Guilty pleasures

So, only like three weeks left until we leave for Japan.

I can't wait to get out of this cigarette stinking house! Allthough Japan has cigarette stinking bars and live halls and I'll be very short of money :p

But before we go there's so much I have to do!

Not to mention the preperations for the trip itself, I have to finish Like Totally Teenage Lovers (there are about 16 pages left to draw, and I can't find my blue sharp pen), and I have to finish at least two more of the books I'm illustrating for.

The thing is, my writer doesn't actually know I'm going to Japan...

I've promised I'll finish the books by Christmas, and I'll do my best. If I manage to pull myself together it probably won't be a problem, it's just that it's ... kind of a boring job.

Also, considering I didn't do ANY work the last time I was in Japan I can imagine she won't be very pleased finding out I'm going again. So I feel I kind of have to show her something when I tell her...

I also have to finish sketches for several short comics, and I have a comission, but that one's not so urgent, luckily.

With all this I should have no time to play around, and still I managed to have a trip into rural Norway, AND get dangerously drunk this weekend (Let's talk about that in a different post. The country trip, not the drunkness), and I had time to make this:

It's So, one of the vocalists from Las Vegas, which I listen to far too much these days!
Now before you ask about the unicorn, I don't have a good explenation. Partly, the band, and especially So, and their music somehow makes me think of that game that everyone were so obsessed with, Robot Unicorn Attack. 
Anyway, this is done in water colours, on this paper that I found on sale in a shop. I really like this paper, it dries quick but not too quick, and it's not so rough you can see it on the scan. This scan is hardly edited at all!
And it's a very nice size, I can't paint water colours on a big sheet.



As if that wasn't enough, I've been doing a little side project these last two days. Figured I had to practice my Photoshop skills again.

I actually quite like it, all though I can't shake the feeling there is still soooo much to learn. And I get bored after a while and get lazy. I mean it takes so long to draw like this!
I bet one day I will look back at this one and laugh at my sorry skills in digital art, but for now, I'm actually really happy with it. Especially the kagerou.
Could do with a frame, maybe?

Here's the original:

I drew this in ink and scanned it, just like with comics and stuff. Maybe I'll hand colour the original some time too, but NOT NOW!! XD

There's no time!!

黒い雨に打たれながら

I guess it's kind of obvious what I'm going to write about today, being Norwegian and all.
I decided I wouldn't think about this today, not until my dad turns the TV on anyway. But then this morning I got a comment on my Facebook stat that kind of tipped over the tower of sand that I'd built todays good mood on.

The fact is, I didn't have any friends who were killed or even injured. I had some who were at work or coming home from work that felt the explotion, and one friend who was on his way bringing a bachelir party for his friend, that they were planning to have at a strip club that was aparrently completely destroyed. Luckily this happened before they opened.

But on the other hand, I can't beleive it even myself how close we all suddenly feel as a people. The attack feels very personal, and the people who died all felt close all of a sudden.
I love my country, but I'm not a person with very strong patriotic feelings of any kind. I've been thinking that maybe it's because the attack was on a socialist movement (and I've been brought up in a socialist home, so until I was like 14 I didn't even think that right-wing people existed in real life, I thought they were movie villians. If this makes you think I'm a commi or a terrorist or whatever idk, you better not be reading my blog :p I don't follow any spesific political views, but my thinking is always to the left). But the think is, I don't think that's it. I don't think of this as an attack on any political movement (even though that's what the criminal seems to do), it was an attack on kids.
When I was that age I was a punk rocker and did alot of stupid stuff for causes I would think through a lot more carefully now. If you have beef with a political movement, take it up with them you know...
In the end, all I feel is that this is an attack on my people, and on my city (I don't live in Oslo, but that's where I hang out, that's where I belong), and I think that's what everybody else feels as well.
I don't think this dude could ever be a hero to anyone, and I don't think he can gain any allies by slaughtering kids! But then again, maybe that's my beleif again that nazis and right-wing extremists are not for real?

Wow, I wasn't going to talk about it and look how much I wrote!
The case is, I don't want to see the pictures of this. I can understand that people want to see what's going on, and in the case of the bombing I think that people should (even though I try not to myself, just like I couldn't watch the pictures from Japan, seeing somewhere you know smashed up like this is just too much for me). But I don't think that showing pictures of dead people in the streets or floating around in the water is ok. At least blur them out you know, and the reason for this is respect.
I know I wouldn't want my picture there for anyone to see if I had been killed, and I wouldn't want to see someone I know in a shot like that before hearing that they were dead. Futher, I wouldn't like any children to see it.
The comment I got today is "this is reallity, you have to face it", but in fact it's very real to me just hearing about it.
There have also been numerous interviews with kids who have gotten off the island, and I do think these are very omportant stories to tell. We all need to know what happened, and we all want to help them take the pain, somehow. But they started doing these interviews the same day! They were talking to this boy who was messaging with his girlfriend who was on the island, even before the shooter was caught!
They have been visiting hospitals...
I guess to anyone living out in the big world this doesn't seem like a big deal, I guess I always thought that Norwegian press had a little more decency, but I guess that's just 'casue we've never had a case like this before.
And so listening to this over and over and over again, since the TV was on the whole day yesterday and even though I don't watch it I can constantly hear it, I got fed up and vented on Facebook, like you do, and this morning woke up to a pissed comment that I should turn the fucking TV off then and that this is reallity and you have to face it and move on, and not draw childish pictures of murderers and that some of the things I said really provoked her.
Yes, one of my vents was to doodle on the face of the murderer. I know it's childish, and I wrote that it is childish and I just needed venting. I'm on board with being critisized about that, and I'm on board with people not agreeing with what I think. I guess I just didn't expect it from the person it came from, because it's someone I've always gotten along with and laughed with. Also, I write a lot of shit on my Facebook that sometimes sounds really harsh, way harsher than this. You could say I expected negative reactions to my face-doodle 'cause I knew it was a stupid thing to do, but not to a plea that the press stopped talking about and showing pictures of bodybags.

And yeah, complaining about a Facebook-comment on my blog? Childish huh? I mean ONE comment. The next time we meet we'll probably laugh and be chummy, I hope, but right now I just need to try and get this, and abviously a lot of other things, off my chest. No names or hints. Don't even really need anyone to reads this. Just sometimes I've very sensitive, and right now.. yeah. I want to try and have a normal day today.

ダイナマイト授業！！

 Day before yesterday I went to Oslo with Cat, to go to a café and draw some and talk bullshit. Mostly the last one.
I tried to make up a list of the clothes I can bring to Japan, to eliminate the things I CAN'T bring. As it looks right now, I'll be bringing five pairs of shoes...
The thing is though, I'll be really stripped of money. If I don't get a scholarship I'm not really sure how I'll manage the first year, even though Toukai is a lot cheaper than Jousai was. And hence, I won't have much money to shop, so I thought if I BRING the stuff I need then I can stop myself from shopping so much...
I do have my doubts it'll actually work though.
 

 This is ALMOST my outfit from that day. This is actually a picture I took a couple of days earlier, and then it started raining, so I had to change clothes (And yes yes, my room's a mess. Hey, that rhymes!).
My hair was different, and I wore these shoes:

 With a bracelet around my foot, lol. Hey, I see people do it all the time!

 And this was the lunch I accidentally spent money on. I shouldn't be eating out! Or drinking tea at cafés, for that matter, but you see, I have a months train pass. Now shouldn't I use it and get my (my dads) moneys worth?
Mind you, a train pass is worth fuck all this month, as the noble train company of Norway have decided that they will finally do something about their shortcomings, and have declared the line from my town to Oslo, cut. Until August 9th. It's been going on for over a month now and it's completely ridiculous!
Not the fact that they're actually fixing the problems, that was about fucking time, but the fact that they cut one of the busiest lines for more than a month and don't provide proper substitues.
The direct lines (that will take you to Oslo in 12 minutes) are suspended, and instead you'll have to get on the local line, which in 20+ minutes gets you to a station two stops short of Oslo central, and then you have to get off, walk to a tume station which is rediculusly far away, and hope theres a train from there, because God forbid they correspond!
Why don't they have a bus substituting the direct line??!
Because it's such a hassle, I've been taking the bus a lot, but that takes an hour!
Especially when going home, 'cause the tubes and trains don't correspond, I use the bus. I've never noticed how awful the bus is until now.
Crammy, sweaty, shakey. Yesterday I actually got sick and had to get off at a stop about 30 minutes walk from home. I like walking though, so I didn't mind too much. I was just really naucious. Once I got off the bus though, I felt better.

This is me walking... just in case you didn't beleive me :p

And then I have to talk about this weekend for a littlebit.
We had a birthday party for Cilee and Julie. It's hard to find a time when we can all meet these days, so we have to do combination parties and stuff :p But that's allright!

The plan was dinner and a concert, so I wore something fitted for a live.

Actually it's just a perfect excuse to dress like and emo, and I also had a bad hair day :p


Here are the girls:

Well, not all of them, and actually we also had to boys, Alex and Eivin. But I kind of forgot to take more pictures :p
We ate at something called the Nighthawk Diner, where the staff insisted on speaking to us in English, even though I could have sworn the girl that showed me my seat spoke Norwegian!
They have kind of an American concept thing going, so the staff might be instructed to speak American, but the thing is that in Norway (at least with my groups) we concider it kind of snobbish to speak English to fellow Norwegians...
The food was really good though!
My friend who's a vegitarian got a burger with a huge mushroom instead of meat, and the waitress warned her it tasted just like steak, but luckily she said it didn't. Why do people think vegitarians want to eat stuff that tastes like meat, if they were so into meat they wouldn't be vegis, right?

This, too, was very good. I don't remember what it's called, but it's like a ginger been vanilla milkshake.
We all had to try it :p

After the dinner we went to a nearby park to "get ready" for the live. That means we bought affordable alcohol at a supermarked and got affordably drunk.
I'm not one of thos people who HAVE to get drunk at lives, actually in most cases I prefer not to, but when it comes to Guitar Wolf, you kinda have to :D

If you don't know Guitar Wolf, they're an old fashion rock'n roll band from Japan. My ex was really into them, and I've seen them live once before, in Cologne when they played with AnCafe, bis and Girugamesh. A very strange mix, but one of the most meroable lives I've been to, mostly because of Guitar Wolf being drunk and disorderly on stage, blowing the minds of all the VK-fangirls who had never heard of them before and were fighting for a spot in front of the vocals, awaiting Girugamesh.
In Oslo they played head-lining, at a club called John Dee. It's not too big, just about the right size for an indie rock concert? And I was surprised at how many people showed up to see them.
The girls in the middle even brought a poster of a picture they'd taken with them XD
The audience was quite different from the live I've been to lately (I say lately, but it's like 6 months ago now).
The sound wasn't very good where we were standing, 'casue the speakers were on the side of the stage. To be honest all I could really hear was the bass and some vocals and the rest was noise. But then again, I don't really know Guitar Wolf all that well and havn't listened to them in forever, so I wouldn't have recognised their songs anyway.
I know they played this:

Basically 'cause Guitar wanted us to shout "KOUKOUSEI!" (high school kids) into the mic, and I think I said "HA??" instead because I was sure I heard wrong:p

We were properly drunk allright.
Some time during the show they pulled guys up on stage and made a cheerleader pyramid XD Alex got pulled up and he was like the middle layer, and I got really worried that he wouldn't be strong enough ('cause he's recovering from chemo and stuff), but he's just fine! When he got back down all he could say was "did I look stupid?"
Well, for a dude on all fours in a cheerleader pyramid, I guess you looked allright XD

After the show Cat and Cillee were sleepy and wanted to go home. I wanted to wait with the others, 'cause I really wasn't tired, but if I get stuck in Oslo I'll be in trouble. It's not a very safe city. So I went home with them, which I kind of wish I didn't, 'cause the others apparrently got a hold of Guitar Wolf (that is, vocal and guitarplayer, Mr. Guitar Wolf) and took him to a pub.
So jalous XD

Before I go

I'm not a person who stresses easily, but today I'm going away to the mountains, I just got a letter from the publishing company who keeps teasing me, one from the Comic museum of Norway (I'll probably be able to enter their archives, yayy!), I've got about a hundred (ok, 15) PETA to answer on Ameba before I go, oh and I had to tranlsate two new pages of Like Totally Teenage Lovers and post today, since I won't be around to post it tomorrow, which is the normal update day.
I promised I'd get better, right? :D

Luckily, there weren't alot of translating to do on these pages, they're all about the international language of love ^_-
Now make sure to read both 29 and 30!

By the way, the Like Totally blog really woulnd't mind some more official followers ;)

Come with me to the planet of liquid skies

The rest of the week that Fran was here! Better late than never!
Well, since the prices of alcohol in Norway are criminal by law, she had brought us a few gifts from Great Britain!
A bottle of Vodka, a dark rum, a fucking Jack Daniels and this...

I know I kinda missed the bottle (it's not easy taking a self-portrait), but it's a bottle of Malibu! My new boom from the last time I went to Japan. ALMOST as good as Moscow Mule. Almost.
So ofcourse we wanted to all enjoy these gifts in the limited time we had left together, that concluded in intensive home partying XD
Who wants to go out in Norway anyway? 100 kr. for a beer and a selection between what we call "party sweeds" or dudes who don't brush their hair and think that they need to have beer guts to attract the oposite sex. Not to mention girls who sit in the bar chairs without their underwear and (I suspect) actually do find beer guts attractive...

In Norway I'm only really interested in drinking with my friends, and then I might as well do it at home or in the park, where the alcohol is affordable and you can pick your own music.
Well, I say this, but the only people I know who will go along with listening to both visual kei and j-emo for extensive time are Cat and Fran. That's how I conclude that we are not losers, even though it was only the three of us getting drunk.
Call me sad if you must, I was happy then XD

But, ofcourse we wanted treats with our splishy-splashy, so we decided to go into Oslo!

We also visited a fabric store where Cat wanted to look for fabric for trousers and I picked up lace for my skirt, that Fran made for me. Bless the people who can sew.
I was all out of clothes by then, so I had to borrow from Cat.

I look like an emo-scene-something XD
But I guess it suits my taste in music lately.
Las Vegas and Fear from the Hate 4 evah! Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah yeah!

Ok, that's enough.

But not quite! Check out my emo-shoes XDXD

with calf-socks, they were like the only clean pieces of clothes I had left :p

I also discovered Nyancat this week.
(Blogger is being a bith about putting photoes in the centre, this new system is bugged as shit!)
Anyway, this is where I put a link to Nyancat in my Norwegian blog, I... realize that's very unessescary. The thing is, she makes me really happy! Seriously, I can put on the 3 hour version, plug in my earphones and drown put Tour de France on TV. Works perfect for me!

But we were talking about treats!
Fran loves baking and she's really good at it too. We had no objections!
She also likes to do dishes, the perfect housewife. Once, she cleaned the whole kitchen counter at my dads place, that's not for the faint hearted!

While the cake was in the oven, splishy-splashy :D

Cat's good at mixing drinks. What am I good at?
What's my stupid social talent? D:

Waiting, waiting. Taking it out, checking, back in.
Cooling off while baking another one, then icing, then ...

Whoopdidoo!
There was one carrot cake and one coffee cake.
The carrot cake was my favourite, it had nuts! I love nuts!

Trollfaces...

I hope we didn't bother Jack too much. She's very sensitive to sound when she sleeps, and she had to go to bed early 'cause she's actually got a real proper job.
Us, we stayed up and looked at old back numbers of SHOXX and Fools Mate. Recepie for desperation. Fran, I hope you don't think less of me after the way I (vaguely remember I) drooled over Kazutake, and also please forget those photoes on my computer of ex... ex-whatevers XD

The next day we went to do something very cultural, and go have a barbecue in the park, like Oslo-people like to do in the summer.
The weather was almost with us!

This was taken during one of the good periods.
Jack and Julie also joined us after work, I hope we weren't too annoying, we'd been drinking for a few hours when they got there XD

That week was a major stray from the path, but sometimes you have to go all out.

She looks tired, but at least she had a lot less to carry than when she came.

Bye bye, Fran, hope to see you soon!
It would be awsome if you could come visit us in Japan!

Nyanyanyanyanyanyanynanyannyannyan～♪

Last week we had our friend Fran come over from England. 

The week started out with Desucon, which is the biggest Japan nerd convention in Norway. But before that I left my home and went to Oslo to meet with Cat and Fran.

Whenever a foreign friend comes to visit, us Oslo people feel the need to show them how big part of our culture café life is ^-^

 

I managed to pick a piece of the leaf off on our table plant, and then I felt bad about it. Unfortunately noone had glue, so we couldn't give it a permanent solution. Sorry, mr. Pot.

My dear friend, Cat, finding a new interesting way to wear a sweater :D

And this is Frans ribbons.

After two days of sewing, cutting labels and sticking them on, she was ready for Desucon. Cause we weren't just going there (honestly, I probably wouldn't have been there just for fun), we had all ordered artstands.

So the next day we were up very early to get ready to go. They opened for the crew at 8 in the morning. We almost made it :p

Cat and I tried to take a picture in the mirror.
That went well :p

Seriously, I hate this camera, can't wait to get my charger back!

So here are our stands. Cat and I are cheap enough to share one XD
But there's a theme! We're whitey and Blackey!

Lol, I completely disappear into the painting behind.
Since all our friends are so busy (ok, Jack was actually sick) we kind of all joined in on Frans stand when it was nesescary, but luckily most people at Desucon are very good at English!
And at the end of the day Julie came by to help out.

This was a picture I sold. I was up late the night before to finish all the damn butterflies, so I disn't have the chance to scan it. But I'm happy I sold it! I'm happy every time someone wants my stuff!

This is a little painting that I didn't sell. I honestly thought I'd sell alot more of the mini paintings, but I only sold two and then I gave one away to this really cute little girl who was all out of money. Her and her sister, who was also really adorable, were hanging around the stands the last day. They kept switching their cosplays, which was really confusing, even though they didn't really look anything alike XD

More Norwegian culture, people!!
The sandwich lunch pack! I actually cheated, you're not supposed to put two slices of bread together, but it just makes it that much easier to wrap.
The point is saving money and staying healthy!

This was probably the most impressive thing I saw on the first day. Giant light man!
Ofcourse there were lots of interesting looking people, Norwegian cosplayers are getting better and better. Ofcourse there is a huge gap between the really great ones and the ones just dressing up, but I'm impressed. And also, some people had made their own costumes for their own characters, which was cool!
One day I'm gonna make a cosplay worthy character! (Then I', probably gonna have to play it myself)

When we came out afterwards we turned the corner and there was the old gang from Blitz (that's the punkrock club we used to hang out at), playing croquet in the street XD

Actually this was an event we were invited to on Facebook a long time ago, but they kept changing the date, so I kind of just gave up on it.
Because of getting up early the next morning we couldn't stay and party, so we just chatted for a bit and then left for Cat and Jacks apartment again.

Cat and I on day two!

And lookit! Isn't it cute!

This was probably the most impressive thing I saw the second day, that I hadn't already seen the day before, ofcourse.
I'm not a huge fan of animé and manga, and not really of fantasy or sci-fi either, except for the odd series ofcourse, and here's my problem with Desucon.
Being in charge of such a huge convention is hard and even though there were some problems, I think they do a great job at that.
BUT they greatly favor the "old school" nerd business, like anime, manga and games, and exclude or downprioritize the new things like j-fashion and j-music, that's reqruiting a lot of new Japan-fans all over the world now!
The last time they had Versailles come over and it was a great live, all though it was hell for the people in charge. This year there was ZERO j-music on the programme, and as for j-fashion, there was ONE fashion show, placed at the shittiest time on the schedule. Half an hour after the doors opened. They weren't even finished letting people in yet. And they could have easily put one of the seminars they had two or three different spots for there, but no. They think that this isn't important, and that kind of pisses me off.
I was into manga at one point, then I stopped being into it and years later I started studying Japanese BECAUSE I LIKE VISUAL KEI (Ok, that was emberassing, but never the less true!). The reason why I wanted to go to Japan was not anime or manga, or cosplay or videogames.
And I know there are lots of lots of other people out there who are interested in these things, but not particularily in anime and manga. Where is the con for those people in Norway, if our "leading arrangers" don't want to include them?

Calm down now. This is fish that Fran made for us for supper, when we were exhausted after the second day.
Was soooo good! And sleep too was so good!

Going going more one step!

I've had a super fun week!

Because our friend Fran came from England, we all stayed at Cat and Jacks place. In the weekend we had stalls at the big nerd convention in Oslo, and during the week we've been drawing, having a barbeque, baked cake, been drunk and shopped.
I'll write some more about it later (I promise!) and post some pictures, but having fun wears you out and I'm tired now. Also, I have to pack up my shit, 'cause I'm still at Cats place, and it's like ten in the evening.
It doesn't get dark in Norway, but I should be getting home soon.

But! I will post the artsies I've been doing today and yesterday!
Fran helped me out with Photoshop, and also got me an updated version, and I feel like I'm finally making progress!
 I used some pictures I already had scannet in my computer.
 

The top one is a doll I made a mascot fom Frans stall, Pincandy. 

This one....

... I did today, and it's a little bit more advanced.
It's an early take on Kagerou, the main character of "The Garden Underground", which is the comic I'm planning to concentrate on when Like Totally is finished. Actually I'm already concentrating a lot on it.
I did make two versions of the drawing, one with the title in English as well, but then I didn't pay attentiopn while saving and I deleted it :p But who cares, right?

I get so impatient at the end of a digital drawing, I feel like I'm gonna explode! Everything takes so long!
But I'm finally really happy with the result. I know it's not anywhere near brilliant, but at least I feel that I can now do the things I initially wanted to use Photoshop for, which is things like simple dolls and character presentations.