Greetings from the other side.
I realize that I have been absent from blogging for quite some time now. Well, over the summer to be precise. This is due to many things. Examples include, but are not limited to: work, getting married, working on a side-project, and other IRL things.
I'm still not sure how regularly I will be able to write here - it will really depend on IRL things - but I want to say that the 'Life on the Other Side' blog isn't dead or forgotten by me. I still want to keep this going, although for now at least it will have to be on a whenever-I-have-time basis.
I hope everyone has had a great summer! :)
My own summer has been an eventful one, at least to me. I only had about 2½ weeks worth of time off from work, though that is because I started working there in August last year. Next summer I should have more than that. Anyway, in those 2½ weeks I got myself married! Which honestly was one of the best things I have done in my entire life. :) Which is good, because I am not planning on doing it again. ^__^
After the wedding we had about a week off, just taking it easy at home and sort of 'landing' again after the whole experience. After that we went over to Sweden and spent some time with my family there, which was nice.
Unfortunately we didn't get a honeymoon, but that's more down to financial reasons than anything else, and we are happy anyway. :)
Now it is time for me to go and get some work done on my side-project. Until next time, my friends.
See you all on the other side!
Visar inlägg med etikett Writing. Visa alla inlägg
Visar inlägg med etikett Writing. Visa alla inlägg
lördag 4 november 2017
måndag 17 april 2017
My first Easter in Finland
Greetings from the other side.
My first Easter on Finnish soil is coming to an end, and I have to say it's been a good experience.
But let's start from the beginning.
As I wrote in my previous post about how I worked on Maundy Thursday, I won't go into that anymore in this post.
The Friday was spent in a calm manner. We didn't really get up to much, although I did get a lot of writing done which felt good. I've been slacking off a bit on my writing lately, so it has felt good to get back to it and being creative again.
We also had my future in-laws over for some Easter 'fika'. Though, again, I wrote about that in my previous post, so if you want to read about it you can find it here.
In the evening, after we had had dinner, my fiancee introduced me to something called "pasha", which you can see in the image below:
Granted, as I understand it, this wasn't the normal kind of pasha that they normally make, and enjoy, as that one contains lemon, something which I can't have. Never the less it still tasted really good, I thought, so I hope she will make it again some time. As I understand it, the pasha originates from Russia.
Saturday didn't get off to a great start. Looking out the window at all the snow that had fallen during the night.
Not much to do about it though. In the afternoon, my fiancee and I went over to her parents place, where we met up with her siblings and their families as well for an Easter bonfire - where we grilled some sausages over the remains of the fire - and a good time. My fiancee's sister and her husband also brought along some friends, a young couple from Afghanistan and their little baby.
On Sunday we went to church. It was nice, as always, but sadly not very many people there.
After church my fiancee and I went to her parents for lunch, and this beautiful and very tasty creation that her father had made:
In the evening we all went to a christian concert in the city church, where my fiancee's brother and nephew were performing as well. It was a good way to end the day, I think.
Time for me to sign out for today. The sun is shining and it is my last day off before heading back to work. I think I might head out for a walk, or something.
See you all on the other side!
My first Easter on Finnish soil is coming to an end, and I have to say it's been a good experience.
But let's start from the beginning.
As I wrote in my previous post about how I worked on Maundy Thursday, I won't go into that anymore in this post.
The Friday was spent in a calm manner. We didn't really get up to much, although I did get a lot of writing done which felt good. I've been slacking off a bit on my writing lately, so it has felt good to get back to it and being creative again.
We also had my future in-laws over for some Easter 'fika'. Though, again, I wrote about that in my previous post, so if you want to read about it you can find it here.
In the evening, after we had had dinner, my fiancee introduced me to something called "pasha", which you can see in the image below:
Granted, as I understand it, this wasn't the normal kind of pasha that they normally make, and enjoy, as that one contains lemon, something which I can't have. Never the less it still tasted really good, I thought, so I hope she will make it again some time. As I understand it, the pasha originates from Russia.
Saturday didn't get off to a great start. Looking out the window at all the snow that had fallen during the night.
Not much to do about it though. In the afternoon, my fiancee and I went over to her parents place, where we met up with her siblings and their families as well for an Easter bonfire - where we grilled some sausages over the remains of the fire - and a good time. My fiancee's sister and her husband also brought along some friends, a young couple from Afghanistan and their little baby.
On Sunday we went to church. It was nice, as always, but sadly not very many people there.
After church my fiancee and I went to her parents for lunch, and this beautiful and very tasty creation that her father had made:
In the evening we all went to a christian concert in the city church, where my fiancee's brother and nephew were performing as well. It was a good way to end the day, I think.
Time for me to sign out for today. The sun is shining and it is my last day off before heading back to work. I think I might head out for a walk, or something.
See you all on the other side!
söndag 12 mars 2017
Good times & hindsight
Greetings from the other side.
Last week was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The week before we had been away, together with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law, to a place called Ukkohalla on a ski trip. The weather was overcast and the snow messed with our skis a bit, but other than that it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. When it came to the skiing we did the cross-country variant. It had been years since I last did any kind of skiing, and it was a bit of a strange experience being back on a pair of skis again. It was fun though, and I think I ended up doing something like 13 km in total. Compared to my fiancee's sister and her husband that was nothing though. I think they ended up doing something in the region of 86 km in total.
Among the first things that happened after we got there was that I managed to 'wreck' the bed. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Basically, I was trying to move the bed slightly to the side when it suddenly collapsed. It turned out that, unbeknownst to me, by moving it I had disturbed an upright-standing logg underneath it that was holding the length-wise running beam in place, which in turn supported all the lateral-running supports underneath the bed. I'm not sure if that description paints a good enough picture of what I mean, but I hope it does as my tired brain is currently struggling a bit to think of a better explanation.
Anyway, we managed to fix the bed fairly quickly again.
The trip to Ukkohalla was a lot of fun, and it is certainly something I would definitely do again some day. It was nice to get away for a few days and spend some time with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law.
In Sweden we have a saying that translates roughly to "Away is good, but home is best" (Sv: Borta bra men hemma bäst). As fun as it had been to be away for a few days, it still felt good to come back home and sleep in your own bed again.
However, starting the next day I wasn't feeling too well. I felt really stressed and tired, and not really myself. It's been a long time since I had felt that high levels of stress, and seemingly for no apparent reason. It took me most of the following week to get back to normal again. Hopefully that was a one-off thing, but I would really like to know what caused it. Maybe it was a lot of little things that just came together to cause it? I honestly have no idea. Whatever it was, it continued to influence my week though.
I am so glad to be passed that now. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing.
Yesterday I was pretty nervous though. I was set to work at a memorial service. Now, I have done that before, but this was the first time I was going to do it completely on my own. All sorts of thoughts were flowing through my head, and I was trying to remember everything I needed to think about and prepare. I'd lie if I said I wasn't nervous though. Looking back at it now however, I would say that I did a good job. So maybe I didn't need to be so nervous about it, but that's the benefit of hindsight and all that.
Yesterday evening, we had a couple of friends over and we all sat down and watched Melodifestivalen. which is the Swedish competition that decides which entry we send to the Eurovision Song Contest. Did the right song win? I have no clue. I guess we'll find that out when the actual ESC competition is held. After that it is really down to personal taste whether you liked it or not. The main thing though was that we had a great time yesterday evening, together with good friends. We laughed a lot and I think I needed that having been so nervous about the memorial service job earlier in the day.
It's been two week since I was able to really do any world-building or writing, but yesterday evening after our friends had left, I started sitting down with it again and it was such a good feeling. I've missed it more than I thought I did, so being back at it felt really good.
Until next time.
See you all on the other side!
Last week was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The week before we had been away, together with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law, to a place called Ukkohalla on a ski trip. The weather was overcast and the snow messed with our skis a bit, but other than that it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. When it came to the skiing we did the cross-country variant. It had been years since I last did any kind of skiing, and it was a bit of a strange experience being back on a pair of skis again. It was fun though, and I think I ended up doing something like 13 km in total. Compared to my fiancee's sister and her husband that was nothing though. I think they ended up doing something in the region of 86 km in total.
Among the first things that happened after we got there was that I managed to 'wreck' the bed. It's not as bad as it sounds though. Basically, I was trying to move the bed slightly to the side when it suddenly collapsed. It turned out that, unbeknownst to me, by moving it I had disturbed an upright-standing logg underneath it that was holding the length-wise running beam in place, which in turn supported all the lateral-running supports underneath the bed. I'm not sure if that description paints a good enough picture of what I mean, but I hope it does as my tired brain is currently struggling a bit to think of a better explanation.
Anyway, we managed to fix the bed fairly quickly again.
The trip to Ukkohalla was a lot of fun, and it is certainly something I would definitely do again some day. It was nice to get away for a few days and spend some time with my fiancee and her sister and brother-in-law.
In Sweden we have a saying that translates roughly to "Away is good, but home is best" (Sv: Borta bra men hemma bäst). As fun as it had been to be away for a few days, it still felt good to come back home and sleep in your own bed again.
However, starting the next day I wasn't feeling too well. I felt really stressed and tired, and not really myself. It's been a long time since I had felt that high levels of stress, and seemingly for no apparent reason. It took me most of the following week to get back to normal again. Hopefully that was a one-off thing, but I would really like to know what caused it. Maybe it was a lot of little things that just came together to cause it? I honestly have no idea. Whatever it was, it continued to influence my week though.
I am so glad to be passed that now. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing.
Yesterday I was pretty nervous though. I was set to work at a memorial service. Now, I have done that before, but this was the first time I was going to do it completely on my own. All sorts of thoughts were flowing through my head, and I was trying to remember everything I needed to think about and prepare. I'd lie if I said I wasn't nervous though. Looking back at it now however, I would say that I did a good job. So maybe I didn't need to be so nervous about it, but that's the benefit of hindsight and all that.
Yesterday evening, we had a couple of friends over and we all sat down and watched Melodifestivalen. which is the Swedish competition that decides which entry we send to the Eurovision Song Contest. Did the right song win? I have no clue. I guess we'll find that out when the actual ESC competition is held. After that it is really down to personal taste whether you liked it or not. The main thing though was that we had a great time yesterday evening, together with good friends. We laughed a lot and I think I needed that having been so nervous about the memorial service job earlier in the day.
It's been two week since I was able to really do any world-building or writing, but yesterday evening after our friends had left, I started sitting down with it again and it was such a good feeling. I've missed it more than I thought I did, so being back at it felt really good.
Until next time.
See you all on the other side!
lördag 18 februari 2017
Finding the rhythm
Greetings from the other side.
Getting back into the regular blogging thing has been a bit more difficult than I envisioned when I decided to slow down my blogging output over the holiday season. There are many times when I have thought I should write something, but then something else comes up and I end up postponing writing a new blog entry for another time. Oh well, such is the way of life I guess, and I will have to see where it takes me. The blog is still there though, so maybe I can get into a better writing rhythm with it again, eventually.
Last weekend we had a visit from two good friends from Sweden. It was the first time they were here since my move, and it was a real pleasure to have them here for a visit over the weekend. Having friends or family over to visit is always a good feeling. Even though I like it here in Finland, and I am very happy here, there is always that part of me that misses my friends and family back in Sweden. So whenever people have a chance to come over here for a visit, or I get a chance to go over there to visit, it is always a good feeling.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my fiancee's father's 70th birthday. His actual birthday is on Monday, but for convenience sake the celebrations are being held on Sunday instead. It should be a good time, and my future father-in-law has made the food and cakes himself, so you know it will be really good. Being that he is a chef and all.
In a couple of weeks time my fiancee and I are also going away for a few days together with her sister and her husband. It will be nice to get away for a little bit and see something else. There might be some skiing involved as well, if there is enough snow. Either way, I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away and see a different part of Finland as well. :) Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures while I am there and possibly post some of them on the blog.
That will have to round off a relatively short blog. Before I sat down to write it I thought I had a ton to write about, but when I actually started writing most of those things just disappeared. Oh well, maybe for the next blog post. :)
See you all on the other side!
Getting back into the regular blogging thing has been a bit more difficult than I envisioned when I decided to slow down my blogging output over the holiday season. There are many times when I have thought I should write something, but then something else comes up and I end up postponing writing a new blog entry for another time. Oh well, such is the way of life I guess, and I will have to see where it takes me. The blog is still there though, so maybe I can get into a better writing rhythm with it again, eventually.
Last weekend we had a visit from two good friends from Sweden. It was the first time they were here since my move, and it was a real pleasure to have them here for a visit over the weekend. Having friends or family over to visit is always a good feeling. Even though I like it here in Finland, and I am very happy here, there is always that part of me that misses my friends and family back in Sweden. So whenever people have a chance to come over here for a visit, or I get a chance to go over there to visit, it is always a good feeling.
Tomorrow we are going to celebrate my fiancee's father's 70th birthday. His actual birthday is on Monday, but for convenience sake the celebrations are being held on Sunday instead. It should be a good time, and my future father-in-law has made the food and cakes himself, so you know it will be really good. Being that he is a chef and all.
In a couple of weeks time my fiancee and I are also going away for a few days together with her sister and her husband. It will be nice to get away for a little bit and see something else. There might be some skiing involved as well, if there is enough snow. Either way, I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice to get away and see a different part of Finland as well. :) Hopefully I can remember to take some pictures while I am there and possibly post some of them on the blog.
That will have to round off a relatively short blog. Before I sat down to write it I thought I had a ton to write about, but when I actually started writing most of those things just disappeared. Oh well, maybe for the next blog post. :)
See you all on the other side!
måndag 3 oktober 2016
Tales of a mixed weekend
Greetings from the other side.
The weekend went by in a flash, or at least it felt like it did. On Saturday my girlfriend and I went together with her mother to a music café. It was really enjoyable with good music, nice people, and a pizza buffé. The only downside to the evening was that I somehow managed to hurt my knee. Again. Same one that has been hurt before. I didn't really do anything to cause it either, as far as I have been able to work out. As I got out of the car when we arrived there, my knee suddenly started feeling stiff and sore. It is still sore, stiff, and feels swollen even though it doesn't look it. From what we have been able to work out it seems to be some kind of inflammation or similar thing in the places where the muscles attach to the knee. It's a bit difficult for me to explain in english, but hopefully that made enough sense.
Luckily though, it has been slightly better today than it was yesterday and on Saturday, so I am hoping it will keep getting better from now on. It does restrict me a bit in my work, which sucks, but at least I am able to work, just not at a very fast pace and I need to be careful so I don't put too much (or any really) unnecessary strain on my knee while I do it.
When you have an 'injury' like this you quickly realize how much it affects you in your job and in your everyday life. I can't wait until my knee is better again.
Yesterday was spent resting and taking it easy. The knee meant I wasn't going to be very mobile anyway. My girlfriend and I got our engagement photos taken by a friend of hers, and later I got some work done on the world-building, as well as on some game mechanics for the tabletop RPG stuff.
We also got the bookcase assembled and put up yesterday, and it currently has about 3½ shelves filled with binders and my tabletop RPG books and boxes.
We had our first 'proper' frost night last night. By that I mean, we might have had other cold nights with degrees dropping well below zero degrees Celcius before, but this is the first night I can remember where the temperature was still below zero when I woke up this morning. Only -1 but still. Second morning so far (though not in a row) where I have had to scrape the windows free of ice on my car before I drove off to work.
See you all on the other side!
The weekend went by in a flash, or at least it felt like it did. On Saturday my girlfriend and I went together with her mother to a music café. It was really enjoyable with good music, nice people, and a pizza buffé. The only downside to the evening was that I somehow managed to hurt my knee. Again. Same one that has been hurt before. I didn't really do anything to cause it either, as far as I have been able to work out. As I got out of the car when we arrived there, my knee suddenly started feeling stiff and sore. It is still sore, stiff, and feels swollen even though it doesn't look it. From what we have been able to work out it seems to be some kind of inflammation or similar thing in the places where the muscles attach to the knee. It's a bit difficult for me to explain in english, but hopefully that made enough sense.
Luckily though, it has been slightly better today than it was yesterday and on Saturday, so I am hoping it will keep getting better from now on. It does restrict me a bit in my work, which sucks, but at least I am able to work, just not at a very fast pace and I need to be careful so I don't put too much (or any really) unnecessary strain on my knee while I do it.
When you have an 'injury' like this you quickly realize how much it affects you in your job and in your everyday life. I can't wait until my knee is better again.
Yesterday was spent resting and taking it easy. The knee meant I wasn't going to be very mobile anyway. My girlfriend and I got our engagement photos taken by a friend of hers, and later I got some work done on the world-building, as well as on some game mechanics for the tabletop RPG stuff.
We also got the bookcase assembled and put up yesterday, and it currently has about 3½ shelves filled with binders and my tabletop RPG books and boxes.
We had our first 'proper' frost night last night. By that I mean, we might have had other cold nights with degrees dropping well below zero degrees Celcius before, but this is the first night I can remember where the temperature was still below zero when I woke up this morning. Only -1 but still. Second morning so far (though not in a row) where I have had to scrape the windows free of ice on my car before I drove off to work.
See you all on the other side!
söndag 11 september 2016
A Sunday out of the ordinary
Greetings from the other side.
So far this has been a day of new meetings and experiences. I had the honor of being "kyrkvärd" today at the morning service at church. I have tried translating "kyrkvärd" into english, but found two different terms - "churchwarden" and "sidesman". I have not been able to ascertain which one would be the most appropriate term to use however, so I will leave it at that. Being my first time doing this, I was happy to have my girlfriend's dad with me who has a lot of experience with that kind of work.
After we were done at the church, we went off to buy some salmon and met a relative to my girlfriend's family there. He was probably one of the happiest, and most cheerful people I have ever met. It's the kind of happiness that just beams off of him, and infects everyone around him. It was also the first time I have ever walked into a store and gotten a hug from someone working there. :) lol I guess I am part of the family now.
Yesterday's fog has lifted from the land, but the cloud-cover still remains. From what I am told the sun will come back again tomorrow, which will be welcome.
I seem to have gotten my energy back now, which is welcome after a long week of feeling heavy in both body and mind. Not sure what was up with that. It was like I hadn't been sleeping even though I tried to sleep more than normally to counter it. Hopefully my new-found energy will stay with me going forward. :)
I was able to do a bit more world-building yesterday evening, which felt nice having not been able to do any work on it in the past week. :) I was unable to do any more work on maps however, but I am sure I will get to doing that soon as well.
See you all on the other side!
So far this has been a day of new meetings and experiences. I had the honor of being "kyrkvärd" today at the morning service at church. I have tried translating "kyrkvärd" into english, but found two different terms - "churchwarden" and "sidesman". I have not been able to ascertain which one would be the most appropriate term to use however, so I will leave it at that. Being my first time doing this, I was happy to have my girlfriend's dad with me who has a lot of experience with that kind of work.
After we were done at the church, we went off to buy some salmon and met a relative to my girlfriend's family there. He was probably one of the happiest, and most cheerful people I have ever met. It's the kind of happiness that just beams off of him, and infects everyone around him. It was also the first time I have ever walked into a store and gotten a hug from someone working there. :) lol I guess I am part of the family now.
Yesterday's fog has lifted from the land, but the cloud-cover still remains. From what I am told the sun will come back again tomorrow, which will be welcome.
I seem to have gotten my energy back now, which is welcome after a long week of feeling heavy in both body and mind. Not sure what was up with that. It was like I hadn't been sleeping even though I tried to sleep more than normally to counter it. Hopefully my new-found energy will stay with me going forward. :)
I was able to do a bit more world-building yesterday evening, which felt nice having not been able to do any work on it in the past week. :) I was unable to do any more work on maps however, but I am sure I will get to doing that soon as well.
See you all on the other side!
torsdag 8 september 2016
One day at a time
Greetings from the other side.
In my last post I mentioned that I wasn't feeling too well. That is still the case, unfortunatelly. I hope that some rest will do me good this weekend, even though I work this Sunday.
It isn't really affecting my work that much yet. Only discernable issue is that everything I do seem to take a longer time than it normally would, and I get tired a lot quicker. It isn't ideal, but at least it isn't keeping me from doing my job. I've only been working there about 4 weeks, so I don't really want to come down with a fever, or something, now that would keep me home.
Outside of my work, the thing that annoys me the most about this tiredness is that it is also having an effect on my creativity, which has been almost zero this week. After I get home from work my mind is just too tired to be creative, or at least that is what it feels like. I might try and do a bit of writing today, just to see how it goes, but judging by the way I feel I don't have high hopes for it.
Even coming up with things to write about on the blogs is difficult right now, but I am trying to push through it. Might have to be a few shorter posts until I feel better, we shall see.
It is kind of strange, ever since I moved here from Sweden I seem to have been suffering from one thing or another. First it was my knee, then I got an eye infection, then my current issues. I will persevere though. Hopefully I will be all better soon. :)
Now to try and write something for my other blog.
See you all on the other side!
In my last post I mentioned that I wasn't feeling too well. That is still the case, unfortunatelly. I hope that some rest will do me good this weekend, even though I work this Sunday.
It isn't really affecting my work that much yet. Only discernable issue is that everything I do seem to take a longer time than it normally would, and I get tired a lot quicker. It isn't ideal, but at least it isn't keeping me from doing my job. I've only been working there about 4 weeks, so I don't really want to come down with a fever, or something, now that would keep me home.
Outside of my work, the thing that annoys me the most about this tiredness is that it is also having an effect on my creativity, which has been almost zero this week. After I get home from work my mind is just too tired to be creative, or at least that is what it feels like. I might try and do a bit of writing today, just to see how it goes, but judging by the way I feel I don't have high hopes for it.
Even coming up with things to write about on the blogs is difficult right now, but I am trying to push through it. Might have to be a few shorter posts until I feel better, we shall see.
It is kind of strange, ever since I moved here from Sweden I seem to have been suffering from one thing or another. First it was my knee, then I got an eye infection, then my current issues. I will persevere though. Hopefully I will be all better soon. :)
Now to try and write something for my other blog.
See you all on the other side!
måndag 5 september 2016
Creativivity & Everyday Life
Greetings from the other side.
Another work week is under way, starting out with a 9 hr work day. The weather was nice though, and the day went by fairly quickly. Feeling tired still despite having had a very calm weekend. Hopefully I am not coming down with something. Need to stay healthy now that I have just started my new job.
The new blog is working out well so far. Only three blog posts on it as of yet, but there will be plenty more. :) Not really had much issue keeping up with two blogs either. I know I am not able to update every day, but I am trying to update about every 3 days or so at least. Keyword there might be "trying" on occasion, but for the most part I will try to keep that up for both blogs.
I have been working more on the map-making for the world-building project. I have some of the major land-masses outlined, but still need to fill in the details. I am still learning, and I don't really want to fill in the details until I have learned the program better. It is a process, but I am learning a bit every time it feels like. I have also tried working on the writing, and I have been brimming with ideas. :) It's just been a matter of actually getting it all down on paper.
Football (soccer for my north-american blog-readers) season is underway, but sadly I have not been able to watch any games yet as I don't yet have the required TV channels to do so. Will need to get it soon, but honestly with the expenses we've had in the first month of my stay here I would not have been able to justify it. Things should calm down soon though on that front, so it is definitelly up there on the list of things to get. Another thing is a finnish phone so it is not so expensive for my gf to call my swedish phone. A big problem for her has also been that whenever she sends me a text message, her phone seems to send me 3-5 copies of the same text message. An example: Day before yesterday she sent me a short message to let me know she was on her way back home. I got that message 7 times, including one the following day. We'll need to talk to her service provider about that, and if it is not on their side then we'll need to see what can be done about the phone.
On a more positive note, life is moving along quite well over here. :) I am enjoying myself, work is going well, and I am surrounded by wonderful people. I am trying to get around to learning a bit of finnish, but after an 8 or 9 hr work day of hard work, I'm not always in the mood to do some studying when I get back home again. Hopefully I will pick things up as I go along and learn a bit at a time.
See you all on the other side!
Another work week is under way, starting out with a 9 hr work day. The weather was nice though, and the day went by fairly quickly. Feeling tired still despite having had a very calm weekend. Hopefully I am not coming down with something. Need to stay healthy now that I have just started my new job.
The new blog is working out well so far. Only three blog posts on it as of yet, but there will be plenty more. :) Not really had much issue keeping up with two blogs either. I know I am not able to update every day, but I am trying to update about every 3 days or so at least. Keyword there might be "trying" on occasion, but for the most part I will try to keep that up for both blogs.
I have been working more on the map-making for the world-building project. I have some of the major land-masses outlined, but still need to fill in the details. I am still learning, and I don't really want to fill in the details until I have learned the program better. It is a process, but I am learning a bit every time it feels like. I have also tried working on the writing, and I have been brimming with ideas. :) It's just been a matter of actually getting it all down on paper.
Football (soccer for my north-american blog-readers) season is underway, but sadly I have not been able to watch any games yet as I don't yet have the required TV channels to do so. Will need to get it soon, but honestly with the expenses we've had in the first month of my stay here I would not have been able to justify it. Things should calm down soon though on that front, so it is definitelly up there on the list of things to get. Another thing is a finnish phone so it is not so expensive for my gf to call my swedish phone. A big problem for her has also been that whenever she sends me a text message, her phone seems to send me 3-5 copies of the same text message. An example: Day before yesterday she sent me a short message to let me know she was on her way back home. I got that message 7 times, including one the following day. We'll need to talk to her service provider about that, and if it is not on their side then we'll need to see what can be done about the phone.
On a more positive note, life is moving along quite well over here. :) I am enjoying myself, work is going well, and I am surrounded by wonderful people. I am trying to get around to learning a bit of finnish, but after an 8 or 9 hr work day of hard work, I'm not always in the mood to do some studying when I get back home again. Hopefully I will pick things up as I go along and learn a bit at a time.
See you all on the other side!
måndag 29 augusti 2016
Campaign reflections & A short story
Greetings from the other side.
Feeling a bit tired today, but hopefully I can get some creative stuff done this evening. Would like to continue writing on my world-building, as the idea of one day running a tabletop RPG campaign in it is growing on me quite a lot. Will of course need to find players for it, etc, but that'll be a problem for further down the line. :) And yes, I know I said in a previous post that the world was a separate project that I was making to see what I could create if I gave myself no deadlines and complete creative freedom, not tied down by a specific tabletop rpg system or any specific campaign ideas. I have found however, that as I am building this world, a lot of ideas for campaigns are starting to take form based on the information I write down about this world. So in a sense, it is not the campaign that gives birth to the world, but the world itself that gives birth to the campaign, if that makes sense. I still have a lot of work left to do though, before I feel comfortable with using the world for a campaign, but it is coming along nicely. The fact that I have now started making maps for it is also a huge boost to me. It is 'only' world maps of individual continents or lands at the moment, but they really help me put everything into perspective a bit more.
The creative process is really calming to me. It almost becomes meditative at times, as I loose myself in the process of writing and coming up with ideas. Sometimes, I don't even have a pre-planned idea of what I want to write, it just comes to me as I sit there in front of the screen with a blank document in front of me. It is kinda like when I write this blog. I don't always have an idea what I want to write about. I just start and the words just start flowing. A good example, tying back to the tabletop RPGs, I had a character (well, I still technically have the character, it is just that the campaign is on ice for a bit) who was an elven ranger in a 4e D&D game. I initially wrote up about a page or two of backstory for the character, which were mostly bullet points to be honest, but then one day I decided I was going to expand on it to give my DM (Dungeon Master) a bit more to work with. So I sat down with a blank document in Word, and had the two pages I had already written on the side, and started writing. After a fairly short while I had about 11 or 12 pages written, plus reference lists of people the character had met in their backstory, a list of locations, etc. It was about at this point that the DM begged me not to write any more stuff. So I stopped, even though I could have fleshed it out more and written a lot more information as well, and ended up with far more pages than I already had, but I decided to be kind to our DM. ;)
See you all on the other side!
Feeling a bit tired today, but hopefully I can get some creative stuff done this evening. Would like to continue writing on my world-building, as the idea of one day running a tabletop RPG campaign in it is growing on me quite a lot. Will of course need to find players for it, etc, but that'll be a problem for further down the line. :) And yes, I know I said in a previous post that the world was a separate project that I was making to see what I could create if I gave myself no deadlines and complete creative freedom, not tied down by a specific tabletop rpg system or any specific campaign ideas. I have found however, that as I am building this world, a lot of ideas for campaigns are starting to take form based on the information I write down about this world. So in a sense, it is not the campaign that gives birth to the world, but the world itself that gives birth to the campaign, if that makes sense. I still have a lot of work left to do though, before I feel comfortable with using the world for a campaign, but it is coming along nicely. The fact that I have now started making maps for it is also a huge boost to me. It is 'only' world maps of individual continents or lands at the moment, but they really help me put everything into perspective a bit more.
The creative process is really calming to me. It almost becomes meditative at times, as I loose myself in the process of writing and coming up with ideas. Sometimes, I don't even have a pre-planned idea of what I want to write, it just comes to me as I sit there in front of the screen with a blank document in front of me. It is kinda like when I write this blog. I don't always have an idea what I want to write about. I just start and the words just start flowing. A good example, tying back to the tabletop RPGs, I had a character (well, I still technically have the character, it is just that the campaign is on ice for a bit) who was an elven ranger in a 4e D&D game. I initially wrote up about a page or two of backstory for the character, which were mostly bullet points to be honest, but then one day I decided I was going to expand on it to give my DM (Dungeon Master) a bit more to work with. So I sat down with a blank document in Word, and had the two pages I had already written on the side, and started writing. After a fairly short while I had about 11 or 12 pages written, plus reference lists of people the character had met in their backstory, a list of locations, etc. It was about at this point that the DM begged me not to write any more stuff. So I stopped, even though I could have fleshed it out more and written a lot more information as well, and ended up with far more pages than I already had, but I decided to be kind to our DM. ;)
See you all on the other side!
onsdag 17 augusti 2016
Creative sparks, and everyday life
Greetings from the other side.
The first week in my new job has finally begun, and so far, so good. Lots to get used to, and learn, but so far I am coping well. :) To be honest, it has been a somewhat calm week, as I am getting to grips with things around the workplace. A couple of surprises, but nothing I haven't been able to handle.
We've finally gotten some sunshine today. The sun decided to show itself in mid-afternoon, clearing the rainclouds that had been covering the sky up until then. Let's see how long it lasts. If the past couple of weeks are anything to go by, I should fully expect the rain to come back tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. We shall see.
Internet is behaving... most of the time. Still getting the occasional dip in connection speed where it is much slower than normal. We might have to talk to the service providers again.
My creative spark is still there, and I have been doing quite a lot of writing and thinking. Especially when it comes to the world-building. It is so nice to be back in the creative groove again. Though it can be a bit annoying at times when good and/or interesting ideas decide to enter my mind just when I am about to go to bed. All I can do then is jot down some quick notes on a notepad and hope it will help me remember the idea until the next evening after I get home from work. Unfortunatelly the writing has meant that the map-making has had to take a backseat. Again. Not much to do about it though. I will come back to it as soon as I get around to it.
That will round out a somewhat short post today.
See you all on the other side!
The first week in my new job has finally begun, and so far, so good. Lots to get used to, and learn, but so far I am coping well. :) To be honest, it has been a somewhat calm week, as I am getting to grips with things around the workplace. A couple of surprises, but nothing I haven't been able to handle.
We've finally gotten some sunshine today. The sun decided to show itself in mid-afternoon, clearing the rainclouds that had been covering the sky up until then. Let's see how long it lasts. If the past couple of weeks are anything to go by, I should fully expect the rain to come back tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. We shall see.
Internet is behaving... most of the time. Still getting the occasional dip in connection speed where it is much slower than normal. We might have to talk to the service providers again.
My creative spark is still there, and I have been doing quite a lot of writing and thinking. Especially when it comes to the world-building. It is so nice to be back in the creative groove again. Though it can be a bit annoying at times when good and/or interesting ideas decide to enter my mind just when I am about to go to bed. All I can do then is jot down some quick notes on a notepad and hope it will help me remember the idea until the next evening after I get home from work. Unfortunatelly the writing has meant that the map-making has had to take a backseat. Again. Not much to do about it though. I will come back to it as soon as I get around to it.
That will round out a somewhat short post today.
See you all on the other side!
söndag 14 augusti 2016
A short one
Greetings from the other side.
Another day, another adventure. Today I have learned more about my job, which was quite fun. Tomorrow I begin the adventure in earnest as I journey forth into my first official day on my new job. I am looking forward to that. :) Hopefully all will go well for me. It does feel a bit nervous starting a new job like this, and it feels like there is a lot to take in and many new things to learn, but at the same time I am exited about it as well and looking forward to it! Wish me luck!
It is another day of rain over here, but looking at the bright side at least it isn't windy and there is no thunder! Hopefully the sun will find its way back soon so we can get some sunshine again. I am staying hopefull.
Besides being at work today in an 'official' capacity, I have spent most of the day working on world-building again. I know. I know. But it is SO nice to be back in the writing groove again. Elaborating on lands, religion, races, and all other sorts of things feels really rewarding to me. :) I have not been able to work any on the map-making today however. I might get to that this evening. We shall see.
Looking forward to the Premier League season being underway again as well. :) Hopefully it will be a good year. Might come back to that particular subject in a future post.
This will have to be a short blog-post, as I need to go help with dinner.
See you all on the other side!
Another day, another adventure. Today I have learned more about my job, which was quite fun. Tomorrow I begin the adventure in earnest as I journey forth into my first official day on my new job. I am looking forward to that. :) Hopefully all will go well for me. It does feel a bit nervous starting a new job like this, and it feels like there is a lot to take in and many new things to learn, but at the same time I am exited about it as well and looking forward to it! Wish me luck!
It is another day of rain over here, but looking at the bright side at least it isn't windy and there is no thunder! Hopefully the sun will find its way back soon so we can get some sunshine again. I am staying hopefull.
Besides being at work today in an 'official' capacity, I have spent most of the day working on world-building again. I know. I know. But it is SO nice to be back in the writing groove again. Elaborating on lands, religion, races, and all other sorts of things feels really rewarding to me. :) I have not been able to work any on the map-making today however. I might get to that this evening. We shall see.
Looking forward to the Premier League season being underway again as well. :) Hopefully it will be a good year. Might come back to that particular subject in a future post.
This will have to be a short blog-post, as I need to go help with dinner.
See you all on the other side!
lördag 13 augusti 2016
Building worlds & making maps
Greetings from the other side.
Yesterday was an interesting day. Not because something particularily interesting happend, but because it was one of those days where it felt like we did a lot of things, yet nothing at all at the same time. We went into the city to do some errands and some shopping, and we had a gluten-free pizza for dinner, and that was about it really. Yet it still feels like the whole day went by in a flash and we did a ton of stuff. Weird.
Last evening was apparently also "rain and thunder evening", where mother nature decided to put on another impromptu show for us. The rain has keept going so far today, but at least there hasn't been any thunder.
Because of the rain, I have instead stayed inside and worked on a bit of world-building. Feels nice to be back into the groove a bit with the writing. I have also tried my hand at learning how to use my map-making program. I have, in the past, used AutoREALM for this purpose, but that was a 'while' ago now (read: over a year... at least), so I am currently trying to learn to use Campaign Cartographer instead. I find that I have two 'enemies' in this:
* I know I need to do practise maps first, before I start working on actual maps, but for some reason there is something inside me that just want to make the maps immediately. This impatient side of me is kind of annoying at times.
* It takes too long between times that I sit down with the program, so I end up making much slower progress than I really should need to.
One of the benefits of using AutoREALM is that it has a GREAT measuring tool built in, that allowed you to measure distances in various ways. You could measure it in feet, meters, miles, kilometers, etc, but also in things like 'days travelled on foot', 'days travelled on foot in difficult terrain', 'days by sailed galley', etc, and even in astronomical units and parsecs, should one wish to do that. I have, as of yet, not found any similar function in Campaign Cartographer, though I suspect there isn't one.
Don't get me wrong, I still really like AutoREALM. It is just that I wanted to try and learn how to use Campaign Cartographer as well, as I have heard a lot of good stuff about it.
The writing goes well. I am well on my way to writing up another land and its peoples. :) I actually got the inspiration for this land when I was practising my map-making skills earlier today, so sometimes inspiration can come to you from unexpected places. Currently working on an island / archipelago nation, inhabited by two species who have learned to co-exist after a troubled past (at least, that is how the story goes at the moment). Not the most novel of ideas I know, but I am hoping to expand on it and go into more detail as I go along. It is the seed from which the tree grows as I keep writing their story, if you will. I am excited to see what it ends up being like. Knowing me though, I will probably make changes to things as I go along, so what I just posted could still be subject to change.
Well, that's about it for now. Time to get back to the creative writing again. :)
See you all on the other side!
Yesterday was an interesting day. Not because something particularily interesting happend, but because it was one of those days where it felt like we did a lot of things, yet nothing at all at the same time. We went into the city to do some errands and some shopping, and we had a gluten-free pizza for dinner, and that was about it really. Yet it still feels like the whole day went by in a flash and we did a ton of stuff. Weird.
Last evening was apparently also "rain and thunder evening", where mother nature decided to put on another impromptu show for us. The rain has keept going so far today, but at least there hasn't been any thunder.
Because of the rain, I have instead stayed inside and worked on a bit of world-building. Feels nice to be back into the groove a bit with the writing. I have also tried my hand at learning how to use my map-making program. I have, in the past, used AutoREALM for this purpose, but that was a 'while' ago now (read: over a year... at least), so I am currently trying to learn to use Campaign Cartographer instead. I find that I have two 'enemies' in this:
* I know I need to do practise maps first, before I start working on actual maps, but for some reason there is something inside me that just want to make the maps immediately. This impatient side of me is kind of annoying at times.
* It takes too long between times that I sit down with the program, so I end up making much slower progress than I really should need to.
One of the benefits of using AutoREALM is that it has a GREAT measuring tool built in, that allowed you to measure distances in various ways. You could measure it in feet, meters, miles, kilometers, etc, but also in things like 'days travelled on foot', 'days travelled on foot in difficult terrain', 'days by sailed galley', etc, and even in astronomical units and parsecs, should one wish to do that. I have, as of yet, not found any similar function in Campaign Cartographer, though I suspect there isn't one.
Don't get me wrong, I still really like AutoREALM. It is just that I wanted to try and learn how to use Campaign Cartographer as well, as I have heard a lot of good stuff about it.
The writing goes well. I am well on my way to writing up another land and its peoples. :) I actually got the inspiration for this land when I was practising my map-making skills earlier today, so sometimes inspiration can come to you from unexpected places. Currently working on an island / archipelago nation, inhabited by two species who have learned to co-exist after a troubled past (at least, that is how the story goes at the moment). Not the most novel of ideas I know, but I am hoping to expand on it and go into more detail as I go along. It is the seed from which the tree grows as I keep writing their story, if you will. I am excited to see what it ends up being like. Knowing me though, I will probably make changes to things as I go along, so what I just posted could still be subject to change.
Well, that's about it for now. Time to get back to the creative writing again. :)
See you all on the other side!
tisdag 2 augusti 2016
Thunderbolts and Lightning, World building, etc
Greetings from the other side.
Today we are on the third day straight of thunder and rain. It sort of comes and goes. From having experienced almost no thunder previously this summer, mother nature appears to have now, suddenly, decided to make up for that. Really wish we could get the sun, and calm, back now. Kinda sick of it. I can deal with the rain, and thunder normally, but 4 days of it kinda wears on you a bit.
Also it will probably impede on my ability to play RPGs with my friends online in the coming days, if it keeps up. Something I am hoping will NOT happen, as I wasn't able to play with them last week and I kind of miss it. Not to mention it is a great creative outlet and might help get my own creative juices flowing again.
New internet also installed. Though for something that is supposedly going to give us 100Mb/s (at least, that is what we are paying for), we are currently only getting around 20Mb/s. Will go back to the store and ask up on that tomorrow.
Been trying to do some creative writing again on my world-building project, but haven't really been able to do much of it since I got over here. Am hoping to get that creative spark back soon. Not sure how much of it will be discussed by me on the blog in the future. I guess it will depend on whether I find something in there I'd like to discuss on here. It is a subject, and a project, that is dear to my heart though, and something that is truly a labour of love more than anything. I didn't really set out to make it for any specific roleplaying game I was going to run with my friends, but more as:
A) something I have always wanted to do, as I have had the idea and concept for a world in my head for a very long time but never gotten around to writing it down and fleshing it out further.
B) to see what I could do if I gave myself complete creative freedom, not restrained by any particular game system or adventure idea.
That being said, I might still run a game in that world in the future. A friend of mine even convinced me to start working on a game system specifically for this world. I was a bit hesitant at first, but having worked on it I am now finding it to be a very fun, and interesting, challenge to go alongside the actual world building. I am still making sure however, that the world comes first and that the game system will be adapted to it, rather than the other way around.
Well, I think that is all from me for the moment.
See you all on the other side!
Today we are on the third day straight of thunder and rain. It sort of comes and goes. From having experienced almost no thunder previously this summer, mother nature appears to have now, suddenly, decided to make up for that. Really wish we could get the sun, and calm, back now. Kinda sick of it. I can deal with the rain, and thunder normally, but 4 days of it kinda wears on you a bit.
Also it will probably impede on my ability to play RPGs with my friends online in the coming days, if it keeps up. Something I am hoping will NOT happen, as I wasn't able to play with them last week and I kind of miss it. Not to mention it is a great creative outlet and might help get my own creative juices flowing again.
New internet also installed. Though for something that is supposedly going to give us 100Mb/s (at least, that is what we are paying for), we are currently only getting around 20Mb/s. Will go back to the store and ask up on that tomorrow.
Been trying to do some creative writing again on my world-building project, but haven't really been able to do much of it since I got over here. Am hoping to get that creative spark back soon. Not sure how much of it will be discussed by me on the blog in the future. I guess it will depend on whether I find something in there I'd like to discuss on here. It is a subject, and a project, that is dear to my heart though, and something that is truly a labour of love more than anything. I didn't really set out to make it for any specific roleplaying game I was going to run with my friends, but more as:
A) something I have always wanted to do, as I have had the idea and concept for a world in my head for a very long time but never gotten around to writing it down and fleshing it out further.
B) to see what I could do if I gave myself complete creative freedom, not restrained by any particular game system or adventure idea.
That being said, I might still run a game in that world in the future. A friend of mine even convinced me to start working on a game system specifically for this world. I was a bit hesitant at first, but having worked on it I am now finding it to be a very fun, and interesting, challenge to go alongside the actual world building. I am still making sure however, that the world comes first and that the game system will be adapted to it, rather than the other way around.
Well, I think that is all from me for the moment.
See you all on the other side!
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)