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!

New website!

Or actually it is the same old website, just up in new place. So go visit death-teddy.net for all your Maija needs. Also now you can go visit Red Riding Hood's little business, the office of the Hood Girls (a.k.a. my graduation project that I never linked to).

I promise I will answer Dan's meme the next time I write. Also, I've been wondering what to do with my LJ? I have one, you know. Perhaps a sketch or writing journal or something. But I never update even this place, so would I be any different with two blogs? Now I just use the account for following other people's posts.

(This vanilla-rhubarb yoghurt is good!)

Pictures of me

I thought I'd post some pictures of me because... you know, there has never been any. Also I'm puzzled by the fact that I always seem to have my eyes closed and manage to look somehow pleased with myself in a stately manner in all pictures.

Proof (from our graduation party with our class):
1
2
3

The curse is broken! I am having fun:
Laughing and dancing, skipping and jumping.

But then my coolness is jeopardized:
Yes, it's karaoke.

And because I want to, here are some pictures of me from a pirate costume party from last fall. I'm dressed as a pirate flag.
Me posing (oh no, the cleavage-ness).
And me killing a friend of mine while she is killing the photographer.

And finally the two/three years old picture of me from a photography class. I'll show it last so that I can pretend I always look like that and so that you will forget the bit with the karaoke.
Studio

There, I think that's enough egoism for a few years. Now you know what I look like. Don't expect new photos of me anytime soon. I will probably just have my eyes closed in them.

Website Trouble

Help me! What will I name my new domain when I get one? All suggestions welcome, although some may be laughed at. :D

So, my website is down now. I had it on a friend's server, and the server broke down, so there. It's annoying because I had just finished the fiction site I was going to add there, and I was about to post an address to that graduation project of mine here on the blog. But now I have to hunt for a web space provider and wait until I have money to buy the domain/space.

I got the grades for the graduation project - I got 4 out of 5 from both the written and the artistic part. I'm pretty disappointed about the 4 in written, since I worked really, really hard on it and I know I'm a good writer. The teachers didn't have anything bad to say about it but then they gave me 4 because the subject (Red Riding Hood tales) was quite far away from our studies (Digital Arts). But I'm very happy of the four in artistic!

Anyway, I haven't really done anything, I've just taken it easy and read comics (Bone, Akira (up to 8), V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1). :P

Wtf did you smoke, Kiba?

The end of Wolf's Rain is like... on crack. What were the creators on? Or is my brain too limited to understand their great minds?

Edit: Ok, I do understand some of it (just re-watched it when I wasn't dead-tired). It's just that when I think that I understand all of it, something pops to my head and makes me think that "No, I've got it all wrong"...

Numfar, do the dance of joy!

The graduation work is done! I just need to write a 5 page essay for a course and get the written part of the thesis between covers and delivered to the proper place, and I'm done with this school!

Head exploding thesis work

Working on my thesis. I have 4 weeks to get it done if I want to graduate this year. Wish that my head doesn't explode. Talk to you later.

Vishal bugs me!

Ha! I will not give in to your bugging, Vishal! Oh, wait, damn...


...


Christmas went well. ^_~

Serenity not coming to Finland

Up until now, the first screening date here in Finland was supposed to be today, 2.12, but when I went to check, it had mystically disappeared from every theater's list. After a moment of googling I found this message from Sandrew Metronome Finland:
"Ennakkotiedoista poiketen elokuva saa näillä näkymin ensi-iltansa valitettavasti suoraan videolla. Päätöksen takana on kyseisen elokuvan levittäjäyhtiö."

Which says that the film will be straight-to-video, and that the decision has been made by the distribution company of the film. This really bugs me and is weird, since the movie is being shown just across the border, in Sweden... So the distributor just decided that it wasn't going to be shown in Finland??!

This sucks.

Things I like (they make me go squeee!)

(EDIT: Another thing I like - ADVENT CHILDREN! OH HOLY TAPDANCING JENOVA, it is NICE!)

In other words, I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at a preview screening last Friday and I've been meaning to write about it ever since. Actually, I'm going to see it again on opening night tomorrow with my sister. From that you might have guessed that I liked the movie.

The first thing I'd like to mention is the music. Danny Elfman certainly delivers, like he always does. I've missed his music, and so listening to this movie made me happy.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the added backstory of Willy Wonka. While I agree that it was completely redundant, it didn't actually bother me. If the filmmakers wanted to invent a past for him, okay, have fun, but the movie didn't need it and would have worked fine without it. Hopefully someone had fun making it up.

Hmm... it seems that I don't have much to say about the movie after all. Johnny Depp was delightful and hilarious, and his Wonka was even weirder than I thought based on the trailers. And I want some of dem chocolate bars.

To all you Finnish people out there, I want to add this line that I smiled at in the subtitles:
"Olen aina tehnyt karkkia fiilispohjalta."

****************

Another thing that makes me happy is Susanna Clarke's book Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I finished it about a week ago and I loved it - the plot, the characters, the footnotes. I especially liked the language of the book and I can't believe this was Clarke's first novel. Ooooh, it was so good. *shivers* It's tragic and exciting and funny and witty, and you just want to know what happens next. Even when "nothing" happens the text flows enjoyably onwards.

(I liked the portrayal of fairies, and just wanted to mention that nowadays every elf is in my head drawn by Ted Naifeh. I can't help it. The gentleman with thistledown hair was "drawn by Naifeh".)

I had only heard good things about the book before reading it, but I still didn't have any huuuge expectations. It is always best to read things for yourself instead of believing reviews. The last book I read that everyone had only said good things about was China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and I didn't like it. I was bored and wasn't sucked into the happenings of the book, and I couldn't have cared less about the characters. There wasn't a single character that I gave a crap for. It wouldn't have moved me one bit if they had all died. Characters are very important to me in a book, or in any story. In Jonathan Strange, on the other hand, I liked each and every one of the characters. Jonathan Strange, Vinculus, Drawlight, Childermass, the gentleman - just to name a few.

It's not even that characters have to be nice and likable for me to like them - I have liked many an 'evil' character in my times. I know a person who didn't watch Farscape because she thought every character was so unpleasant. I liked them because they all had flaws of character. But in Perdido Street I couldn't relate to the characters, I couldn't quite grasp them, I couldn't find any characteristic in them that I liked. So I ended up not caring about them.

o_O Aaaanyway, it seems I complained more about Perdido there than gave praise for Jonathan Strange. I just want to say that I don't believe that Perdido is a badly written book or anything. It just didn't relate to me at all, when there has to be a lot of people out there to whom it does, because they are different people and perhaps can find something in the characters to grasp onto.

But I want to say that I *loved* Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and I will recommend it to each and every person I meet. They can make their own decisions, but I think they should at least open the book. It might work for them as well as it did for me.

****************

That Ted Naifeh comment earlier on there reminded me of another thing I liked: Courtney Crumrin Tales - A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man (loong title). If you Courtney Crumrin -fans out there haven't read it, do so now! I mean, it has Uncle Aloysius as a young man (I'm such an Aloysius fan girl)! The mood of the comic is different from the other albums, but different doesn't mean bad. Actually, in this case at least, it means very good. And of course the whole album is filled with delicious art. I love his style so much.

(I hadn't even noticed that I had a shortage of Naifeh-drawn young men before I read this - in Courtney you don't see that many of them. Aloysius Crumrin is teh hot - as well as the epitome of cool.)

Okay, signing out now. Phew.
I shake you warmly by the hand.

Blonde

I. Am. Blonde. Well, reddish. And my hair is short.

I'm getting used to this freakishness - actually I will colour my hair red in a couple of days, and that is the reason of my sudden attack of the blonde.

No, I don't own a camera. (So this entry was pretty much pointless.)

As you can see, DeviantArt has a new feature. Thanks to it you can now always see my 4 most recent deviations at the top of this page. Nifty, eh?

Tonight I'm going to a gig with my sister Tiina. We're going to see a Japanese band called Blood - I actually haven't listened to their music before, but they are the first visual kei band to ever come to Finland, so it is A Happening. And I will Be There. I expect to see a lot of pretty dresses, both on the audience members and the band's boys.

There was something else I thought I had to mention, but I don't remember it anymore. o_O

I get my paycheck tomorrow.

(This will look good on my shelf next to this.)

...
What, buy useful things?

I am SO MAD right now. I ordered my copy of the new Harry Potter book ages ago, and a few days ago I got an email that said that I could go get it on Saturday the 16th from the place where it would be delivered. Well, I went there today and THEY DIDN'T HAVE the package! They said to come check again on MONDAY AFTERNOON! I ordered it a few months ago when I could've just gone and picked it up today from the store. Then I at least would've gotten it when other people do, and now I'll get it a few days late!

The thing was, I was expecting that the delivery would take so long that I could get it as late as Monday, but then I got the email and became very happy. Yay, thanks for getting my hopes up.

My homepage Mayakashi and webcomic Fool's Court now have a new home ^^ at http://mayakashi.nitesade.net. Thanks to Antti for providing the space!
---------------------------
www.tednaifeh.com:
"In other news, Oni Press has talked me into doing another Courtney book. It will be a single-issue story titled (deep breath) Courtney Crumrin Tales: Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man. It follows the early adventures of Aloysius Crumrin in a world of secret societies and forbidden witchcraft. That's all I can give away for now, but rest assured it will be a rollicking adventure."

Fan-girl SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL!!!!!!!! (Yes, I just squealed in the middle of class...)

Umm, some hacker broke into our school server, where my homepage is (was), so that's why it hasn't been working during the past two weeks, if you've wondered. They can't start it again, because the web server software is so old.

It seems I'm looking for a new place for my homepage and web comic. It's just really annoying, because when I move them I cannot redirect people to the right address. The server doesn't work, so there is no way I can put up a message like 'the page can now be found here - link'. So there can be many people who have used to e.g. read my webcomic and now just think it has disappeared, and can't/don't bother to find it again. Annoying.

I've had an offer from a friend of mine to use his server space, so perhaps I'll do that. Or something...

I finished reading Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and I'm completely in love with Howl. He is such an ass! ^^

I have to stop writing these one minute newsflashes and write a decent blog-entry, grrr.

I just saw the episode of Time Squad with Edgar Allan Poe in it. He wrote children's books and greeting cards instead of, well, the stuff he should be writing.

I had lots of fun. I wanna see it again.

Dir en Grey's newest album, Withering to Death, is number 31 on Finland's official album chart! o_O

Texhnolyze
Last night I was at the local club's anime night and saw the first six episodes of Texhnolyze. I didn't get very into it - at first one wasn't sure what was going on and there was interest, because I wanted to know what would happen and what was the link between these different people. But then as things became a little clearer, I lost that interest. I didn't care at all what was going to happen to the characters. That's a pretty bad thing, so I don't think I'll be watching any more of that show.

The surprising thing about Texhnolyze was that it belongs to those very rare animes whose opening and closing songs are both good. The other one tends to often be crap. But this anime opened with a wonderful song called Guardian Angel (Xavier's Edit) by Juno Reactor, and I was jamming with it every time it played. When it opened the first episode, it really raised my expectations of the show, and I wanted to see what it was all about, since the song created such a great atmosphere from the get-go. Too bad the opening song was the thing I liked most in the anime. Anyway, the closing song was Tsuki no Uta by Gackt, which is a very nice song, too.

So, even if I didn't care about the characters and the plot, at least I was jamming. And I liked the visuals of the opening, as well, and some of the character designs.


Why isn't there anything good going in the theatres? I wanna go see a movie...

Just a quiz...


Cutesy Goth


What Kind of Goth Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Man, I was just sick for a week! That sucks. A week! I didn't do anything. Well, okay, I slept. It's just very annoying because there are things that you would like to do but you can't because you hurt/are tired/can't concentrate on anything. You know there are the usual ways of passing boring time, like internet or reading, but you can't even manage the strength to do those! So you just end up doing absolutely nothing. You only sleep and watch shows from the tv that turn your brains into slush, such as Fear Factor. Aargh. *dies* And if you don't even have the ability to concentrate on something that simple, you know you really are sick.

To top it off, I couldn't talk for two and a half days. Just *couldn't*. No sound came out, and the first day my throat hurt like hell so I wasn't even considering any talking. *dies again from remembering it*

*dies*

I'm trying to decide whether to be a little pissed off or not. A person approached me via email saying that she liked my Elfwood gallery and asked if I'd be willing to do a request for her. I said yes, because I like drawing stuff for other people when I can't come up with anything on my own.

This was a week and a half ago, about. Now today I get an email that only says: "Are you anywhere near done?". I don't know, but I think that is quite a blunt and a bit rude way to put it. When I write emails, and especially when I write to people I don't know, I try to be as polite as possible. There are tons of other ways of writing that question a bit more politely, e.g. "I was just wondering if you've had the time to work on that request of mine" etc etc. And because this thing was a request, not a paid commission, the requester (is that a word?) should perhaps consider that I'm doing it just because I want to, I don't owe them anything, and I can take my time with the drawing if I have other things to do first. Of course I'd keep them posted about how the process is going, but I think a week and a half of silence should be ok...

Well, that's no big deal, but I expect some things from people, even though I know I shouldn't. Most people perhaps don't spend as much time thinking about how something they've written sounds as I do. :shrug: Perhaps she, on the other hand, is used to quicker and more active people.

Anyway, big news: Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson are playing at the same festival here in Finland in July! MM on Saturday and NIN on Sunday. My, I have to go! I'm not that big of a MM fan, but I think they can pull off a great show that I shouldn't miss. I like the visual aspect of the band. NIN, on the other hand, cannot be missed! It is the first time ever that they are playing in Finland.

I'm also happy that although I missed The Ark's recent tour date here in Turku, they are coming on a festival gig this summer, too, so I get to see them.

I bought Sims 2: University. :dances:

I won't have the internet for a week. I don't feel like explaining it all once again, so go read my rant from my journal at my DeviantArt-gallery.

I changed the layout of my website, Mayakashi. Well actually I just changed the layout picture and the colours, but it cheered me up. I had grown tired of the last one.

Well, the holidays are over. I got nice Christmas gifts and watched a lot of Buffy. And I played Hero Quest with my sisters. Yes, the old boardgame. ^_^ My friend Maija gave me a nice gift - a teapot. Not the kind where you can boil water (that's a kettle, right?), but the kind where you put the teabags and pour the hot water and then you have lots and lots of tea. I really like it. Easy access to refills.

I ordered Courtney Crumrin in the Twilight Kingdom from Amazon and just got it this week. It was good, and Ted Naifeh's art is still yummy, but I liked the two last ones better. Why? Just because they had more Uncle Aloysius in them and I'm such a big Aloysius fangirl. -_-'' I really am. He's... so... cool.

*can't write anymore because is too busy staring into space, contemplating on the coolness*

I've had a nice long weekend. Last Friday I only had to be in school for a couple of hours to work on a cellphone comic project, and we also have today off because it is the Independence Day.

I had my birthday yesterday. I and Juri sat under the blanket on the futon in our living room and watched two movies we had borrowed the day before. We watched Lost In Translation, which was okay, and a Japanese film called the Returner (starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and a cute girl whose name I don't know). I actually quite enjoyed that film. It was fun and suited my mood.

We ate chips and candy and drank soda and watched movies the whole day. And it was fun. Juri gave me the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD and the Playstation 2 game of the same title, and my friend, also named Maija, gave me a Discworld quiz book called The Wyrdest Link. I knew almost none of the answers to the questions when I browsed it, because I've read so many of the books so long ago. But the gifts were nice, and the Playstation game made me smile since it was such a silly gift, and I can think of times when I will want to play something simple like it. ^__^

I've done nothing today also - I watched the Potter movie and some extras on the DVD. I thought there would be more deleted scenes there, and at least something with Lupin or Black in them, but there wasn't. Oh well, the movie is still good. The way the Extra DVDs are constructed for the Potter movies are always developed more for children, in my opinion. Perhaps 'grown ups' should have a different version of the Extras. ^__^

Anyway, off to eat now.

I am a



The story this year was much worse than last year, but do you see me care?

Plus my Buffy box came today! Hurrah!

On not so great things, I need to read for tomorrow's test and can't watch any Buffy now... But I don't mind. I have the DVDs, now I can watch Buffy whenever I want!

begin rant

I just got my new computer after two weeks of extra waiting. I was all happy and ready to write more to my nano with my new keyboard. Then we noticed that the diskette drive didn't work. It just didn't notice that there was a diskette inside. I couldn't get my nanovel to the computer.

So we opened the case to see if the drive was connected. It was, and we wondered about it. Then, as Juri switched the computer on when the case was open, I noticed there was smoke coming out from inside the machine. The hard drive was smoking! Who has ever heard of/seen a hard drive smoking? We sure as hell hadn't. Processors can smoke. Hard drives don't.

So, the catch of the first day with my new computer is two parts that need to be replaced. Now that's a good computer. My trust for the functionality of the other parts is now gone and I will buy nothing from that computer store again after I get my replacements.

end rant

Of Quizes

Which Johnny Depp character are you?


Johnny Depp, the great man himself.


Who is your inner Johnny Depp Character?
brought to you by Quizilla

Why does this always happen to me? When I did the quiz 'Which Jhonen Vasquez character are you?" I was "Jhonen Vasquez - you create all this fucked up shit". Apparently I cannot be a fictional character. ^_^ I don't mind that much.

Of success!

I finished coloring a picture with Photoshop! It's up on my homepage in the original art section. It's an art trade I did with Luke McKay. He did his version of my Coal picture and I drew his characters Blue and Green.

I'm really happy that I finished it, even though I managed to screw up with the last save and save the small version I had ment for a jpg on top of the original psd. So now I only have an older version of the original, big picture left, which means that it misses the last five hours of work and is thus unfinished. :tears:

Yes, I know I should be doing nanowrimo, but I'm happy I got this thing done!

101 steps to get rid of your money

Alright. I went and did it. This morning I ordered that Buffy collector's edition box set from Amazon.co.uk. It is about 202 euros + delivery, which I estimate to be a little under 10 euros - so, in total, a little under 212 euros (the box usually costs more, but this is a preordererer's discount).

I thought it was a lot of money, but if I bought all these seasons separately - whew. In Finland one box would cost a hundred euros, and I don't even want the Finnish ones but the British ones with better packaging (book-like), so ordering the British season box from the place I usually order DVDs would cost 150 euros. And now I get all seven with a bit over 200 euros? Bring it on! (Btw, if I had ordered the collector's set from that Finnish DVD store, it would've cost 325 euros.)

The box will come out November 22nd. How can I wait?

Of coolness

She has made Cthulhu jewelry. ^_^

Aaagh!
Buffy! *drool* (Although I've heard that at least the season 1 DVDs have better image quality as R1 than R2... damn you regions!)

Of stupidity

Nanowrimo. Again. Next month. I'll be there.

Of Helsinki Comic Festival

So, I was at the Helsinki Comic Festival last weekend. Jeff Smith was one of the guests of honour, so of course I went to listen. He didn't look anything like I had pictured him - I'd imagined him to be older, balder and with glasses. I learned that he was a friend of Neil Gaiman and Bryan Talbot, and began to wonder what Talbot looked like, since, as my sister pointed out, at least these two belong to a hair mafia. I searched the net, and saw that Bryan didn't sport the exact same hairdo as these two gentlemen. A pity.

I also bought two Copic markers. Woohoo, now I have a wide array of colours: grey and red. I would've also liked a light blue and a darker gray one. These cost 3,50 euros, the refillable ones were 5 euros. And I just read my friend's Japan diary (you can get to her "Kyoto Nikki"-blog from that Labelled Angel link I have), who wrote that Copics are 2,90 euros in Japan. Now I'm just waiting for her to answer my question if they really are the refillable ones, these cheap copics.

I saw a few fellow Deviantart artists and leafed through their portfolios. They have some really nice pics. I also bought two postcard sized prints of Korone's.

Nothing much more to say - I haven't yet really tried my copics, since I haven't found a nice enough picture to try (and one that would still be expendable, if I happened to do everything wrong).

Now I'm off to my optician appointment. I'm going to get five pairs of disposable contact lenses - now that I know that I actually can get contacts. There was a time when my eyesight was too bad for me to get contacts, but things progress and stuff. I'm not going to get rid of my glasses, since I quite happen to like how I look with glasses, but in some occasions contacts could be nice (that's why I'm getting the disposable ones).

Of sisters and hairdos

I added my sis to the blogosphere: "give me oxygen". Before there had been a link to her homepage, but I changed it to her blog when she got a new one. Her last one had gone missing in action, perhaps due to the half a year when she didn't write to it when she didn't have internet access.

I went to get a haircut yesterday. The barber got it wrong. It doesn't look bad, but I wanted something different and this looks a bit like a previous haircut I've had. The goal was to leave the hair long at the front, then make it short in the back (you know, the goth hairdo that one should dye purple ^_^). But it looks more like a bob from the side. She didn't make the hair short from the side, only from the back. I don't know, perhaps I couldn't explain it right. Bleh.

(The hair should've been a bit like hers, actually, but without the bangs and a bit longer on the top back. Too bad I couldn't find this picture before I went to the barber.)

Of updates

Hey lookie! I chose a new blogger template and finally managed to add links to the sidebar (after much fumbling and messing with the code - I suck). Yay!

Of nice weather and turning Buffy-skeptics to Buffy-fanatics

At last we have decent weather around here. The whole July it rained, poured. Some rivers in East/Middle Finland flooded, causing property damage. Not here, though. I didn't think there would be floods in Finland. But hey, there were in Sweden, so why not here? Okay, after the rain, when July turned to August, we suddenly got a heat wave: over plus 30 degrees of celsius every day. But today, we have a blissful about +25 degrees, and all is well.

I watched the 7th season of Buffy to the end last week. Now it's over. Sniff. No more Buffy to watch. But I haven't seen the 5th season of Angel, so that's something to look forward to, although there will be no more since those idiots at Fox cancelled the series, while still continuing Charmed (to the seventh season!) and Smallville. I mean, Charmed is crap. And it didn't do as well in the ratings as Angel. There has to be somekind of logic behind this, right?

In a Finnish magazines called 'Pelit' ('Games') there was a fun challenge: a writer in the magazine had reviewed the Buffy game (can't remember if it was the first or the second), but he hadn't actually seen that much Buffy, and didn't think highly of the episodes he had. So a Buffy fanatic of the staff challenged the guy to watch the whole series and keep an online diary of his feelings on the magazine's web site. It was so much fun to read how a skeptic turns into a fanboy. When he began season six, he ordered the whole series to himself on DVD. (By the way: the guy watched all the seven seasons in little over a month, at first four, then two episodes a day - he switched to two when he didn't want the series to end! ^_^)

He said that he understood that people could be skeptic about Buffy, it does, after all, tell of a stupidly-named teen-aged (at first) girl who fights vampires. But he also said that all those people who look Buffy down their noses *haven't actually seen the series*.

The guy said that the only bad thing about Buffy as a series was that it made Babylon 5 suddenly look worse (he was a huge B5 fan, I gathered). He still thought B5 was a good series, but the relationships of the characters, especially that of Sheridan and Delenn, seemed to him like sugarcandy when compared to the real relationships of the Buffy characters.

And thus I think that it is proven: Buffy is quality TV. By season two this guy, who had only seen a couple episodes of the series and didn't think highly of it, was shaking his preconceptions, and by season four he had already turned into a fan, only to be a real fanboy by season six. And now he's going to watch Angel.

All hail Buffy!

I could almost say I've forgotten all about blogging this summer. On occasion the thought would enter my mind ("Hey, I have a blog. Perhaps I should actually write to it?") and then desert me with equal speed. It all just slips my mind.
 
Many things have done that to me this summer. I should be doing a lot of things. As it seems, I'm not. I spend my time lazying about with my sisters or boyfriend, or playing Final Fantasy. I'm not complaining about that life-style choice, but there's this feeling of guilt because I should actually be doing something else. Nagging guilt over things undone is not the way to spend one's summer holiday, full of good opportunities of lazying about.
 
I should be doing this portfolio page for school. I should be doing mobile logos for the place where I went to work practice (I'm getting paid after the summer, or I would get paid if I actually did something). They're prepared to accept about a hundred logos. So far I've done a little over ten. Hey, they don't mind if I don't send a hundred, but it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble to only do ten and get paid accordingly, now that I have this chance.
 
Remind me that next summer I should do nothing.
 
Or then I should do everything right away, and blissfully lazy about the rest of the way. 
  
Well, at least I got a new monitor. It isn't actually (or in any way) new, perhaps 'another' would be a better word, since this is my big sister's old monitor. But it is a working one, and I could ask no more. Well, the next thing I could ask is a computer with a more than 2 Gb hard-drive. I mean, face it, MP3 players have bigger hard-drives than my computer. So it is good that my boyfriend has a better computer, which I am (note: also currently) hogging.
 
Harry Potter finally makes its way to Finland on fourth of August. Yes, I know. What the hell took so long? Movies don't take so long to travel on these modern days. Perhaps it lost its luggage or something. I mean, Spiderman 2 (which I, btw, saw last night) came here the week after it came out in the USA.  Is there some horrible secret society that wanted to stop me from seeing HP3 when it came out? At least I'm going to the preview screening on the third of August. They are showing the other movies that day also, but they weren't that good, so I don't need to go see them again.
 
And this has nothing to do with nothing: You Americans out there, could you tell me what a Twinkie is? Everyone eats Twinkies in American movies or TV series. What's the deal?
 
And why has Blogger suddenly become this ugly?
 
Hey, this blogging thing seems actually nice. Perhaps I should do this more often. Perhaps next time I'll be more coherent.

Everyone, rejoice! I actually drew something last week! Four pictures, two of which can be found on my website. And heaven forbid, I even inked them! I never ink my drawings, which may be the reason why they always look unfinished and sketchy pencil-y things. Ink does something nice to a picture. I'm in love with the faun I drew. Can't help it. Sorry, fans.

I think it's spring that makes me draw. If only it would make me write as well. That remains still to be seen, since I still need to actually sit in front of my computer (I'm writing this at school, our teacher's train is late). My computer screen sucks. The power cable is sort of broken, so my screen decides to blink on and off when it feels like it. And I do not have the money to by a new monitor, they're really expensive!! I wonder if anyone would notice if I took this great monitor from school and switched it with my crappy old 14" one.....

Well, my work practice is over and school has begun again. It's great to see the stuff everyone else is doing (I've seen some good animations during these past few days, wow!). I'm not that keen on the fact of three more weeks of school, but I think I'll manage.

Then it will be summer. And I have no summer job, so no money. Last year I did the Damon-project for credit and study grants, but now I don't even have a project. I'll be in the hands of the social welfare people this summer (well, at least we have social welfare, so I shouldn't complain that much). But it would be nice to make some money during the summer so that the next school year would be a bit better money-wise. But it would be nice to just rest, too, after all this work and essays and stuff. Dunno.

Fool's Court is also back up! I rather like the new look. ^__^

And the homepage, Mayakashi is up! Fool's Court, the webcomic, will be down for a couple of days still, due to a complete visual update.

My homepage will appear here sometime this Sunday. Now there is just a kick-ass "under construction"-pic. ^__^

Come on, everyone. Sign the petition. Save Angel.



And everyone living in the USA, watch 'Angel' April the 14th.

I bought Beyond Good and Evil today, cheap. Hoping it will be fun.

.... though I have yet to finish FFVIII, after.... what? One and a half years of playing? I played Kingdom Hearts in the middle there, and then didn't remember anything of FF, and had to start it all over again. Now I've played it to disk 2, and somehow stopped. The last time I got to disk 3. Don't know what's wrong with me.

It's raining. Water. It's not snowing. Spring is here! Woohoo. It's not pitch black starting from four thirty in the evening. NO, it takes at least until seven. Rejoice.

And yes, I am talking about the weather.

So what am I doing this grey, but still strangely light Sunday, when the streets of the city centre have gotten rid of all the snow, and are brown again? I am... working! (You've heard that before, haven't you?) The thing is, the place I'm working in has a bit of a hurry with that character chat - the deadline is next Tuesday. There's many extra people helping, and I've been working this weekend, full day. But for those extra hours, I get paid. Which is good, since I have almost no money on my bank account at the moment.

The bad thing is that I completely missed (yes, also forgot) the local anime night. It began this Friday at 6 PM, and ended Saturday 4 AM. I forgot, not to mention I would've been really tired at work yesterday, if I had went. Sigh. Too bad.

But it's been fun working here. Because of this big project, everyone is keeping busy. Everyone isn't always in the best of moods because of the hurry, but that's ok. I haven't been even asked to do the dishes once, even when they pile up in the kitchen (yes, I always wash my own right after using), or something, although I am "just" here on work practice. Instead, they give me real work to do. Yay for that.

What else? I'm very busy at the moment, what with having two essays to write for Thursday. I had planned to write them this weekend, but then the work came up. I also have to come up with a little speech for Japanese class. It would have to be somewhat ready for Tuesday, so that our teacher can correct the worst mistakes before I have to give the speech, the Tuesday after that. Gulp. I'm planning to talk either about Gackt or Fruits Basket.

They began showing Firefly here three weeks ago. So far it has been fun. Too bad that every decent series seems to be cancelled, sooner or later. Don't know what's up with that.

Anyways, back to work!

Ok, and here I am! And what I have been doing is... (drum roll)... working! How exciting!

So, two weeks back our work practice period in school began. To my surprise, I had managed to find a "real" job for myself, so I didn't have to stay at school and participate in some projects there. Real job in quotation marks because I don't get paid, this being just work practice.

Anyway, for the past couple of weeks I've been working at this place that does comics, mascots, animations and various other things for companies. What I have been doing is drawing clothes for this character chat for TV. The chars look quite realistic, and thus there is quite a job in drawing their clothes, especially when the same trousers are needed 13 times (walking with 6 frames, walking with 6 frames from the back + standing). Whew.

When I wrote to this blog, I usually did it when I was in school, but I can't do it at work. I work in the same room with the company employees (3 of them), and I don't want to appear lazy by surfing in the web. And during the evenings, at home, I'm tired or then the idea of blogging has just completely slipped from my mind.

That was it. Not that exciting, huh? As I said in the comments of my earlier entry, I'd love to change this blog into a weekly competition "Guess what Maija is doing this week?" Then the answer would always be something as exciting as "Washing her hair!" That'd be fun...

Lately I've begun to read more - perhaps because going into work somehow leaves me less burnt out than going to school, or because the days have become longer. Also, it appears that if one borrows just one book from a library instead of a huge pile like I used to do, one actually gets things read. *gaspshock* I've been going to the library once a week now, borrowing just one book, or two or three comics, then returning them the next week and borrowing some more. I usually read the whole book during the weekend, or some of it during my bus rides to work.

Whoah, that's the time? The season 6 finale of Buffy starts in 25 minutes! Yay!

That's all, folks.

I made buns and cinnamon rolls! Weehee. Yummy.

(No puns, please.)

Yes, I haven't written in a long time. No, I am not dead.

I honestly don't know why I didn't write here at all last month. My uneventful life perhaps doesn't crave to be archived for future generations. Who knows? Anyway, currently I am working on my portfolio/homepage website. It feels stupid not to have one. The problem which I am forced to face now is the fact that I have almost no new drawings, and most of the old ones are crap. I don't know why I don't draw. Sigh.

On blog issues: as you may have noticed, the comments-system has changed a bit. That was because Blogspeak went away, at least as freeware. I was happy to notice that I hadn't lost all my comments, though: an email by the former Blogspeak head told that the comments had been transferred to a HaloScan account (Spyder, I believe this is what happened to your comments as well). So I'm happy. My comments didn't die.

I watched the rest of Fruits Basket last weekend. The last three episodes were so exciting, though I was disappointed by the fact that there was no Ayame, Hatsuharu or Momiji in them. It feels like a waste marvelous characters, showing so little of Aya and Haru as a whole. Well, Tokyopop is starting to release the manga, and I am sure that has lots more of them in it. ^_^ Also, cannot wait to get my hands on Hellsing manga. I want it. Waaah. Well, perhaps it's a good thing I can't get to it since I actually don't have any money. I can't buy Pirates otC DVD either. Pout.

Shudder before the materiality of my life. Comics and movies and books, oh my!

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.

(Who would've guessed, it's the day after Buffy...)

Feeling a bit sick. Going to see Rocky Horror again tomorrow. Although I'm sick I plan to dress slutty and halfnaked. ^_^

Samurai Jack starting today. I've watched a couple episodes from Cartoon Network in interesting colours (we haven't paid for it, but we can see it... blue). But today it officially begins in Finnish television. Yay! Everyone watch!

"You can fly!"
"No. Jump good."

I don't think I'll write anything else. Just feeling sick. Anyways, I have to go to dramaturgy class, then to the city to buy some Rocky props and then, in Buffy's words "I'm going to go home and find something slutty to wear".

Why is it that I always seem to write the day after Buffy? Well, now I won't rant about the series, I'm just saying that Spike is cool. And at least Subtv apparently realized they were showing Angel one episode out of sync with Buffy, so they didn't show an Angel episode last Sunday. Now that should be fixed.

Our web designing course ended today. It was fun, but it's fun that it ended. The result can be seen here, I think. The site isn't completely ready yet. The Terror-thing that's linked from the frontpage is just another project, an interactive story of sorts. I don't like the outcome that much. Well, it was my first web-designing course.

I said last week that at least we don't have snow on the ground... well, last Saturday it came down. It was nice that one day (since I didn't have to go out). I felt all Christmas-y and watched the Nightmare Before Christmas again. I hadn't even realized it's been two years since I last saw it! My favourite scene is still Jack's solo song at the cemetery. Snow isn't that much fun when biking to school, though. It seems like Finland skipped straight from summer to winter this year. Who needs autumn anyway? Odd.

But weekend is ahead, and I should really leave school and not sit here writing to my weblog! So, I'm gonna go home and hopefully get much reading and writing done! ^_^ Have a nice weekend!

Wow. The Buffy episode last night was awesome (here in Finland they're showing season four - we're show far behind because after season three they decided to first have a break and then show the whole series from the beginning and THEN start season four, at the same time starting Angel from season 1 to have it in sync with Buffy, though they had already shown Angel season 2!). Anyway, the episode was "Hush". It was like made for me. The child singing the nursery rhyme in the beginning, creatures from fairy tales that were almost too cool (that doesn't happen a lot in Buffy, usually they have silly one-episode bad guys) and of course Spike. I'm such a fan of the Gentlemen. Their appearance was so great, something that would fit well to the ranks of the Nightmare Brigade . I even liked their "sidekick-monsters". And the music sounded like Danny Elfman's! I seriously watched parts of the episode leaning forward with my mouth slightly open! The atmosphere was very well created.... sigh..... it was so cool................................

I'm going to see Rocky at the Svenska again, yay! My cousin also wanted to see it one more time. We're going to the last show, November 30th, so something special could happen. The night before that the 69 Eyes are performing at Säätämö. I still don't know if I'll go or not, since I really do not know how much more money I can spend on something other than the 'essentials'. Well, Jyrki69 has a cool new haircut, but... do I want to pay 10 euros to see it... still thinking...

Anyways, it's awfully cold here. Not today, though, which is a big suprise. The summer was unusually warm (almost 30 degrees of celsius every day), but now it seems that winter will be unusually cold, since it already snowed at the beginning of September! There's no snow on the ground now, though, but it's cold! Don't like it. Mope mope.

Some kick ass Final Fantasy VII doujinshi is collected at Paperthin Pleasures. Found some great Vincent pictures, and learnt (with my hiragana reading skills and "Japanese written in romanji to English" - web dictionary) that "sore tomo" means "or else". Weee! It's such a great feeling when I understand something written with hiragana! Btw, I had my first Japanese test yesterday. It went fine, I think. Next week we'll have a hiragana test. Oh, if only the Japanese would use just that one writing system, but no, they have to use katakana and kanji as well! Katakana I can just barely understand, but they should stop using the Chinese letters! It makes me all desperate!

Dan liked the Jenny pictures. I still haven't written Damon. I'm working on my school homepage and an interactive story about Terror. Projects, projects. Still haven't had the time or the inspiration to write one word of my Nanovel.