First thing I did after waking up the day after the last entry was check my mail to make sure I didn't dream the admittance message, or hallucinate it or accidentally turn it down instead of accepting or something else incredibly daft. Hah, well... I get a bit paranoid sometimes, is all.

( WTF That Was All About Anyway: )

-----

( Tangent: In which the Great Adulteress has been with all the kings )

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Uh, well. I was just going to write something about the school I got into, and how I'm happy and nervous and happy about it. (And nervous.) Seems it got quite long and rambly and pseudo-philosophical and a little bit silly NOT THE LEAST BIT SILLY, y'alls, giant platypi are SRS BSNS. >:|

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In almost completely unrelated news, pirate_moo, being the awesome that she is ♥, sent me a package wot arrived yesterday. Containing a comb. A fine-toothed steel comb. Hah. Ahaha. Mwa-hahahahaha.

Ahem. Yes.

Oh hey. Looks like admissions for schools have been sent out.

¬_¬

*fret*

o_o

:S

... o_o

:D ?

O_o

o_O

:D

...

Oh gods oh gods oh gods.

Last few days have been quite lovely, actually. Warm, but windy, and the strait is just a few hundred metres away when the heat becomes too sticky. Staying away from computer quite a bit and leaving it turned off when I remember to. Ventilation up here could be a bit better, yes it could.

Mm, I may have mentioned in passing taking a short evening class to try out making stained glass. ( Here are the two little things I made there. )


I hunger. I shall go eat the whole world now. Brb.

Rushed post, mostly copypasted from DeviantArt, as I'm goin a-boating in a moment.



( MORTUI NON MORDANT )



( Yes, there be pictures of teh b0xx0rz too )

Also, there's a sculpted portrait that may or may not be connected to the artifacts above.

However, this is as much of the painted version that I am willing to show right now. I really should get around to touching him up one of these days... ( anyway, here be a couple of pictures of the bust before painting. )

Well, enough of this frippery. Off to sea, brb

( Magnus went and bought a boat )

Him and l'Alex also have an increasing number of cats living with them. ( The, uh, stepcats? No... Kitties-in-law? Felinephews? whatever; many pictures of; from Hell's heart I picspam at thee: )

( Well, other than that... )

Vårdagjämning! Not completely compact darkness quite all the time! Snow... well, still covering everything in its particular rage-inducing way. Still wish to migrate. Ah well. Nnyway, went to the first meeting of a short Tiffany glass evening class last Wednesday. May be fun and useful even if I can't afford doing anything with it off-class at this point (much like with everything else). Och våffeldag snart, innit?

Listening to v. large amounts of HUMANWINE lately. Damn, they're good. Unf unf. Listen to this song, Epoch, and tell me if it's not awesome. Or if it is. Or don't, but I'm curious about what makes people enjoy some musics and not others. So. If you feel so inclined. :D


Should draw up some easyish pattern 'ere next Wednesday. And do bunches and loads of other stuff. Yeesh. Not let myself get too bothered by how the intarwebs screams like an abattoir full of retarded children, to misquote some heroic psychopath. (Being overly harsh, of course. Much of it still quite interesting and entertaining. Is sad how it becomes this mass of high-pitched unintelligible gibbering simply because of the sheer mass of information.)

Speaking of abattoirs and heroic psychopaths etc, Watchmen was fscking awesome. But was it more awesome than this? Discuss.

Hurm.


The next time you leave out a bunch of mushrooms in your kitchen, momentarily turning away to grab a knife for chopping them up, this will jump out of your sink, stomp on all the mushrooms, hit its head against your ceiling, knocking a hole in it, and then be on its merry way through said hole, leaving behind not even one of the invaluable coins hidden in the secret compartment behind the ceiling boards. Not that you ever even knew they were there. You may not even have time to turn around to see it before it is gone.

Also, would you hire this man to keep your local nuclear power plant safe?



And suddenly, the ad takes on a certain tone of overexcited desperation.

( Four other pictures, which do absolutely nothing to add any semblance of coherence to this post )

Nah nah nah nah, nothing to see here. Here, have some cake. Looks delicious, yeah? Don't be shy, just grab a knife and dig in.

just way too sleepy a lot of the time. Winter is evil and must be destroyed. With flame throwers. Yes.

In related news, if I had 5000 kronor to spare... *cri* I mean, unless it goes up a lot in the last minute, that's pretty dirt cheap. Buggrit.

Hm, I was under the impression that Twitter deleted all entries after they'd gotten to a certain age... but now all of mine seem to be back, right from the beginning. So they were actually only hiding them all this time? Tch, sneaky.

Yeah, well. Need coffee now, otherwise I'll just go back to bed again. Seeing how it's still broken and beating up my spine quite a bit every time I sleep, that would just be silly.

(Fscking winter.)

I broke my bed right after coming back from the trip, btw. Two boards snapped in half, and there's a big pit in the middle of the bed. How the hell did I manage that?

Maybe it just wanted to match the computer.

( Revel and make merry, my little eggheads, while you have the chance )

Reset!

Reboot!

Rethink!

Re-purpose!

Re-evaluate!

Whatever you're celebrating, have a good one. You're not done, and you're not dead, and you're not powerless, and there's no such thing as the inevitable. Try to convince me otherwise.

I think I have a slight tan. Of course, with my natural colour scale, that is merely the difference between 'very pale' and 'oh my god, is that thing even alive?'.

Sal = ♥. It had sun and stuff. There used to be sun up here, several months ago, right? I vaguely remember... It was also very sandy. Many people were very enthusiastic about Henrik Larsson. I don't know, I think he was more worth being enthusiastic about in 1994, when he had hair.

I miss the place already. It was lovely, and one week is a very short time. 'Specially since my brain was a bit broken for the first two days. I guess my usual near-inability to sleep before traveling is partly responsible, but I'd also wager that the light must play a part. Going from this mid-winter darkness to all that light = instant and very powerful spring feelings. Being extremely tired and simultaneously all giddy and slightly speeded is interesting.

I suppose some people, like Stefan f'rinstance, are better at just going somewhere, partying for a week and then being kinda done with the place, but... I don't know, I take a few days to adjust to being there in the first place, and then get attached and want to stay. Was secretly (well, maybe not that secretly) hoping for some kind of mechanical problem, or maybe some weather issues, to keep the plane from taking us home for a few days. Ah, well...

'M a bit sick now [--persistent cough--] but that didn't start until I was home again, so I don't care much.

Traveling again... I suddenly remember how I used to really want to study or work abroad, and I never really stopped wanting that, did I? It just was pushed to the side by other things. Good things, but nothing to cancel out the wanderlust. But... well. There it is, once again.

Writing more about the trip later, after I've unloaded my camera and regained a bit more brainpower and things like that. Brother seems to have a birthday happening today, so I'm guessing I'll be hanging out with family for the rest of the day.

Coffee now kthx.

Oh, yeah, for whom it may concern...

Public Service Announcement

Probably going to change my main e-mail address, if things work out. Still going to forward mail from the old one and check it once in a while, but I've registered another one to take over. The old one is, well, many years old, based on an alias I've not used for years, easily misspelled, and not something I feel like I can give to potential employers or anyone else I want to take me seriously. (I don't want to write the address here what with spam-bots and other Things of Evil prowling around, but it's the name of a certain famous Russian machine gun, plus the number 665 (as in the Wannabeast, or maybe the Neighbour of the Beast). It seemed like a good idea at the time, okay?)

Planning to use the new one as my Messenger address too, for... well, whenever I get back to using the Messenger. I do plan to, eventually.

(Oh, and if anyone here doesn't have my address already, and feels like having it for IM chatter or whatever other reason, feel free to add me, but do keep in mind that I am periodically très bad at replying to things and logging in, and also my computer is still wrong in the head. Anyway, the address is my current LJ name at live dot se.)

This little game/something is interesting and vaguely terrifying. D:

Two days. *gibber*

Never been very good at pre-travel. Once I'm off, it's a whole different story, but waiting to leave... *gibber*. Hm -- I actually don't think I've been abroad since Tenerife, and that was five years ago (for the parental unit's 25th anniversary, where this is their 30th one). Been far too long.

Where we're going:



( What we're leaving: )

We be back a few days after Christmas. I have to get to town. Leave another job application. I was supposed to purchase something too? Socks, I think, but wasn't there something else? Well, what else could you need? I need... *blank look*... coffee. Yez.

*gibber*

Violin-lin-lin, Violin-lin-lin, Violin-lin-lin, Ooohhh.

Yes. Anyway,

Made ( a skirt print for the maternal unit. )

Hn. To try to sleep or to stay awake overly long and get to town before sleepytime? Tricky. The Magic 8-Ball says 'WTF are you smoking; you ain't got a Magic 8-Ball.' Interesting. Is it a code of somesort..?

Argh less than a week until we leave for Cap Verde how did it become so soon already argh. *sails the flailship down the river Anticipation*

Oh, my lens tried to eat my eyeball again, it seems. And it's my last pair, and I can't afford a checkup and a new set, much less Lasik or something sensible like that. Probably repeating myself, but -- if someone was looking for free guinea pigs for functional and painless cybernetic eyes, I would be first in line for picking these old ones out of my skull. Anyone with half a brain can see that I am much better suited to be a semi-machine, anyway. Would look more like myself if there were less of these soft, warm, fallible things; more hard edges and odd angles.


'S funny... I was so unhappy when those Polish people moved into my dorm last spring, because I couldn't find a way to communicate with them, and if you can't communicate, how can you relax around anyone? But Thursday 'til Monday, we had a Russian couple, Zhenya and Inna, staying here (trade union exchange between Piteå and Kandalaksha thingy) -- and I'm genuinely glad to have met them, and it hasn't been troublesome at all¹. Have met Zhenya before, but not Inna. They seem like really nice people, even if I've hardly been able to talk to them at all. On the dinner the last day, there was a reasonably competent interpreter present, but other than that, much of the communication has consisted of '*noun* Er, er... *leafing through Swedish-Russian dictionary* Er -- *verb* -- *gesticulate*', somehow the people involved in this exchange have made themselves able to not only understand each other, but to forge warm friendships in this way. I don't know that I'll learn the skill of largely non-verbal communication, but it is quite inspiring on some level to see it happen.

I've learned a few words in Russian over these few days, though. ('M not going to try transcribe it correctly, though. Not even sure how you do cyrillic wigglies.) For one thing, 'brother' in Russian is 'brat'. (At this point, everyone with male siblings will nod in sage acknowledgment².) Another new vocable would be the one pronounced roughly as 'chutchut', which means something like 'a little'. This one is important. Try to have dinner with Russians without it... As far as I could gather, you're not really supposed to drink unless someone has made a toast for one thing or another. When they do make a toast, though, you're rather expected to empty your Vodka glass in one gulp. (They do make some leeway for us sissy wine-sippers, but some of us like to get out with our pride at least half intact.) And they do try to make sure the glass isn't left empty at any time. If you haven't learned this word... well, they're pretty good at thinking of things to toast to. :P Quite sweet speeches a lot of the time, too.

Revelation: Vodka goes down a lot easier if it a) tastes of cranberry and b) you feel like you have something to prove.


My computer is clearly not feeling well. Sooo slooow... Hoping it'll hold up for now. Couldn't really replace it at this point. *pats the screen soothingly*


A little meme which I stole from the woodburner:



...

pirate_moo, we have to start tinwhistling together so that we can stop it later. :/
Resolutions #1, 3 and 5 sounds like good ideas, anyway. Amputations: for the compassionate meat-eater.


( More meme: the 1930s hate me :| )


Also, meh. ¬_¬

¹ 'Course, I was informed well in advance and knew how long it would last. I can put my territorial issues on hold for a reasonable amount of time as long as I know it's limited, and have a vague idea of how long it'll be. The whole 'o hai there are people temporarily around that I can't really speak to, but I don't mind all that much because I have a good feeling around them' thing remains rather novel, though, and is pretty shiny.

² Hey, I like the fraternal units. They're great. But... *thinks back* *nods in sage acknowledgement* :P

Veggie sushi = OM NOM NOM NOM NOM. :9~

Piteå Musikhögskola (music... collage/university thingy?) has a very excellent Balkan music ensemble, and Krokodil is a very excellent café. Lovely atmosphere with mismatched furniture and chinaware, local artists exhibiting on the walls, lots of fairtraded goods, and the kind of music arrangements that generally don't cost anything unless you have some spare cash and feel like putting it into the Stetson hat they pass around for the artists. (Which I normally would, but, uh, my economy ain't exactly 'normal' right now. Erk.) So, good day with brutally catchy eastern-European rhytms. Yez.

It's quite pretty outside right now. [this written yesterday, before running off to listen to abovementioned music and doing other stuff. is much more grey and snowing now, at the time of posting. *flicker*flicker*] Not that I approve of the stupidness that is winter, but, as I have in the past, I shall concede that it does occasionally yield moments of aesthetic pleasure. I do feel that it really shouldn't be winter yet... less than three weeks until Cap Verde? That can’t be right... stupid timeflow. It's October, still time to try a few different ways to scrape together some more monies for the trip (more than absolutely nil, that is)... and then, time does a couple of those strobe-light flickers, and what the hell almost December? Where did that come from? :S *exasperated laughter* Good thing we're skipping Yule this year, at least. Otherwise, I should be slightly stressed by now. Well, more than the slightly that I already am, that is. :P

Idk, just too easy to keep doing something one way once you've started? I have come to the conclusion that not letting the Messenger run almost all the time in the background is a Very Good Thing – not just because it relieves some pressure off my poor overworked computer (although this certainly has been An Issue for some time), but also because it relieves the brain slightly. Just like when I stopped wearing a watch many years ago because I kept looking at it even if I didn't have a time to catch, and I instinctively feel that it just can't be healthy to always know the time, you really don't need to know who is online and available for speakorizing to at any given time¹; that's just daft. But – going as far as hardly logging in at all, except for the rare thirty-second login-check mail-logout – this seems to go a bit too far in the other direction. I mean, I do feel like chatting occasionally if not that often, and not having been online for a long time makes it more of a bother to go online. This loquaciousness don't ever seem to reach levels where the idea of getting pounced by several people that I haven't spoken to in a while all at once doesn't seem quite obnoxious. Moderation, moderation... shouldn't be so hard to find a middle way to this. But maybe one needs to try both extremes before settling down more comfortably somewhere in between. Doesn't seem like I've been gone for that long, anyway... *flicker*


Speaking of the flickering of time, I think I started this survey (yoinked from purplethings and pirate_moo) a few weeks ago, and then *flicker*flicker*. But now ( eet ees done. )


And while I am being a memesheep (baah.), there's that 'Soundtrack Of Your Life' meme that has been around the place. You know, the regular rules for this kind of thing...

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.

Yeah, another version of that old thing. First time I saw it this time around, it was in someone's journal (sry, can't remember whose, long time ago), and all the answers I got seemed thoroughly uninspired, so I just erased it without posting. Then, after I'd almost forgotten about it, I spotted it again in some community and was moved to giving it another go, because if you can't trust your WinAmp to answer the questions about your life, who can you trust? Possibly it's just because my brain has chomped down a healthy dose of Narrativium this time, but... ( Yeah, I liked these answers a lot better, even if many of them still make no sense at all. )


Well. I think my sewing machine is glaring at me from downstairs -- should try to finish the stuff I'm using it for right now, before the Russians arrive and it'll be in the way -- and also I need coffee and some vaguely breakfast shaped things. Om nom etc.

¹ I think this was one among several reasons I became disenchanted with Trillian as an IM agent and went back to Messenger... I got the feeling that it was trying to subtly indicate if people were online but showing as offline, which rather pissed me off and made me go 'Oh STFU you little tattletongue fuck of a program, I don't want to know. Let people have their bloody privacy already. >_< ' 'Course, privacy and the lack thereof is something of a hot-button issue with me, and that includes social relations on the Intertubes.

² Yeah, that's a pretty obnoxious answer. Well spotted, young Padawan.

( I made a Rorschach! )


Back to the sewing machine we go...

Making a midnight snack, I managed to slice a neat round piece of skin from my index finger. Didn't look deep, but damned if it wasn't at least ten, maybe closer to fifteen minutes until it stopped bleeding quite so enthusiastically. Plenty enough to make blood sacrifice to both the long vest I've been working on and the masks I'm planning to do stuff to¹. And then, when I thought it was about done, it was non-gushy for a little while, and then went 'lol, j/k :D' and bled right through the band-aid. It did this twice. I felt oddly proud. Look at that little injury go!


Covet! Covet covet. I mean. Dude. That's practically my dream home. Along with the Neverwas Haul, the airship, and the lovely sound-proof apartment with doors opening to several cities around the world, of course.

Um. It's my birthday pretty soon? *looks innocently deviously hopeful*


I see that for the time being, we do not have LiveJournals, but rather UndeadJournals. Obviously, I cannot object to the principle of this (*puts on appropriate music, just for emphasis*), but I rather disapprove of Hallowe'en being this very Friday. Hallowe'en in general is good, of course, but... not now. Wait until I have a bit more time, and a bit of money for booze at least. Eh. Pondering if I could throw a birthday party with a dress code somewhat later (I think last year's Hallowe'en parties ended up on the 4th and 9th of November, or something like that, so...), but I don't know if anyone would be up for it, or if it would be practically doable in terms of location and whatever. But. I do so enjoy this holiday on principle; be a shame to miss it this year. 'M always of the opinion that people just don't throw enough fancy parties all year round (and man, I wish the big conventions they have in the States weren't all so far away), but it might be easier to convince people of the goodness of the idea when there's a holiday for it.


ETA: Oh yeah, and daylight saving time = really really stupid, y/n? I mean, sure, people get another hour of sleep for one night. And then the sun, which was already setting at slightly past four pm, starts setting at slightly past three. Yeah, really clever one, that. Daylight saving? WTF. STUPID.
[/rant]


¹ Yes, my stand-offish skepticism feels perfectly comfortable bunking with my magical thinking, thank you very much. They like to take long walks on the beach of Lake Subconscious, pressing dead neurons for late night scrapbooking sessions, and have long and meaningful discussions about the nature of reality, which tend to ebb out after a while with them both just gazing and smiling at each other, neither one having changed their position one inch, both secretly pleased about that. They're just friends, though. Really.