to some extent, but the other two friends just hit my heart.

There was a lot of scenes cut off, as far as I can tell - well, the movie still is 3 hours 20 minutes long, so I guess they had to cut something off. As I've read the book, I could tell where there should have been scenes, and what scenes they probably had also shot. There weren't that many "slow" parts in the middle, they just went from one battle to the other, and I know there is much more there. I'm looking forward to the extended edition.

Finally: FIGWIT LIVES! Figwit had a line!!!!! (Was I the only person laughing in the audience at the "anonymous" elf?)

(begin shameless plug)

Now I also have a deviantart gallery. It contains only a few drawings (6), but at least they are some of the better ones. Too bad you can't leave a comment if you aren't a member, but you can always comment here! ^_^

(end shameless plug)

45 005 words. Done. The first long story I've ever finished. Usually I stop writing right after the beginning.

I feel strange.

Now I'm off to fatten it up to make it eligible for the pretty purple winner bar.

Okay... I'm at 43 643 words now, and I have only the epilogue left to be written. After that I'm probably at 45 000 words. Then comes the problem of finding 5000 extra words to stuff somewhere! AND the fact that I have no clue what the epilogue contains is not helping either - What has happened to the band members? Is the band still there? Is it not? Gah, I don't know. Perhaps I'll write both and decide on the one that has more words... *_*

I hit 40 000 in my Nanovel. Weehee! (throws confetti into the air.... only not really, I'm at school and have no confetti) Might write some more in the evening. Probably will, at least a thousand words.

For the first time during the month I'm up to date with the "required" word count! It's a whole new feeling to me!

I did one for Damon, too. Somebody stop me.

Be An Anime Character by mangacatgirl
Character Name
Eyes	Orange
Hair	Long Green Wispy Hair
Fashion Style	Business Suit
Attitude	Kawaii
Role	Ninja
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

I have no idea what this means...

Which Jesus Are You? by neikun
Nickname
Astrological Sign
You are	Jesus of the Nine Fingers
From	Fraggle Rock.
Your followers total	68,234,286
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

But I know what this means! (evil smile)

Which Square/Enix RPG Stereotype are you? by dark_leonhart
Name
Age
Hometown
Your type	The insidious president
Your weapon	Your extraordinary wits
Your magic	Black magic: burn in Hell!
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

But I will deteriorate with age, since in only two weeks I will be 21 and become

Which Square/Enix RPG Stereotype are you? by dark_leonhart
Name
Age
Hometown
Your type	The cute lead female
Your weapon	A gunarm
Your magic	Red magic: *dazzle*
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Hahhahaahaaaa! I can't stop! And don't try to stop me, because of the following -

Your Years at Hogwarts by nevermindless
Name:
The Sorting Hat places you in:	Slytherin (Green and Silver)
Subject you are naturally best at:	Arithmancy
Your favorite book:	Dreadful Denizens of the Deeps
Pet you bring to school:	Tawny Fish Owl
You are most known for:	Being studious.
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Check this out.

Your Anime Life by kazoku
Your username
Gross income of creators	$5,254,434
Genre	Shounen-ai
Your role	Villain's Misunderstood Underling
Your secret	You're living on your own despite the fact that you're underage.
Will you save the world?	Yes, and you live happily ever after.
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Ahaahaaaaaaa! (faints)

Who is your Pirates of the Caribbean Lover? by SoExcited612
Name
Sex
Lover	The sex god CAPT Jack Sparrow
Where it will go down	The desert island (with rum!)
Created with quill18's MemeGen!

Go see what Tiina is! And to stay on the earlier theme, you know there is also a quiz like this titled: "How will Remus Lupin seduce you?" and one of the outcomes is "He mistakes you for Sirius."

Just saw the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban teaser trailer. Now I've watched it seven times through, and a couple of times parts of it slowly (for example to see Lupin standing behind Neville in the boggart-sequence - he's not the bishounen he's supposed to be, but I knew that already).

My favourite part is the moving poster of Sirius Black. Woo. There's this nice shift in the music when it appears that suits the mood. And the Dementor is scary! I also like the Halloween song the kid choir is performing.

This looks alright. This is my favourite Potter book and I have an unhealthy obsession to it. I was disappointed by the first two films, but I trust the director of this one somewhat more than Chris Columbus.

I agree with my sis that something weird and scary has happened to Draco's hair... he looks like a teenaged Backstreet Boy ^_~. Not that the "hair backwards with tons of gel" was the epitome of cool.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention. My comic The Fool can no longer be found in geocities. It's here. School gives us homepage space, I use it. No adds, no crappy "hourly data transfer" limits. Gah, I hate those.

What? Why didn't I put the pages to the school's space in the first place? Because I'm stupid, that's why.

Wow. Two entries on the same day. This is a record for me!

Alright. Should come up with a character to model for my 3ds Max course. It should be something simple enough so that I can get it ready by next week's Thursday, and at the same time something nifty enough so that I actually feel good doing it. It can't have fingers - that much I've decide. I won't do fingers. Or hair. Only crazy people would start modeling hair in the week time span with 3ds Max, especially if they only have as much experience as I do.

Nanowrimo kick off party here at Turku tomorrow. Can't wait, though I haven't quite figured my story out. I still don't know who is the murderer in my story. It is the story of a band (no name yet). The main character is the new singer after the first singer gets murdered. There's also two guitarists, a basist, a drummer, the manager and her assistant. And there is some magic. I'm having mixed feelings about this, since I don't know much about being in a band (simply having seen Gravitation doesn't count, I think ^_~)and the life such people lead. So I'm just going to downplay that side a bit and focus on the characters and their relationships, spiced up with concerts, rehearsals and interviews. Now if only I could find the murderer and his/her motivation among these characters. I had a few ideas of people who are mixed into it, but aren't the actual murderer. I'm running out of characters.

Maybe it just turns out to be a suicide. Or an accident. (...do I suck?)

Next Saturday it's on. Trying to get something written in the midst of the Halloween parties. And you guys there at Washington D.C., do not forget your Nano duties amongst all that fun.

Trying to figure out how to use a drawing tablet I have borrowed from my friend. Did a few sketches yesterday, the first that actually looked like something like my drawings. Still, it's even harder to get the proportions right (especially eyes the same size!) with a tablet than it is with normal pencil...

The snow has melted. Hallelujah.

It's coooold. And we have snow (well, at the moment, after it has snowed, we practically only have stupid ice on the streets). Seriously, this isn't fun. Snow at the end of October? -10 degrees of celcius at the end of October. Something is wrong with the universe.

At least I have a nifty new black wintercoat. ^_^

See, Tiina, I am writing.

I finished Kingdom Hearts last week. It is a really nice feeling when you manage to play through a game. Not to mention that the game was too pretty! Especially the ending. Sigh. *And* especially the hidden secret ending! That was so cooool. I want to see it again, but then I would have to play through the last boss once again. It isn't that hard, but it would take an hour. Just to see those few cooool (yes, the word actually has that many 'o's) minutes.
(You get the secret ending if you lock all the worlds, gather all the dalmatian puppies and win all the tournaments.)

I got into a bit of a power gaming frenzy with Kingdom Hearts, I have to admit. I just had to gather all the twelve items from the clock tower and synthesize all the weapons (I had Ultima Weapon, yeah!) with the moogles. I didn't beat those voluntary bosses, though. I tried to beat Shadow, but it took too long. I hated it when I kicked his ass slowly for over half an hour and then always died over something stupid. I think I will still try to win Sephiroth, I have an earlier save just so that I can try that. I get halfway through, but then he does that nasty halo-attack thing that drains all the mp and leaves one point of hp. *_* And then he hits me once and I die. Gah.

My next gaming project will be Final Fantasy VIII. I was at disc three when I started to play Kingdom Hearts about six months ago. ^_~ I am slow. I hope I can still remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Then waiting for me are Shadow of Memories, Shadow Hearts, Shenmue I & II, Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Vagrant Story, etc. Yes, I do have something "better" to do, and that's why it will take me AGES to play through them. At least I'm a happy camper 'cause we have a working Dreamcast.

I'm also very happy about some manga news. Next year, Viz will start publishing Angel Sanctuary and Tokyopop will have Fruits Basket. I can't wait! ^_^ I want them all now! At least Furuba will probably come quite quickly, but it usually takes Viz really long to put out to those albums...

Btw, the korean manwha Under the Glass Moon (published by Tokyopop) is just beautiful. I want to draw like that! The first album was great, but the characters sometimes had these really scary and ugly expressions. But issue two... I didn't think it was possible to draw any more pretty than in the first album (+ there was only one scary face - perhaps the artist will get rid of that habit completely in the next album, I hope), and I still can't understand how the artist has managed to become better in between two albums , but... man! I'm having a beauty-seizure. All that Kingdom Hearts and Under the Glass Moon will be the sweet death of me.

Oh, some real news: I will do the illustrations to a Finnish role playing game that will be freely distributed. It's this guy's project who contacted me on the basis of my Elfwood scifi gallery. There are people all over Finland working on the game. I will do the character classes. I would like to do some space monsters, too, but we will see. ^_^ I've done nothing yet, but if you understand Finnish, you can visit the rpg's site here.

This was such a geeky entry.

I have comments!! Go me!

I was in Helsinki last weekend visiting the annual comic book festival, because Neil Gaiman was there. He talked great things as always, and also managed to sign more books than I thought he could (as you can read in his journal). I got my Season of Mists signed. ^_^

I asked Neil about the scene in Neverwhere where Richard meets the Finnish girl at Trafalgar Square. I wanted to know why it was there, since it almost only says that the girl said something that Richard thought to be Italian, but was in fact Finnish. He told me that it was there 'cause he thought it was cute, and because "Finns are under represented in literature". So he wanted Finnish fans reading it to feel good. I sure felt good when, in his interview the next day, someone asked him about the Finnish name Lemmi Hautala in American Gods, and if he knew what it meant. He repeated the answer he had given me, and said that someone had asked a similar question from him yesterday, and that it had got him thinking that he thought he was actually the international writer who had visited Finland most often during the last years (because he likes Finland). And he does visit every 2-3 years or so, I think. But it was my question he was talking about. Yippee! (Yes, I don't have any better reasons to feel happy.)

Of course, lots of money was spent as well. I was more than happy to find Courtney Crumrin and the Coven of Mystics! I was even more happy when I realized that Viz had lowered it's prices so that Viz manga (Fushigi Yugi, Ceres) now costs no more than Tokyopop manga. I doubt that will leave me with much more money, because I will just buy more. That's just me.

Shiver me timbers. Savvy?

The first week of school is over. Had scripting/dramaturgy, which was fun enough, though 4 days isn't even nearly enough time for a course like that. But what can I say? I am studying digital arts, whose main focus isn't scripting, so too bad. A quite laid-back teacher, who at least taught me that one is capable to write on command: "Theme: anger. Time: 10 minutes. Write!" Don't know if I'm able to make that work in everyday life. Well, that is what Fantasybits-topics are meant to be like. Perhaps I should think less (always a good thing to say). :P

Buffy and Angel return from summer break today! Yaaaay! For you who don't know, they're showing season 5 of Buffy and 2 of Angel now here in Finland - some stupid people decided to put them on summer break in the middle of the season ! Actually, when there were 5 episodes left of both seasons! Gaaaaah! But in 3 hours I will be in bliss with episode "Intervention" of Buffy (strange time to show Buffy, at 6 p.m., I'm so used to 8 p.m.).

Created a website for my comic The Fool at geocities.com/damonthefool. Nothing there yet. I'm planning to put things up there today, because my teacher wanted me to do that. So today I'm going to translate it to English, change them to .jpgs and then put them up. The first four pages or so will be computer coloured (black-and-white), the rest I will update in "colour" when I get them done. But the sketchy versions should be there tomorrow. I hope. x_x

Wow. I got a mod's choice the other day. Many thanks to Tiina's colouring skills and tired humour! ^_^ It's here.

I know, I know. Everyone shout together: "What a lame-ass entry!"

Alright. About time I blogged again, even if it is just a short entry. I have done issues 1 and 2 of The Fool, and should be writing and drawing the script to issue 3. Instead, I'm adding finishing touches to 2 and planning the webpage for the comic. Well, it has something to do with the comic.... and I don't feel like writing a script. So I am a week behind schedule.... So what?

School is going to eee-eeend! I'm going to go see Matrix tonii-iiiight! And Two Towers tomorrow as a re-ruuu-uuuuun!

Still haven't written the scriii-iiiiiiipt!

Ok. So now I am officially expected to do the first 3 or 4 issues of Damon's story this summer. I also receive money from it - two months' study grants, though I'm really doing it for three months. ^_^ Now I just have to actually *do* it. Scary.

So far the issues are 1. stepping into the cafe, meeting a vampire (a new vampire character made up, and I'll change the cafe also into one of my own creation), issue 2. meeting Corn (Tiina, my sis, kindly let me use Corn in this version of the story, too), stepping outside the cafe, and issue 3. the chase and flashbacks. As you can see, issue 1 is still a bit sketchy at best. Perhaps I should start writing the script, so that I can begin the first day of June...

I'm also making a website to the comic in, I think, August, and 'publish' the first issues as a web comic.You'll just have to wait. Bwahahhahhaaa.

So far in the Damon-comic region (my boyfriend just asked "What's Damon's comic region?" but I'm going to ignore him): I've decided that the story could be told in 7 or 8 issues, each with 24 pages. I looked to Sandman for help, and saw that at least Doll's House had 8 issues, 24 pages each (except the Cereal meeting thingie, which was over 30 pages). So 7 issues would make the story 168 pages long + the 7 covers. There's work for me for a while... still not sure if I'm going to make myself a "slave" to this project for the summer.... it's starting to be about time to decide...

Ok. I'm not fuming anymore. I did make a gallery at Elfwood, only not in the scifi section. So now I have a fantasy gallery, because I think my fantasy drawings are more easily defined as fantasy, also by Elfwood's standards. I *did* get one pic rejected, but when I wrote a longer explanation to it, underlining the fantastic content on it, it got accepted. Now I'm left wondering if I should try to resend my Damon pictures to the scifi section and write looooooong explanations about D's character and the story's plot in the description to get it accepted. Would it work? Do I want to overwork my keyboard and use my time to think up the explanations only to get the pics rejected again? I don't know for sure yet.

Let's not talk about that anymore. I've been thinking about making a comic about Damon during the summer holiday, in order to get 'work exercise' credit for it and receive study grants during the summer. I'm not sure if I have the time to do a brief storyboard about the subject for my teachers, when I have to redo the whole beginning of Damon's story in order to write Cafe de Minuit, and thus other people's characters, out of it. Who knows. It would be fun, though, to actually receive money from drawing a graphic novel. <sigh & a dreaming look...>

AAGH! Ok, so I won't join Elfwood, then. Okay, I joined, but won't make a gallery since my pictures "aren't modern fantasy"! I sent some nice pretty pictures of Damon and his friends and foes there and got a rejected ticket as a response. The reasons stated that "The pictures aren't modern fantasy. Simply saying that they are based on tarot cards doesn't count"! As I've written my novel quite a lot, and it being my favourite one, I think I can state that it *is* modern fantasy, if a label should be put to it.

What is modern fantasy, then? What does Elfwood think it is? Isn't the point of modern fantasy (at least sometimes) that the guys don't look any different from normal people but have some strange gifts/powers/natures? How can one send a picture of a modern mage there, if it's just a guy on a trenchcoat? Is it enough to say that the picture portrays a mage? And how about a modern vampire? Perhaps my gloomy Christophe in his pinstripe suit? Should he be grimacing like a standard vampire, showing his fangs, if it isn't enough to say that he is a vampire? I mean, what is going on?

I'm just so very mad now. I love my Damon. He's happy as modern fantasy. But if Elfwood doesn't want me to share my stories and imagination, then I won't. I won't be drawing pointy ears or huge freaking guns to my characters just because they would then feel happy to call it modern fantasy.

So there. Not joining a community of interesting and good artists, then.
Rant over.
(............still fuming................)

I saw The Ark this Wednesday! It was pretty much like I had imagined it. I got the same "I'll bow down to you, oh great one" feeling from Ola Salo as I do from Frank-N-Furter. There was also this seventies glam appeal in it, which I can't resist. Apart from a few drunken idiots standing right behind me in the crowd and not realizing when they were clapping in rhythm that my head was on the way, I had a really great time!

Some girls in front of me were reading this info of The Ark that they had apparently printed from the net, so I had a look, too (behind their shoulders). It came to no surprise to me as the print revealed that the Ark guys like musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar and Rocky Horror Picture Show, and that their main inspirer is David Bowie. I just like them a bit more, knowing that they love Rocky (and the Bowie bit was obvious, just listen to Ola's singing in Joy Surrender.. nice!). ^_^ So I'm weird, what about it?

To repeat my earlier post, everyone should watch Trigun. And like The Ark. (Ok, ok, I won't force you to it...;)

Ola Salo's hair is a being of it's own.

I've now watched Trigun to the end (last Friday, to be exact). All I can say is Wow. I got another trauma from it, but I won't talk about that further to protect you from spoilers. Wolfwood's character design is one of the coolest I've seen in a long while. I love the guy.

Wow.

If you haven't seen Trigun, do that now. I don't care how. But see it.

Another week-long holiday is behind me. It sure doesn't feel like it. At least the course that started today is something interesting: 3d modeling (or something) with 3ds Max. But I think I will grow tired of it, since we have nothing else in 3 weeks! Well, let's hope I understand how it works and am able to have fun with it! (Yeah, here's hoping...)

A move is ahead of us (me and Juri) again next weekend. We're moving only a couple of houses away, since they're going to start renovating our house on May. It's good that we can move away a month before all the others do the same thing, so it won't be that much of a rush for us.

I should be writing my cafe posts, finish another 750 pages of Witching Hour (I have to return it this Friday, hehe) and watch Trigun 11-26. The last one is neither difficult or unpleasant!

I've started my homepage renovating thing again, since I didn't like the last thing I thought up... you'll just have to wait a bit more. ^_^'' Gomen! And tomorrow I have a Japanese test and I haven't read at all, so I probably should do that tonight (does watching Trigun count as preparing?).

Alucard is coooooooooool.... Integral is coooooooooool... 3 episodes left. Wanna.

Going to Helsinki on Saturday to buy comics, yay!

Have begun to work on my homepage.

This concludes our newsflash.

So, I haven't written here in ages. I was in Pori on winter holiday, met my parents and siblings and ate a lot of chocolate. ^_^ Now school has started again and I'm actually writing this on a break. The weather is awful outside, it's not cold but it snowed so much this morning that it looked like white mist, some ghost reality or something. I'm glad that cars have lights, otherwise I would've been run over many times already.

I have episodes 1-10 of Hellsing from the Anime Society. I've watched the first five, tonight I'll watch the rest. The series has 13 episodes, so it makes me quite angsty to know that I only have 3 episodes left and I can't see them yet. Damn. Hellsing's music is fine, and Alucard and Integral are cool.

Now I'm trying to find a nice screensaver, so I wouldn't have to watch that space with the stars all the time, but can't seem to find anything. Hmh. And I should be working on all my homepages, but am not. That's how nice I am.