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Globbin.

Posted in News

Right. As my previous (very short) post during the downtime of efx2 stated, I'm now posting on tumblr instead. I know a lot of people fled to vox, but I didn't feel like looking at the Olsen twins every time I logged on, it was not customizable enough for my taste, and it timed out a lot, so I chose another place instead.

But now efx2 is back up. But it seems this place is about to change anyway, as the domain name expires and can't be renewed, or somesuch? So, I suppose there's not much point in posting here until some sort of final resolution has been reached, so I shall continue with Tumblr.

I'll be attempting to make a back-up of my entries too first, and of course I'll try to keep up with this place. I'm a little confused now about who blogs where now that efx2 is back, but I suppose i can figure that out on my own. :)

Well, that's about it for now.
In case I forgot to tell anyone important, I'm moving in with my foreign love in the beginning of August, so if I go a bit MIA (as usual.. again..) it's just the curse of real life.

04:26 - 23.7.2008 - comments {2} - post comment

Chestnuts and alien hand syndrome

Posted in News

Whew. I just spent way too long doing things I wasn't supposed to be doing - namely designing a layout for my friend Lil, who just started blogging here!

Unfortunately, it's still a little incomplete, but considering it's 1:30 am and I was supposed to be asleep two hours ago, that's ok for now! I hope she can forgive me.. :) Her new blog has been christened the "Alien Hand Syndrome."

Alien Hand Syndrome: The feeling that one's hand is possessed by a force outside of ones control.


Anyway, why don't you head on over and give her a read? She's a fellow gamer-geek-roleplaying-girl who is into arts and crafts! Her blog entries so far have been insightful. I look forward to seeing what happens next!

01:32 - 13.6.2008 - comments {7} - post comment

Clooney in Fantastic Mr. Fox stopmotion film

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The Dahly Telegraph has just informed me that a new stopmotion film based on a Roald Dahl book has just been started.


Can you see the resemblance? Thank goodness it's stop motion.

Fantastic news! Filming has just this minute started (well, almost!) on a new film based on FANTASTIC MR FOX. Directed by the very talented film-maker Wes Anderson, it will use stop-motion animation (the same kind of technique they used on WALLACE AND GROMIT) and should take about a year to make. Recently, a mole (or perhaps it was a rabbit or a badger?) visited the film set and reported back that it looked absolutely amazing… even the horrid farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean! And guess who’s playing Mr Fox? Only George Clooney, that’s who! If you can’t wait though, we’re afraid you’re going to have to keep on reading Roald Dahl’s book to pass the time until the film is released in late 2009! Until then, we’ll keep you posted…


George Clooney? Damn. I don't like that guy. But he's definitely cocky enough for the role. It's just I always pictured Mister Fox with an English accent, not an American one! This is going to be strange, but I can't miss it anyway. I hope they don't set the movie in the US.. It's so obviously based in an English countryside.

Apparently it's old news, as the first news I can find on it is from 2006, but George Clooney was not mentioned then yet.

New York Times lists Wes Anderson as the director as well as the screenplay writer together with Noah Baumbach.
Who are these people? I haven't a clue. Apparently Wes Anderson has worked with films such as "The Darjeeling Limited", "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou", "The Royal Tenenbaums, and "Rushmore". Sadly, I've seen none of them, but I remember the trailer for Steve Zissou looked fun.

The rest of the cast looks pretty interesting however: Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman.

11:00 - 3.6.2008 - comments {3} - post comment

Dear efx2.

Posted in News

Like some straggly moggy who left home for some mysterious reason, I'm back. Whether I was dumped in a sack into a river, kicked off on a highway, simply ran away searching for some sweet kitty-loving, we'll never know.

Perhaps I spent the past months getting fed by that neighbour you hate so much, or maybe I mothered a small batch of mewly little furballs.

I'm back now, pawing at your window, mwrowwring rudely, demanding to know who that sweet-little kitty-thing relaxing by your fireplace is and how you dare forget about me after I've been gone for so short a while.

I mean, it's only been almost five months! How dare you forget my existence and replace me with someone prettier and more charming?

Pah!

Ah well. It's not like there was much to tell about: only family death, family illnesses in various shapes and forms (the most interesting involving paralysis and mysterious tumors), a certain apartment building catching fire, meeting a celebrity, and me making a new company of my own.

Yes, that's right. I'm actually going to make a company and do freelance work as well as attempt to sell things I create. I'm rather anxious about it.

But now that I'm here, will you let me back in again? There are no guarantees I won't magically vanish again, leaving only shedded fur on your favorite pair of black trousers and stealing some food.

07:23 - 1.6.2008 - comments {5} - post comment

Troubles

Posted in News

WARNING! HAZARDOUSLY SCRAMBLED EMO POST!


First, I'm going to start with some positive news. The website is pretty much mostly done, so feel free to take a peek if you haven't already done so. I've figured out how to add a totally awesome flash thing that allows you to look at a sketchbook and turn the pages as though it were a real book. I'm really excited about it. Now I just have to finish it and upload it.. :)
Second of all, a friend and I are going to start trying to design our own cards, envelopes, etc etc with our artwork on it. It'll be for sale if all goes well. I'm really excited about it, but I wish I had more time to think about it.
Finally, I'm helping her with her own exhibition at work! It's really exciting to help an exhibition along that I'm genuinely fond of. (I like the artist even more than the art, of course. :) ) The excitement is contagious and most of the office is tingling with anticipation. It even made spamming 1400 people seem like not that bad a thing, although I spelled the artist's name wrong on about 1200 of the invitations :(

Yeah, this is going to be one of those generic emo blog posts. I apologize beforehand. If you don't want to hear excessive whining, you're best off skipping this one!

I suppose I'd better start off with the biggest problem: My grandfather is in the hospital. He's been there about a week now and he'll probably be there for several more weeks as well, assuming his health remains the way it is now. I'd like to be optimistic and say he is "stable", which he is. Unfortunately, he is also very ill. So despite his "stable" state, if it takes a dip down, it is immediately a severe and dangerous situation. :(

When we were following the ambulance at 140 km/h, my nose wouldn't stop crying. My eyes were fine, no blurry vision, but the damn nose was so distressed that I had to wipe it with windscreen-cleaning-tissues. The result was a rather smelly nose which remained moist from the fluid on the tissue, but at least it stopped dripping.
I snapped blurry photographs of the ambulance while my dad tried to keep up. He told me to tell any policeman who stopped us that my grandfather was dying in the ambulance in front of us and that I really didn't want to miss my final moments with him...
It was unfortunately not a great exaggeration, and at the time we really did think he was dying. He recovered at the hospital however. "Recovered", in this case, is a relative term. I mean to say that his heart rate went back to being very very low instead of insanely dangerously low.
The photographs are not very good. They show an ambulance with sirens and blinking lights on driving over wet, icy roads. The sky hangs low and threatening. Cards dodge to the side and we push on past through them. Strangely enough, they all seem to take us zipping past them attached to the tail of the ambulance in stride, some of them even seem to understand what is going on - that we're not some freeloading adrenalinaholics chasing the ambulance for fun.
Perhaps even more shocking is that one car refuses to make way for the ambulance. But we pass it anyway despite its astounding rudeness.

That was earlier in the week. My grandfather's lungs barely work. It's years of smoking. I know, it gets spammed a lot in today's society and I do feel sorry for the smokers who have to put up with it, but it is actually for a good reason:

OI! You smoker! Even if you don't get lung cancer, your lungs are going to give you a slow, phlegmy death if you're lucky enough to live that long!


I'm serious. You should see the poor old man. And ok, if not getting enough oxygen and having your lungs full of black mucus doesn't bother you, then the impact on his other problems is significant enough that it's really really really not worth him smoking anymore.
Of course, the first thing he swears he's going to do when he gets home is start smoking again. Sometimes he can be so stupid. My dad sees what has become of grandpa, but of course he keeps smoking too. (Yeah, I know you won't like me writing that, but tough shit!)

So then, on to trouble number 2, which is perhaps the least serious. I'm a little worried about meeting all my deadlines at work... But I think I can do it anyway.

Number three, I'm stressing out because of Eyal's exams. Tomorrow, he has a really big scary one... in .. just some hours, actually. I hope he doesn't read this and freak out.
Studying for these exams takes up almost all his time these days and I miss having someone to spill my worries to at my own convenience. But even from so far away with so much on his own dear heart and mind, he's been really supportive and concerned concerning grandpa's health.
It depresses me that grandpa is 0% interested in return. I guess he has problems of his own, and I guess it's selfish of me to wish that he would show a little more interest in the man I've chosen to hopefully spend my life with. Oh well.
I don't know when I'm going to see him again. He promises to come after the end of the month when he passes all his exams, but it's very frustrating to not know an exact date.

Four, drama drama drama! What's with the internal drama? I won't go into it here, but some people are so insanely selfish and illogical that I want to go give them a proper talking-to. Unfortunately, it's not my place to do so, and so I can't go punish the nutter.
(Again, my apologies. I know certain other people won't enjoy reading this, but I have to get it off my bloody chest. Live with it.)

11:18 - 13.1.2008 - comments {0} - post comment

Christmas update

Posted in News

Hello!

Happy Christmas to everyone.

It may be hard to believe, but I am not lying in a coma somewhere. I have in fact been active and running around, doing everything but blogging. Right now, I am trying to reinstate my online presence, and I am beginning the process by yet again doing my annual facelift and update of my own website, www.annmi.com ...

As of my writing this, there is still nothing really exciting to see there. I'm restructuring the thing and also creating my own templates and snippets in dreamweaver so that it will be easier for me to update.

I'm fairly excited about the design, and while I am aware that it is unfriendly for anyone using 800 x 600 resolution, I've made sure that all you people stuck with your puny 1024 x 700 screens will survive the experience. It should also look good with all browsers, with the exception of an old version of internet explorer, which will have a tiny little glitch. How annoying. But anyway, here are two little preview pictures:





As you can see, I'm going for a look that might be accused of being "cluttered" and too "image-based", but if an art gallery isn't allowed to look personalized and be image-heavy, then what is?

I've been printmaking, beading, and the usual sketching. I've been traveling, visiting art museums, ... The only things I haven't really done lately are writing, blogging, and knitting.

02:21 - 27.12.2007 - comments {0} - post comment

Helsinki BURNS! (photos n vid)

Posted in News

If every day I tried to leave work were this eventful, I would probably get home an hour late each day.

Today as I exited the building and walked towards the bus station, I could smell a distinct, vaguely familiar and yet completely bizarre scent in the air. It was something burning.

"What is this? Weed? Is someone smoking weed in the graveyard? Huh?" I sniff-sniffed, looking around, and saw no one smoking although there was this weird guy staring right at me. I carried on, shrugging, and yet the smell persisted.

After a little while of walking, there it was. Firetrucks in the distance, a policecar in front, and a much more dominant smoke smell. The policewoman directed the traffic away from the smoke hovering from up ahead.

I cursed as I tried to get my malevolent camera to work. After about five minutes of turning it on and off with an error constantly showing, I gave up and started to take the detour to the bus station, but a few meters in, it finally turned on properly and I started snapping away.







So here, for your viewing pleasure, Helsinki burrrrns. I also recorded a very shaky, poor video. The most exciting part is probably when the helicopter flies right overhead. Please admire our strong-looking policeman as he explains things to people.


(If the video's not working yet, give it a few mins, I just uploaded it.)

I have no idea what was burning, only where was burning.

Incidentally, here's a shot from my town when I got home. This time it only took me about 3 minutes to get the damn camera to turn on... The sky was so dark and the leaves were so bright.. :) It was a different kind of fire.

04:51 - 8.10.2007 - comments {13} - post comment

Feverish worries

Posted in News

I'be been bitten by the bug and I am coming down with oh
Something that can't be cured
There aint a doctor in this town who is more qualified than you
...
I am ready for the news so tell me straight
Hey doctor just what do you diagnose
There aint a surgeon like you any place in all the world
So now, shall I remove my clothes

Ah, how I love the silliness of this song. I confess, I have a slight secret shameful liking for this Kylie Minogoue song called "Fever".  But never fear, that is not the point of this post.

I do in fact have a fever. My head feels like it's doing cartwheels, my throat is swelling up rapidly and painfully (it started happening so fast I was afraid I had an allergic reaction to something random), my cheeks are red, I am even more scatterbrained than usual, and I feel the need to do  stuff and can't sit still. At least the strange helmet of a headache went away right about when the floor started diving towards me. :)

My grandpa is doing far worse. His feet are swollen, he is tired, so tired of life. I'm worried. What will happen? There's no one there to take care of him except for the nurse who visited him twice today. Are we going to lose him this time?

Don't really know why I'm writing this post - not looking for pity. I think I just needed to get it out into the open.

10:13 - 2.10.2007 - comments {4} - post comment




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