Japunzel

Three posts in a week, that's like a marathon!

But I just had to share this link with you. A guy from my project group in school sent in all our final games to a rather famous game reviewer. The guy known as Total Biscuit, or Cynical Brit, reviewed our real time strategy game, Roots of Amazi, together with many other, more famous games.

He was mighty impressed that we were only 11 students behind it, and we only spent 10 weeks on it (and to be picky it was half speed!). He sees right through all our errors but he isn't cheap with compliments at all..!

Watch his opinions here below!

My dear readers, you're multiplying in an alarming rate. Allow me to show you how I celebrate!

I also bought two awesome christmas tree decorations in the shape of my second favourite animals (felines being nr 1!)...

I am so tired of the season. The energy in my body drained like the chlorophyll in the trees.

To cheer myself and you all up (and thank you for still coming back here even when I don't write for a while), I bring you light, in photos today.

Plenty of Rome photos, that is. I took them, except those of me, my mom took those.

River Tiber. And plane trees. I love plane trees.

I am so not ready for this... Have barely packed yet.. But I'm going to Rome tomorrow morning! Just emptied my camera so I'll bring back many pictures.. Btw, doing really good on finishing that list! I'll tell you more next time!

A short one today.

Appearantly Sweden won over Holland in football and we are now ready for european championship. I estimate that about 5 people saw that coming, the christian trinity included. I only thought of this because of today's headline. That's how I blog. I decide loosely what I wanna write about, and usually settle a title. Then I start writing about it and usually end up very far from it.
Like now! Maybe this will still be short, maybe not, oh the suspension is killing me!

So. I have goals now, and why keep them on some green postit on my door when I could just tell the world by writing here.

• Draw more. Maybe do more online drawing contests like those at ConceptArts forums. And I need to finish more drawings! Many of them are abandoned after some time.
• Create a virtual scetchbook on said ConceptArt website. For my own sake, to see how I develop.
• Read more! I just joined GoodReads.com and it's really good when you read alot and you cant remember what you thought of a certain book. You can also get recommendations and share book reviews with friends and so on. Add me, my username there is Luni. I challanged myself there to read 10 books in 2011 (with only 2 months left it may seem optimistic but I have already read a few books during the summer, and I read fast. But this requires that I...)
• Finish reading The Silmarillion! The book is one of the hardest books I've ever read. Reading Thousand and one nights at the age of 9 was nothing compared to this. Three names for all the characters. Three names for all important trees and hills and mountains and... I'm bad with names. I'm at page 166 out of 332 though, so it is not hopeless. I will not fail! Now that I think about it, I remember refusing to read The Hobbit as a 9-year old. It was a graphic novel and had an ugly cover.
• Make an enitirely new website for my artsy stuff, to be used as both portfolio and gallery. Much help needed for this one, but I'm sure someone'll help.
• Save money. This I am good at. In all games with resources I do quite well. I loooove Monopoly! My only expenses at the moment are food, rent and bus card. I got a huge heap of clothes from my mom and my sister, and I already had so much clothes that I sorted out many of mine, to sell or charity. If anyone reading this wants cheap but nice (women's) clothes and wants to have a look, let me know. Got two full bags of everything. So...
• Get rid of clothes I don't use. Sort more clothes!
• Finish my friend's logo. I did a logo for another friend recently with good results. Curious how this one will turn out.
• Mentally prepare for a weekend in Rome! What do I do? What do I wear?

If you read all this I reward you with someone else's finished goal, in post its. (Did you see how nicely I just concluded this post by connecting the end to the beginning? I should write novels.)

So today we're going back in time and space, to my visit in Germany.
To not have to upload a million pics, I made a collage of some of the important events!

Click to enlarge it!

I'm so happy I could burst!
After 1,5 years in my tiny apartment, I finally came around to get curtains and Internet. Guess which one makes me excited? I feel like I'm ten again. :D

So I just wanted to spread some love here. With pretty pics!

I took this summer 2008, on an island called Öland. Silly name indeed.

Autumn in Brussels, same year. My sister is going there this weekend.

Winter in Brussels, same year.

 

You'll see and hear more from me now, with all this internet!! Wahh <3

PS 1. These images seemed fitting now with the change of season, and with my sister moving to Brussels. I did take all of them myself.

 

PS 2. Can you tell I like plants?

I continued the post-it war here in the harbour, and I put up the biggest character I've seen around. Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to blog about it!

From Bubble Bobble, a game that me and my sister played for hours when we were tiny.

 

I ran out of white ones, so I had to work around that on his belly ;P And speaking of my sister, chances are she will move down to Brussels ..to become an au pair. MadameBruxelles and history repeats itself.

 

I'm happy about this though, I missed the city and this would give me a very good reason to go back. She would live in my favourite part of the town too: Ixelles/Elsene (depending on if you speak french or flemish, seems like the country still wanna divide itself in two).

 

Today's song:

Teddybears feat. Wiley - Why you wanna look at me like that

There is a post-it war going on here in the harbour in Malmö... Rules are simple: game characters - in post-its.

I had to snap some pics of the rather peaceful war.

I know Bart Simpsons isn't really a game character.. But I included him anyway.

 

These are all taken in the harbour here in malmö, around the office buildings in Dockan. And I'm particularly fond of that whoever made Pacman (middle) decided it was better to not let the boss know, and covered it up from the inside, but keeps it visible from outside the building ;D

The post-it war started in Paris but quickly escalated. And if you thought these swedish office workers took some time from their work to do these cute window characters, then check out what Ubisoft in Montréal did:

This might be a surprise for some people, because I didn't have time to update my blog the past week...

But I'm in Germany! Villingen, Schwarzwald, to be precise! This is really my favourite part of Germany (and I'd like to add that I really like Germany overall).
It is soooo warm and humid here. Like a rainforest. And mountains! Hah, I'll never get tired of mountains, coming from flat little Malmö.

So I booked the tickets quite randomly earlier this week, and what am I doing here? Visiting one of my old brothers. We made peace again and it feels better than ever (however right now I'm annoyed at him for sleeping for so long!).

Yesterday he picked me up in Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (That's german for main train station), and we decided to make the most out of the town. We walked  around alot and he showed me cool stores (that unfortunately were closed, it was after 8 in the evening) and nice places.

There was a wine festival in town and for some reason it looked ridiculous when all the hiphop teenagers (drinking here is legal when you're 15) were carrying fancy wine glasses in the subway.
We ended up eating at Sausalitos, they didn't have much vegetarian stuff, so I had potatoes wedges with sourcream and salsa. It was good tho. The main reason we went there was their cocktails! They always have some kind of deal on drinks.
We missed Happy hour but were in time for "Gimme 5!" which was 5 cocktails, and one drink without alcohol, for 29 euros. We had Mai Tai, Tequila sunrise, Ladykiller and many more. They weren't that good, but they were ok. And in every drink you get a bbq stick with a marshmallow and a candy cherry! I have no idea why, but I loved it.

We looked up the trains to Villingen, but it seemed they stopped going at 21, so we were screwed. We went to the station anyway to make sure. True enough. I changed my shoes and we took out the stuff I locked in when I arrived at the station. We decided to party all night and take the first train home instead. We looked for decent bars but they were all so hip (and neither me or my brother were dressed up), so we ended up at Sausalitos again.. The same waitress greeted us and this time we were in time for "Grand finale", meaning huge drink for the price of a normal size. I took a mojito and it was one of the best I ever had. But I was geting really tired after all new impressions and when I almost finished my drink I almost fell asleep sitting...

So at 03.30 or so we decided to go back to the trainstation, and maybe sleep there. Well there we found a "hot spot", a warm room with benches and free wifi. I actually slept quite well and at 6 I woke up and we found our train. 2 hours, one train shift in Rottweil, and some sleep later we were finally in the right place.

I must say that Villingen is adorable! It has a city wall that's probably ancient, and tiny cute houses in cute little streets. After the hotel breakfast (we were just in time for it!) I showered and went to bed finally at around noon.
Tonight we're gonna party here in Villingen!

I'll update with pictures, like, maybe tomorrow!



PS. No, I would never listen to that last song if I wasn't really, really, tired and having one sweet drink after another.

Since my post the other day I followed a tutorial from Mark Brooks and learned more about his workflow. He used a slightly different method when sketching his drawing, but that didn't matter, I wanted to learn how to color nicely on the computer.
He prints his inked drawing and do the shadows with grey markers in warm and cold shades. I did my drawing on a paper to begin with, so I continued shading on paper, before taking a photo of it (I don't have a scanner). Then I transferred the image to the computer and put it in GIMP (free image editing program).
Once that's done, I followed his steps precisely. The results are below. It's just a 10 min sketch so don't judge me too hard on the anatomy..

I've been drawing like crazy lately. Working again (or rather, doing internship) in a creative environment gets me going and the past few days I've been really inspired by american comic artists. The monstrous muscles, the mean expressions and poses always strike me. Artist such as Mark Brooks, who in this picture combines two good things (art nouveau and comics) are a joy to watch. I've combined the two things in my head before and I've been working on a nice little thing I hope to be able to show you soon. Soon in this case means within a month. Got some other priorities first.
The only thing I don't like about american comic style is that all the women (bad or good) look so mean! Their eyebrows and eyes are always threatening, like a massive defence mechanism or something. If I had more time I'd make a collage, but this is a lunch-blogpost :)

But there is one thing I want to show you, and that is this video. It is a remix of sounds and songs from the old Disney movie Alice in Wonderland. The guy behind it made several similar remixes but this one is pure magic. It's a bit old by now, but I can't get over it.
Such a dreamy song. At the creator Pogo's website you can download it for free, along with many of the other remixes.

 

I am still far from done with the USA posts, they will keep coming, and I got loads of sweet photos to show. I'm slow to update that since I currently find myself without internet at home. And all pictures are on my laptop at home. In due time, my friends.

Hopefully I will upload some drawings soon. They are on my flashdrive at home, where they do no good.
And with that vague promise I go for my actual lunch, sausages cut as coins, in spicy sauce with pasta. Vegetarian sausages, that is. ;)

 

Today's songs:

Chemical Brothers - Swoon
Amadou & Mariam - La Réalité

PS. I'm considering starting to post the songs I recommend as youtube videos, like the Alice one. Opinions? Object now, or forever hold your silence (heh, I have plenty of readers but hardly anyone ever comments. I can do whatever I want this way :D).

I know I'm bad at updating ^_^

Sooo here is an old post I wrote about the trip to Santa Cruz! I updated it alot though.

So last night turned out to NOT be my last night in the States.

I arrived this morning at San Francisco Airport with a cup of delicious jasmine tea, a sandwich and two heavy bags. I knew that I had forgotten a pair of shoes and my sunglasses, but nothing vital.

At first I was a little confused about all the lines, but made it to the staffed machines. I tried at first but as I suspected it said it couldnt find a route for "C. Anjou". C is for my middlename, that happens to be the first name on the passport. I tried to get the attention of people working there and realised that there was only one woman patrolling 30 machines and 100 confused passengers. No one had time for my questions and I was abruptly moved to the line that was called "Additional Services".
This made me relieved, that was the line that helped me in Chicago. I started talking to the woman in front of me, and the couple behind me in the line. The woman in front had moved four meters in 20 minutes. The line was approx 12 meter, and time was of the essence. After 25 minutes or so things were getting serious, and the fact that the line was an additional 10 meters that I hadn't noticed yet didn't help.

When my newfound allies in the line were guarding my bags I ran off to seize the few people that worked there and tried to tell them about the situation, all of them chased me off with a "You'll have to speak to a United agent".
But there weren't any. Not until it was too late to check in did I get service from the people behind the deskes. It was a very rude man who told me immediatly that the only thing he could do was to get me to a later plane to Washington (which I hoped for) and then I'd have to get a hotel there and wait to get the same flight to Denmark, but a day later.
I was very upset and the man refused to help me further because there were people almost missing their planes (like me, 30 mins earlier...). I stood beside the desk as he helped a man and the couple behind me from the line. Afterwards he told me "I'm gonna move you. You can't stand her and cry all day." And I was told to follow, which I did. He took me to Premier Access, the same kind of line as the earlier but for the people in first class and business class. And only 3 people in line. A guy who looked a bit like Morgan Freeman asked why we were in line, and I tried to explain the situation.
"They moved me here because he said you have more time here." I probably looked sad and lost, which I was.
"Who said that?!"
"An asian-looking man. He said I couldn't stand there and cry all day."
He looked upset, turned away, asked the people that already ended up behind me in line of their reasons.
"Uhm, could I get my passport back", I asked Morgan Freeman, who was actually called Richard.
"No, you're coming with me." I was getting nervous.
He took me to a desk, and started looking at the flight I missed. He made some calls, and spoke reassuring to me without ever losing his professionalism.
The first thing he said was:
"You're from Sweden?"
"Uh-huh."
"Are people this rude in Sweden?"
"No." I shook my head slowly and looked even more miserable.
"No. This is America. People are very rude here. But we're gonna fix this."
I said that I'd rather go to Washington the day after, and stay the night in San Francisco, instead of Washington.
He said alright, and started looking up tickets. Things were troublesome and he said "Imma call the wizard. If anyone can help us, it's the wizard."
I just nodded encouragingly.
After many calls and mumbling and asking other staff for stuff, he printed me two initieries and asked if I could go back to my relatives. I got to borrow his phone and tried to call the few numbers I had. No replies.
I told Richard that if I could get wifi I could email my way out of the airport. He said the wifi was free, so I sat down and started facebooking my cousin, chatting with my sister and emailing my aunt (all at the same time). Just tried all ways to communicate my situation to see if someone could get me out of there. Soon enough my aunt replied and told me her husband would pick me up if I called and confirmed. Richard lended me his phone again, I called and was ready to go.
I gave all my thanks to Richard, and he replied without losing his professionalism.
Not much later I was brought back to my aunt's place. I rested a little, I was finished after all the suspension. It was still early. Gonna eat soon, and I dont dare to unpack my big bag. Gonna stay in these clothes and just go tomorrow, but even earlier, and I'm gonna check in tonight so I can just drop my luggage at the airport and then straight to security.
Phew. This is a day in limbo. Between staying and going, between here and there. Awake and sleep.

This is my final night in the states.

I wrote many drafts for posts the last couple of days, but none was completed. So much has happened and right now I feel empty, not able to tell the fantastic stories.

Let me just assure you that I am quite alright and that I will miss alot of people here.
You will be able to read long posts and see pictures when I'm home.

Now I'm just gonna fall asleep with the bittetsweet feeling left, from having watched a classic: Batman - Mask of the Phantasm. It has everything you need. A badass redhead, the Joker and fantastic music.

Goodnight!

(4 hours and 30min until I gotta get up again)

After we got back to Pacifica we had just enough time to catch some sun on the sundeck.

We also had some honeysuckle that my aunt's husband found.


After lunch we continued to Coit tower. The way there consisted of wooden stairs in a jungle. We heard more parrots but couldn't see them.
The tower was crowded, and I had been at the top before, on my first visit when I was 12. So we just looked at the murals on the first floor and then went out to enjoy the view from Pioneer Park just outside.


From there we took even more stairs down hill, and eventually reached Embarcadero, which maybe would be the Sunset Boulevard of SF.

I'll continue this post when I'm back from Santa Cruz, tomorrow night. We're going in a couple of hours and I need to get dressed and eat.