It's working - I'm working

I'm painting! It's fun! Wohoo!

Last minute changes

Not only did I find out that one set of assignments I'd printed was for last year (good thing I didn't start work yet!), I also decided to switch one Fine Art into one of those Visual Design courses. The decicion was much aided by the fact that the course I disgarded required five personal art projects by means of pre-assignments, and the new course has the advantage of possibility to specialise also in animation.

So, i'm left with two courses of Visual Design and two courses of so called Fine Arts. Oh, and about 15 preassignments to finish.

What am I doing?!

I should be hard at work on the school assignments, not surfing the net or playing with my new toys! I still have doubts whether I should apply to Fine Art/Painting at all... I have no idea what I'm about to embark on.

I think I'm going to check to see if my chosen schools have other courses of study more likely to produce a future career.

Aargh! What should I do?!

Deviations

I like my new tablet!!


and

Something under the bed is drooling // Friday 5

What are the 5 scariest moments in your life, the moments when you were most filled with fear? [from Dan]

Wow. I wish my life was more exciting:

1) That time when we were doing 120 mph on the motorway and the girl who was driving wasn't quite in control of the vehincle.

2) That one summer when mum had a few heart attacks and I thought she was going to die.

3) When I was a kid and the parents were fighting. No single instance comes to mind...

4) That one time I was watching Love Potion #9 and thought the film would never end.

5) When I realised I couldn't think of five instances when I've really been scared, and I got scared that I would have such a boring life for the rest of my life.

I give you... the Friday Fivers.

Cool band

I ran across this band through this really cute animation, but the site is in I-don't-know-what-language-exactly (though I have a feeling it might be Korean) so I have no idea how I can get a hold of the CD. A search on amazon didn't seem to do any good. Is anyone familiar with the band Witches?

Updated: I updated that link, so you can actually see the animation.

Yayness!

1) I'm on holiday also all of next week

2) Sin City has been made into a movie and the trailers look so cool!

3) Wait, there is no three

Not much ado about probably nothing

There is no spoon. There is no ice cream. Life really sucks sometimes, you know. I wouldn't say the the Fat Girl Diary writing project has actually kicked off, per se, but it's definitely sidled about to face towards the right direction.

Haha! I'm a jinx!

The good news for today is that my phone simply dropped dead in the middle of the claims call, and it hasn't been resurrected since. Then I went to use my manager's phone, and that one died too.

Since then, most of my programs have crashed and I had to reboot twice.

If I can make this last, I'll be available for hire to come to your office and touch your computer.

What else?

I dreamt of big spiders who learned to co-operate to jump on people. I woke up with a dull kind of headache. I stepped on the scales and found that I've officially gained 40 kg in four years (although to be fair, the first thirty jumped aboard in the first 18 months). I also have a conference call today on invoice disputes which I haven't resolved in the time frame I promised to resolve them. Needless to say, this doesn't bode well for today.

[40 kg = 88.18 lbs]

Dodgy chicken

Well, that's the last time I'm ordering food from the used-to-be-nice Euro-Asian place - I ended up throwing my guts up in the middle of the night again. Since Valkyria had the same stuff and I was all by myself in the bathroom at 1 AM, I'm guessing that they fry the chicken along with seafood.

That kind of thing could kill me, actually.

It's certainly put me off deep fried chicken in sweet and sour sauce for a while...

I'm in love

Ghost in the Shell,
originally uploaded by oddun.

It's beautiful and it's mine! I love my new mac and I adore my pen tablet! It took me a while to get used to the pen and I accidentally, uh, deleted the picture I was working on, but I'm quite simply totally, irreversibly enamoured with my new laptop.

I might have to marry it.

Oooowwwwww

I am so fed up with these headaches. They go away for weeks at a time and then come back with vengeance. I actually really needed to get stuff done today but that's all shot to hell. Never mind, eh?

My cover's pretty much blown by the fact that my new laptop was delivered earlier today and everyone knows it's waiting for me at home...

Back again

Well, at least it's a short week; Easter starts officially on Thursday. And I have next week off!

Friday 5

You lucked out - you found a lamp with an extremely generous genie. 100 wishes, and all for you! What are the last five wishes you make? [from Adam]

Ooh! Good question! A hundred wishes is a hell of a lot for a simple person such as myself, so I reckon by the time I get to the last five, all the good ones are gone. Here are my five final wishes:

96) I want to learn to, and enjoy, sewing and knitting and all that.

97) I'd like a prettier pinky toe.

98) I also want smaller nipples.

99) While at it, I want curvy and fleshy models Queen Latifah style to be the new heights of fashion. Get those skinny bitches off the catwalks!

100) I want to be able to arch one eyebrow at the same time i'm frowning with the other. You know what I mean.

The other Friday Fivers are here.

Six weeks later

He's still alive!

But I just want to sleep!

Get

me

out

of

this

office

Moving on from the 70's

Continuing my rather late excursion into so-called women's studies, I read Erica Jong's then-sensational novel Fear of Flying yesterday, and I was... disappointed. I think I didn't realise, when I bought the book, that it was written some 30 years ago, and I was expecting read something new or revelationary.

To an extend, I can sympathise with the problems, because I have met [neurotic, dependant, undecicive] women, who seem unable to live a life on their own or be fulfilled without a man in their life. But I couldn't identify with the main character. This, and my complete lack of surprise to any of the issues, sex scenes or fantasies in the book can either be a positive thing: society's expection on women has moved on since the 70's - or a negative thing: I haven't escaped the clutches of evil patriachy and don't know any better.

On the other hand, as is often the case, it got me thinking about relationships and expectations on a personal and cultural level. According to Moogie, a woman who reaches over across the car and unlocks/opens the driver's door is considered a 'keeper'. According to me, that's just good manners. He growled at me because I kept trying to open doors for him. We had repeated episodes at shop check-outs, because he was expecting to pay for everything, and I was expecting to pay for half.

Makes you wonder what kind of women he's used to dating. Well. Makes me wonder, anyway.

Back to the future // Friday 5

What 5 events or things would you like to see in your lifetime but are skeptical that you will? [from Dan]

Sorry I'm late. I had to be in the right frame of mind to be able to look at this question from at least remotely reasonable angle, and Sunday morning seems to have done it.

1 Environtally friendly transportation vehicles - electric cars, for instance. This will never happen as long as there's money to be made in the oil business. Bastards!

2 Taxing the hell out of factories/corporates who fail to comply with the new kick-in-the-groin fantastic environmental laws. Haha!

3 (Non-government secreted) contact with intelligent, extra-terrestial life forms. Here's to hoping they're the friendly New Agey kind.

4 Cyberspace, Gibson-style. I want to be able to jack in to the matrix via a brain-transplant thingy. Because that would be cool.

5 Mentally and physically healthy, serene, harmonious me. I doubt it'll ever happen, but I hope like hell it will. Some peace of mind would be nice.

Other F5'ers lounging over here.

Testy goodness

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

[via Dan]

Got change?

Neil Gaiman is taking bids on eBay for namind a cruise ship on his new book, Anansi Boys. The proceeds are to go to Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Current bid is running at over $1500. Not bad!

Hello, Google.

Oh dearie me. I used both the word cunt and penis on the blog within the week. I should read less.

Feminists vs Militant, Man-hating, Penis-cutting Womyn

It seems I'm not the only one who's been mulling over about feminism lately. Adam articulates on the issue very thoughtfully.

Sorry, I'm still laughing about the 'womyn'.

Pre-assignment help

I'm looking for source material to use on an essay/analysis about digital "signatures" or or tracks (if you will); the kind you leave of yourself during the course of the day via internet, ATM, credit cards, etc. All I can find on the web is technical information on actual digital signatures.

Help?

Face the Muscio

Yesterday I received, and I just now finished reading Inga Muscio's book Cunt.

Thanks to Jules for the recommendation. I echo her sentiment that everybody should read this book, love it, loathe it, and take out of it what works for you. Other than that, I'm still formulating my opinion on this book.

The word feminism bears negative connotation to me, so I was a little embarrassed about reading this book in the train. But at the same time, let's face it, it's pretty cool reading a book with Cunt on the cover in public.

I have issues with my feminism womanism, and this book got me thinking. Dangerous activity, and will hopefully spawn a thoughtful post later on.

Size, of course, does matter

I saw my laptop in a shop yesterday: it's huge! I love it!

I also ordered the A5 (6X8) Wacom pen tablet and I'm so looking forward to trying it out and getting all artsy on the computer and stuff. That will mean I have to try and locate all the old installation CDs (and I realise Photoshop 5 must be well off the market by now!) and the registration codes, which are - as I recall - on various post-it notes randomly splattered all over.

This should be interesting. But never mind that.

I'm getting a new laptop! I'm so excited and I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control and I think I like it. I'm so excited and I just can't hide it and I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I want you!

Wheeeeeee!

I'm so polite (moment of questionable wit)

Valkyria: My nose just started running.
laura: If I had that face behind me, I'd start running, too.

Dreams

I had my fist ever zombie-dream last night. My night-trips don't usually go for the traditional cheap horror genre, so it was kind of surprising. I reckon it's because I should be receiving my copy of Shaun of the Dead sometime next week.

Speaking of dreams, I have recurring ones where I'm wandering around shopping centres, usually lost and very rarely actually shopping. I wonder what that signifies. Probably that I'm not shopping enough...

...speaking of which, I ordered my 17" Apple Powerbook today! Ka-ching!!

Strawberry flavour rolling paper, anyone?

I just ran across this one, and for some reason it just strikes to me as hilarious: Make Your Own Cigarettes

Ode to Monday

Monday morning: the very nemesis of the weekend; the ultimate conquistador of the peaceful, lush world that lies beyond Friday, 4PM. The anticlimax; the mournful call to wilful slavery to economics; moon-day, reflecting the pale face of lunacy of mankind. The aftermath and ultimate pay-up for the self-indulgence of the weekend.

Monday, today.

Statistically, it is most likely I will wear make-up on Mondays.

On the surface, this doesn't seem to make any sense. Mondays are the damnedest days of the week, and Monday mornings the most torturous hours of the five-day period in which most of us subject ourselves to earning the income which enables us to sanctify the weekends for ourselves. Finns use an expression "monday piece" for faulty items - that is to signify that they must have been made on a Monday morning. Mondays are, in a word, evil.

But, as I was subjecting my hair to a curling iron (an unlikely event which takes place perhaps once a year; never on special occasions) and rummaging through my cupboard for eye shadow (an equally rare occurence), this morning I figured it out:

It's an attempt to prolong the morning and postpone the inevitable arrival to the office.

And, with that simple statement, the world makes sense again. Hello.

Saturday

I slept late and made pancakes for breakfast at 3PM. Life is good.

*

http://www.biojewelry.co.uk

Kind of gross, but then again, oddly fascinating. [via Neil Gaiman]

*

I also got my first offer from a moving company today; it's almost a third more than I was hoping for, and doesn't include a storage for the summer. *sigh*
I'm hoping my parents will help me with this move: I planted the idea that they would rent a van and drive to Denmark on my expense, and help me move.

In fact, they already have a van, but it's a fairly small one and wouldn't seat three people very comfortably for an extended drive. The drive would of course be from east of Finland to the west; a ferry across to Sweden; through Sweden and into Denmark. I have no idea what this would cost and how long it would take, but surely it's cheaper than a moving company?

I doubt my parents are up for it, though.

*

I came across this post on today's blog-trek, and since it's about language and foreignity*, of course I'm intrigued.

I tend to english-ise foreign words when I use them in an English sentence because it makes for a more fluent sentence, and because there's usually no point in throwing [english-speaking] people completely off whatever it is I'm talking about.

For the same reason I say I'm from "a town in Eastern Finland" rather than from Lappeenranta [lahp-peehn-rrahn-tah], in Finland. Some people ask the follow-up question, but, let's face it, they get no wiser from the answer.

Whether or not I actually have any significant intelligence, I'm aware that it's possible I appear marginally less intelligent for not "knowing" how to pronounce "mexico" or, I don't know, rendezvous.

Wait a minute. How do you pronounce rendezvous in English? I think I use the French pronunciation**. Damn. That's my post gone all to hell.

Funnily enough, I find it very offensive for myself when I Finnish-ise English words in a Finnish sentence (note: not offensive when other people do it) - but sometimes it's simply necessary because the two languages are so wide apart in pronunciation.

On another note, again contradicting myself, I used to answer the phone at work in Scotland with my full name, fast, and in Finnish. It sounds something like "lahuhrahdohfolah". But I just did that out of spite.


*I also make words up on a regular basis

**people who actually know how to speak French tend to fall over in giggles at my attempts to actually pronounce French.

Testy goodness

Apparently, I'm right-brained. I'm pretty relieved about that, actually.

And, for the record:

Some people think of you as messier than others. It's not that you're disorganized, it's just that you might use different systems to organize (by theme, by subject, by color). Straight alphabetization and rigidly ordered folders are not typical of right-brained behavior.

It's not me, it's my brain!!

It's all about me // Friday 5

One for the navel gazers. Five times you've looked in the mirror and thought 'who the bloody hell are you?' [from Rob]

1. Monday,
2. Tuesday,
3. Wednesday,
4. Thursday,
5. Friday.

Haha. Seriously though, I go through regular periods of 'self-questing', of which I'm secretly ashamed of because if I don't know who I am, I feel it means I'm no one all that special. And I mean that in a "get your fat feet back on the ground, you dumb cow" kind of way. Anyway, aside from the first answer, which reveals the time I didn't recognise my own picture, I'm instead exploring the four times I have felt like myself.
Should you feel this is unfair, feel free to refer to the answers provide above.

1. Last week I was looking at some old (pre-expatriate) photos of myself (among other things) and it struck to me how I really had no idea who that person was, who I've become since and how the hell I ended up there. The face in those pictures was of a complete stranger. It was a kind of a scary and a very lonely half an hour. I was going to make a longer entry about lost identities, et cetera, but I figured that's too much navel-gazing for an entire post. This closes that trail of though rather nicely.

2. After my last summer holiday, when for a blessed few days I felt like the old me again, which led me to wonder how it's possible I keep losing sight of that person. She is much more likeable than this old personality, after all. In fact, this happens on any extended leave from the Company - a pattern I've recognised a long time ago - so inevitably, when I'm back to work again I start turning into a stranger.

3. When I moved from Scotland to Denmark, the refreshing change of scenery also refreshed me. The effect: as if I was on a holiday. For a while.

4. When I moved from Finland to Scotland. As above.

5. Oops. Generalised answers ate my self-enlightened experiences. The fifth answer, therefore, is: In summer 2005. I will quit my job and have at least two months just for myself. It will be so goooooood.

Other Friday Fivers are located here.

Talk is cheap?

Tomorrow marks full four weeks since the last time I heard from Moogie (back in States now). I hope there's a good reason for the prolonged silence.

Non-alcoholic, but highly intoxicating

How to make a laura

Ingredients: 5 parts success 5 parts brilliance 3 parts instinct

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add curiosity to taste! Do not overindulge!

How to make a murklins

Ingredients: 3 parts mercy 5 parts brilliance 1 part empathy

Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of emotion

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

Two months later...

Wow. The artist's block finally lifted during Sunday and yesterday and my muse - the fickle wench! - seems to have returned. I proceeded to finally finish up* a painting I started a long time ago (yet to be properly photographed and documented); had a go at making a properly coloured tattoo design; spent the beginning of the evening literally unable to sleep for the fresh ideas pumping into my head (had to keep sitting up, putting the light on and making quick sketches of my ideas); and in the early morning hours dreamt a new design for Valkyria's kitchen, which I had to draw as soon as I woke up. Not much sleep last night, but it's worth it.

Please, o muse, stick around this time!!

*Loosely speaking. The chances are I will be making minor changes and additions for as long as the painting either gets filed away or hung up on the wall

Tuesday's Two Things:

Vignettes in an elevator: The Elevator Blog, courtesy of Jules (and assorted company).

Also: - a tattoo design (#1) for my sister's au pair.