Moving to LJ

Hi everyone!

I'm moving my base to Livejournal: evemaykill.livejournal.com . Update your links and come see me there!

(I just got really frustrated with Blogger, especially when uploading photos. And sometimes even the text would start jumping all over the place and adding linebreaks and everything. But mostly it feels silly to have two journals. I'm still leaving this here in case I come up with another use for this space.)

Happy spring!

Today I ate my lunch in the park.

(That's a paper towel from my lunch in my hand...)

THE drawing

THE drawing with a lion's body, man's head and four wings....

Click if you dare.

The Book Meme

Stolen from Dan's blog:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment here once you post it to your blog so I can come see!

I'm at work now (yeah, bad me), and the only book I have with me is Good Omens (by Gaiman and Pratchett, of course), which I am re-reading.

On page 123 there's only four sentences. *epic fail*

I wonder what the universe is trying to tell me? Not to do this at work?

I won't tag, either.

Edit:
Vishal and Dan both demanded the four sentences. Four or five, depends on the way you look at it. They are:

"That settles it, then. Next year we go to Brighton," said Mrs Threlfall, completely missing the significance of what had just happened.
It meant there wouldn't be any next year.
It rather lowered the odds on there being any next week to speak of.

Now be really scared. (This is from just before Thursday starts in the book.)

Snow, snow, snow!

It's snowing here. Like, a blizzard! Where did the spring go?

Evening Edit: There was more snow today than there has been the whole winter.

I opened the front door and there was a pile of untouched snow there.
I waded through the walkway of the yard, up to my ankles in snow...

Pictures taken with my mobile (the camera sucks - it was still snowing when I took the
photos, but it doesn't show):

Waiting for the bus


View from our window

Flash Trainee

Today started my third week at work. Yes, I got a job three weeks ago! I am a Flash Trainee at an e-learning company. "A trainee" because I'm not expected to know everything, but it's still a steady, not temporary, position with a normal paycheck (almost exactly what I got at my previous place). I make Flash animations, edit images and stuff.

So, I spent about a week-two weeks honing my CV and studying how to make a cover letter. Then, during the next two weeks I sent five job applications, which got me an interview at my current work place for the week after that. It was a Thursday, and I was hired from the interview. I started work the next Monday. So, all in all, my job search went surprisingly well, and I wish good luck to everyone else who is going through the same!

So, what else is up with me? Well, I recently read the Tekkon Kinkreet (All in One paperback). It was good, as was the movie. I don't know how differently I would've reacted if I hadn't seen the movie, but at least now it was easy for me to keep track of the characters and follow the plot. I am currently in the middle of re-reading a collection of Moomin books, Good Omens, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I want to buy more books and comics, thanks to Dan's book pr0n photo extravaganza.

Books I'm interested in:
1) The Dresden Files
2) Detective Inspector Chen
3) The Raw Shark Texts
4) Gormenghast

Dan, can you tell me more of Ekaterina Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow? What 'sort' of book is it (atmosphere-character-wise)?

Also, am I missing something when I automatically dismiss books that have the word "planetary" or "alien races" in the back cover text? Different planets just really turn me off. Of course Pluto doesn't count, since it's not a planet.

New Homepage Layout + 100th post

I redid Death-Teddy.net - layout and structure and stuff. I think it's more organized, and prettier, now. If you're interested, go take a look!

Death-Teddy.net

On other news, I am still searching for a job. Plus, this is my 100th post to this Blog! I'm slow, but let's not think about that - let's think about how awesome round numbers are!

Birthday DS

I got a Nintendo DS lite and two games for my birthday today from my boyfriend! Yay! And we're going to see Golden Compass later today!

Now if the DS would just finish charging, I could test it out!

Finnish stuff

Want to see some Finnish stuff? kioskkiosk.com is now focusing on Finland, and there's a lot of Finnish stuff for sale, with information about everything. There were things even I didn't know about! Like, what, that darts set is only used in Finland???

What's up?

Hi! How's everyone doing?

I recently got my hair cut (short), bought a cool new winter coat (black, to my knees), visited the Moomin museum with my sisters (learned that Snorkmaiden and Mymble think pirates are cool), visited the Korkeasaari/Helsinki zoo with my sisters and Juri (I loved the red pandas) and... what else? Not much, I guess!

I'm going to go to a job interview this week, just for an office/warehouse type of job. I thought I could spend a few months there, just to get some money from somewhere, and then later search for a job in my field (perhaps next year). I need to practice pixel graphics for a while, first.

I'm planning to redesign my website, since I feel bad for not updating it for such a long time. I just don't like the design, so I upload to DeviantArt instead. But I should really start using my own web space more!

So, what's up with you? Everyone cozy in their little holes?

(I'm having trouble adding my comments back to this new version, hope to fix it soon.)



My new hair (with the patented Fish Expression)!

Jobless

I realized I hadn't yet mentioned here that I am currently looking for a new job. The company I worked for went bankrupt. I have send an application to one place where some of my work friends know people.

Nothing else much going on. How are you?

Creatively challenged

Mainly a copy-paste from my DeviantArt journal.

I'm feeling creatively challenged, and have actually felt so for the longest time. I upload to my DA gallery every piece that I have finished, so you can see that I really don't draw much (sketches I mostly keep to myself, though). If you take a look at my gallery, you can see that I've mainly drawn gift art/requests of other people's characters, illustrations for other people's short stories, and then fan art. The original art in my gallery consists of my graduation project and then there's some really old drawings. So I haven't really drawn anything strictly for *me* for the longest time.

I'm proud of my graduation project, it is something I entirely thought up. But there was that *must*, that I must do it to graduate, that made me do it. When I don't have that necessity, it feels like I can come up with nothing.

I started the 100 themes challenge, but then decided to make it about fan art, too... So, that didn't help (and I really want to see fan art of those games, so I'm not taking it back).

And it's not only drawing. It's my writing, too. I LOVE to write. But the things I've written consist of the graduation project, and then my almost yearly Nanowrimos (and last year I didn't write that, either). So Nanowrimo takes the month of November. Outside of that I haven't really written anything NEW, just a few posts for this online writing group of my existing characters there, not even new ones.

I used to come up with my own stories and then draw the characters from them. Or I just came up with a character to draw out of nowhere. I don't know what's happened, I can't seem to come up with anything anymore.

It doesn't help that last October I moved here to Helsinki and I have no friends here. Of course I have my boyfriend and my sister here, and they are darlings and help much to fill my social needs, but I want some friends, dammit. Friends that draw, and who I could draw with. I have never been that social, I like to be by myself, so I don't need to have that busy a life outside my home, but I have always had one or two good friends, and then acquaintances. School helped with these things, but I'm not in school anymore.

So, briefly: Why can't I come up with anything? Where has my creativity disappeared? And HOW can I get it back? These are the things I wonder.

Nine Inch Nails!

Today is Nine Inch Nails day! NIN at the Old Ice Hall, Helsinki!

After this I'll start waiting for Placebo. They're here on May 27th, after 10 years of avoiding this place.

From placeboworld.co.uk:

"Thanks to all the Finnish fans who've bought tickets to our show on 27th May at the Ice Hall, Helsinki. The show, 7000 tickets, sold out in an hour!!"

What happened on my birthday?

A quick little thing.

** Find your birthday from Wikipedia. Find three events, three births and three deaths that happened, plus all the holidays held that day. **

5th of December

Events
1484- Pope Innocent VII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the severest witch hunts in European history.
1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola.
1951- The first issue of Aku Ankka (Donald Duck) -magazine comes out in Finland. :P

Births
1890- Fritz Lang
1901- Walt Disney
1976- Amy Acker
(I'm so cool.)

Deaths
1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1870- Alexandre Dumas (senior)
1926- Claude Monet
(These guys I like keep dying?)

Holidays
Roman festivals - Faunalia celebrated in honor of Faunus
Thailand - The King's Birthday, National Day, Father's Day
Netherlands - Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas' Eve)
UN - the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
Austria - Krampus (in Schladming over 1200 "Krampus" gather from all over Austria wearing goat-hair costumes and carved masks, carrying bundles of sticks used as switches, and swinging cowbells to warn of their approach - I think the Finnish equivalent is nuutipukki)
Saint Sabas (the feast day of Sabbas the Sanctified)

Spam for Vampires

Today I got spam mail with an interesting subject line:

"Return sunrise to your life".

50 books, 50 movies

I tried out my LJ account at evemaykill.livejournal.com . I started this list of 50 books and 50 movies I will try to read/watch this year. So go there and give me suggestions! No friend locks or anything are on.

The book meme, finally

In the spirit of Christmas, I will finally answer the book meme Dan tagged me to do. I know, I know, you have all been holding your breath until now.

1. One book that changed your life: Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Weis-Hickman. The first fantasy book I read, and the beginning of many.

2. One book you have read more than once: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban takes the lead, I presume.

3. One book you would want on a desert island: Takaisin Muumilaaksoon (Back to Moomin Valley) - a collection of Moomin books. This doesn't have all of the books, as there are two collected volumes. But as long as I have Taikurin hattu ("Finn Family Moomintroll" - the original name is actually "The Magician's hat") and Muumipapan villi nuoruus ("The Exploits of Moominpappa"), I'm okay.

4. One book that made you laugh: Naiv. Super. by Erlend Loe. Gods, I can't get over how funny it is.

5. One book that made you cry: Test of the Twins by Weis-Hickman. First experience of the death of a loved fictional character.

6. One book you wish had been written: Mine.

7. One book you wish had never had been written: Don't feel that strongly about any book I've read. Can't really say for the ones I haven't.

8. One book you are currently reading: Mosaiikkilintu by Ulla Viertola. My aunt's first novel, published last autumn. It's a fantasy book, for about 10-12 year olds. :)

9. One book you have been meaning to read: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Borrowed it once from the library, read the first page. Had other things to read, and so it goes...

10. Now tag five people: Not going to. Everyone is tagged already anyway. Tag yourself if you want to.

I'm off to the holidays - spending 4 hours in the train tomorrow and then it's Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everyone! (If you didn't know, Finns celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, 24th's the day. Santa comes during the evening and says hello, instead of sneaking about at night. :D )

Of missed emails, work, Kalevala kung fu movies and stuff

Hi everyone!

I thought I should finally make my return. Not the least of the reasons for this is that Vishal, I think I just accidentally deleted a Happy Birthday mail from you, since Yahoo thought it to be spam and had placed it in my bulk folder. So I never got to read it, but thanks and feel free to send the mail again or just comment here if you feel like repeating yourself. I had a fun birthday, Juri made me gingerbread animals and other stuff, and I got cake at work.

Getting the internet was actually quite easy. The same place that provides our TV connection also sells internet connections. So after buying the connection we just plugged the net cable in along the tv cable and voila, instant internet access. The reason I haven't been writing here is work - I sit at the computer all day there and don't feel like doing it at home, too. I also developed a neck problem thanks to the sitting, but now it seems to be subsiding, thank gods.

So what have I been up to? Going to work, playing Kingdom Hearts 2 (haven't finished it yet, so no spoilers, please). Not that much. Here's how I get to work: I wake up at seven, leave to work at half past eight or so. First I take the bus (the stop is in front of our house) to the subway station, then I take the subway to the city and walk to my work place where I arrive a little before nine.

My favorite part of going to work is when the subway travels over the sea, when it goes over two straits. Or it was my favorite part when two weeks ago I still could see anything. Thanks to the Finnish winter, now it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home.

It also snowed the first of November, but it melted away and now it's just rainy and dark. Snow would help some since it would reflect light and so everything wouldn't be so dark and black. (Try to tell us Finns that there is no such thing as global warming when winters have steadily come with less snow and minus degrees around here. When I was small we got 20 cm of snow that stayed in November, when now the snow arrives around Christmas, if even then.)

What else should I ramble on about? Oh, I went to see the Finnish movie Jadesoturi (Jade Warrior) in the theaters. It was said to mix Kalevala myths with Chinese myths and kung fu movies. Actually it had very little Kalevala in it, except for the inclusion of Sampo (Wikipedia: a magical artifact that brought good fortune to its holder). It had some kung fu style fighting, and a lot of Finnish and Chinese people speaking Chinese. Weird watching a Finnish movie with subtitles, but hey, we Finnish are used to our subtitles. The movie was the first Chinese-Finnish co-production, and the first Finnish movie to get a theatrical release in China.

The movie was actually a decent movie. Nothing that special, but I didn't once feel bored watching it. A two-and-a-half-to-three-star movie. The story's about this modern day Finnish smith who is the reincarnation of this mythical ancient Chinese warrior. It actually has two storylines, the modern day one where the Sampo is found again and the ancient one where it's gradually revealed what happened in the past with the Sampo. My favorite character in the movie was played by Markku Peltola, who I know nothing about except that he's been in a few Kaurismäki movies. (It was also fun watching him fight.)

Okay, that's about it of me rambling. I have one question: How many of you also have Livejournal accounts? I've been thinking about switching my blogging there and making at least some of the posts 'friends only', so you'd have to have an account to see my posts. Sound good or stupid?

(Oh, and I didn't take part in Nanowrimo, as you might have guessed, but would love to read your stuff.)

Forgot to say: The new show Heroes soooooo rules my world.

Moving

Hi everyone!

Since I'm such an avid blogger, I have completely neglected to mention that I got a job about a month ago. I'm a graphic designer in a mobile phone software/content producer company. I haven't started yet, 'cause the work place is in Helsinki (the capital).

I'm moving this Friday (Friday the 13th!), and that means I won't have the internet starting from then. It takes a while to get an internet connection in the new place, so I might be absent for about a month or so. Of course I will pop by now and then, from work or somewhere else, but I won't have the internet at home.

So, bye bye for now! I'll let you know how work is later.

It's Uncanny!